In August, Erin Walker began her second year as principal of Infinity Math, Science, and Technology High School, an early-college STEM school in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. Over the summer, having completed her first year leading Infinity, she saw an opportunity to engage with her school community to build a shared vision for the school — as she put it, to get clear on “what was our ‘why.’” Erin sought out feedback from students, staff, and other stakeholders as the school rewrote its mission and vision statements to lay out a clear presentation of how Infinity would serve the community.
Although Erin was previously the assistant principal (AP) at Infinity, she sees the effort to revisit the mission statement as a key step in assuming leadership of the school. She frequently calls on her own past experiences as both a teacher and an AP to inform how she approaches her work, from day-to-day interactions to major strategic efforts. In that way, her principalship is a culmination of all of her previous roles.
However, only a few years ago, Walker didn’t see a principalship in her future at all. Like most Chicago Public Schools (CPS) principals, Erin began her education career as a CPS teacher. She taught English in the district for about 16 years, and she had every expectation that she would continue growing in that role. “I loved teaching,” she says. “I never thought I would leave the classroom.” However, when an opportunity to serve as the coordinator of another high school’s International Baccalaureate program opened up, she decided to apply.
While Erin was not ultimately hired in that role, her resume garnered attention at other schools. Eventually, she was approached with a chance to interview for a role as AP at Infinity. Erin says she was still reluctant to move out of the classroom at that point; however, she took the interview, and when she was offered the job, she wanted to give it a shot.
Erin was unsure how well she would adapt to a new role in school administration. This uncertainty was amplified by her move to an entirely different school in a new neighborhood. She was initially worried that her lack of knowledge of Spanish would be an issue in a school where, according to her, a majority of students and staff are fluent in the language. However, she soon found that her enthusiasm for education followed her wherever she went: “Kids are kids,” she says. “They’re what make my job fulfilling, no matter what that job is.”
As she settled into her new role as AP, Erin applied lessons she had learned in her many years in the classroom. Chief among the qualities she brought with her to the role was resilience, and the sense that “everything is ‘figure-out-able,’” as she puts it. “Just like in the classroom, you have to have a sense of humor in this job, and you have to be patient, but no problem is insurmountable. So much of the job is listening and helping teachers work these issues out.”
As an AP at Infinity for about 7 1/2 years, Erin became comfortable with the structures and processes of the school. During this time, her principal helped her build some of the skills she would need to eventually take on the top role. Last year, the principalship at Infinity opened up, and her familiarity with the school, her involvement in developing its structures and procedures, and her strong relationships with the staff made her the obvious choice for promotion to that role.
The transition from classroom to principalship hasn’t always been what Erin expected. “When I was a teacher, I thought being the principal was easy,” she recalls. “You just get to sit at your desk the whole day.” Now, she says, while she doesn’t discount the difficulty of leading a classroom, she has experience with the challenges of school leadership as well. “It’s a different kind of hard.”
Even the jump from AP to principal carries new responsibilities, Erin says. As she puts it, “Often the AP is the ‘good cop,’ and the principal is the ‘bad cop,’ meaning that the responsibility for making the hard choices ultimately rests with me.” Fortunately, she identified a leader on Infinity’s teaching staff to serve as her AP, and hopes to develop his skills in the same way her predecessor developed hers.
Every day, Erin brings her memories of being a classroom teacher with her through Infinity’s front doors. “If you’re working with teachers, you can’t forget what it’s like to be a teacher,” she stresses. “You have to remember that some days are hard, and some days are better than others. Through it all, you have to keep your focus on the students.”
Her classroom days also inform Erin’s approach to leadership. “When you’ve been a teacher, you know that as a principal, you can’t micromanage everything; you have to let teachers make their own decisions,” she shares. Erin sees her strength in distributed leadership — in recognizing talent in her staff and building on their strengths. “You have to hire people who are smarter than you, honestly, and empower them to create their own vision that’s in alignment with the school’s vision.”
Refining that school vision has been a focus for Erin as she began to think about what her principalship would look like at Infinity. As she wrapped up her first year in the role, she realized that she had an opportunity to involve all stakeholders — staff, students, and community — in laying out a vision for the whole school. That work culminated in a powerful statement: The school would cultivate “an empowered community of inspired innovators who actively contribute to positive change in society through becoming active and socially responsible leaders; excelling in post-secondary endeavors; and navigating the evolving fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.”
That vision comes through in the opportunities Infinity offers for its students. The school has long had a strong focus on STEM, and recently added an “early college” designation, providing the ability for students to graduate with an associate’s degree from the City Colleges of Chicago. This is a selling point for the community, but Erin, her inner teacher shining through once again, naturally focuses on what it means for the kids: “I knew that no matter what, we had to put students at the front of everything we want to do here at Infinity.”