The percentage of educational administration graduates and students who are women has been increasing since the 1980s. The study reported in this article identified continuing barriers to the employment of women as secondary school prin cipals and superintendents. Strategies are discussed that were reported by educa tional administration departments in UCEA universities as a means to overcome deter rents to women in school administration. Changes in schools, the role of school councils, societal changes, and an anticipated shortage of personnel to fill vacancies for principal and superintendent positions offer a teachable moment for addressing gender inequities in the field.

This presentation analyses five years of data from student portfolios required as part of a principal preparation programme. Portfolios serve as continuous student progress assessment from programme entry to exit, evaluation of each student's understanding and application of Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) and National Educational Technology Standards-A and linkage of theoretical knowledge to field-based projects. Continuing pressure on institutions of higher education to demonstrate student growth and achievement for accreditation purposes make inquiries such as this timely. Results from the study reveal that students in the principal preparation programme are better able to show mastery of the six ISLLC standards at the programme conclusion than at the midpoint. Further, results reveal a change in student perceptions of the principalship from that of organizational leader to that of visionary and instructional leader at the conclusion of the programme.

Conversation about the knowledge base for educational administration can be traced to 1875 when William Payne published Chapters on School Supervision and to 1882 when A. N. Raub published School Management (Campbell, Fleming, Newell, & Bennion, 1987). Credit for originating the formal study of school administration is given to Ellwood P. Cubberley and George D. Strayer, who received the first known doctorates in Educational Administration in 1905 from Teachers College, Columbia (Campbell et al., 1987). From 1875 until 1999, many societal changes and academic publications have influenced this field. Presently, there are two handbooks of research on educational administration (Boyan, 1988;Murphy & Louis, 1999), both of which signal a need for continued discussion about the knowledge base for educational administration. This issue of Educational Administration Quarterly is a medium in which that conversation can continue.The first Handbook of Research on Educational Administration was published in 1988 and was edited by Norman J. Boyan. That handbook contains the thoughts of 36 authors about inquiry in educational administration for the 30 years preceding 1988. In the first chapter, "A Century's Quest for a Knowledge Base," Culbertson (1988) chronologically traces the perspectives of science and the corresponding influences on research and the knowledge base in educational administration. As Culbertson states, Leading scholars of educational administration have constantly worn cloaks of science. However, the fabrics from which the cloaks were cut, the patterns that shaped them, the distinctive styles they reflected, and the societal climate in which they were worn have changed as one era gave way to another. (pp. 20-21) 466

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