The demographic profile of the United States has been rapidly changing; by 2020, minority students will constitute the majority of the public school student population nationwide. This makes cultural competence a necessity for today’s school leaders. Educational leadership preparation programs are responsible for preparing culturally competent leaders; however, few programs assess their students’ cultural competence. The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional, causal-comparative study was to examine whether graduates of educational leadership preparation programs had significantly different cultural competence than those beginning their respective program. The findings of this study suggest that matriculating through a principal preparation program positively correlates with educational leadership students’ overall cultural competence, cultural beliefs and motivation, and cultural knowledge. However, there appears to be no significant relationship between completing the program and students’ cultural skills.
Teachers and administrators have access to large volumes of data but research suggests that they lack the skills to use data effectively for continuous school improvement. This study involved a cross-case analysis of two high school leadership teams' early stages of evidence-based practice development; differing forms of external support were present in each school. The conceptual framework guiding the study integrates literature related to communities of practice, effective professional development, evidence-based practice, systems thinking, and dialogue. Findings suggest the value of data rooms, professional development focused on individual data interpretation skills, collective dialogue skills, and systems thinking skills for developing a community of evidence-based practice.
This study, conducted in one state in the United States, replicated similar research from over a decade ago to compare principal demographics and reasons for remaining or leaving the profession. Demographics have trended with the nation. Principals are older, more diverse and are largely eligible for retirement within the next five years. Similar demographics are noted in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The reasons for retiring have changed dramatically since the first survey. External mandates were the number one reason for retirement. Another reason included spending more time with their family. Around the globe, other countries are considering national initiatives, such as accountability and high-stakes testing or national curriculum standards. This study may provide a cautionary note regarding the impact on principal role and retention. Thus, while the study occurred in the United States, the policies that influenced principals' reasons for choosing to retire or stay in the profession appear to have global implications.
Calls for changing educational leadership preparation have led many state policy makers to initiate program redesign efforts; the governor of Alabama constituted a working group to examine the situation and develop recommendations. This article details the school leadership preparation program redesign process in Alabama from the perspective of faculty at one university. The article presents an overview of the design process, basic program tenets, and manner in which one set of university faculty engaged in this endeavor. It also presents facilitating and hindering factors, compares redesigned program with previous program, and aligns the redesigned program with best practices.
The purpose of this paper is to describe Auburn University's story of developing an innovative field-based master's level principal preparation program. Our goal was to align the program's curriculum and internship experiences with state and other accrediting agency standards, current leadership preparation research, and local educational agency (LEA) partner input and support. As a faculty, we decided to model best practices throughout the redesign and approached the curriculum development project using a variety of data collection processes. What emerged was a creative Instructional Leadership Program (ILP) curriculum, involving multiple partnerships, best practices research, and an understanding that it was a living, breathing document which would change as implementation occurred and data were collected to suggest needed changes. As the program is constantly evaluated and the university revisits with LEA partners, 2008 educational leadership cohort students, other stakeholders and researchers are beginning to see richer results than originally anticipated. Similar to Murphy's (2002) “New Blueprints” discussion of new educational leadership foundations, several important paradigms are emerging from the program: leadership based on school improvement and student achievement, and creating schools as socially just, democratic learning communities (Furman & Shields, 2005; Green, 1999; Smylie, Bennett, Konkol, & Fendt, 2005; Strike, 1999).
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