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The standards were also adopted, and occasionally adapted, by state departments of education as a framework for guiding state-wide accreditation. The ISLLC/ELCC standards have become the “coin of the realm” for defining expectations of educational leadership programs across the United States. At last count the ISLLC/ELCC standards were wholly adopted or served as source documents for 43 states approving educational leadership programs through a state approved accreditation process (Shipman, Queen,&Peel, 2007). The ELCC Specialty Program Area (SPA) standards contain student expectations that reflect academic knowledge of educational administration as well as performance expectations requiring student participation in meaningful activities that are evaluated and assessed.

The standards require a set of performance activities for all students approved by NCATE/ELCC. These activities, however, are more than paper and pencil activities. Performance means a student is investigating a topic, demonstrating a skill, or doing an exhibition. They might require written or oral responses that are included in a portfolio or journal that incorporates all of the performance activities.

Musical or athletic performances have been the standard for activities that require demanding practice at a high level of skill. The renowned Julliard School of Music explains the importance of student performance in seeking excellence:

Performance is an essential component of the learning process at The Juilliard School. More than 700 drama, dance, and music events take place in the Juilliard building during the school year. They present individuals and ensembles whose teachers have nurtured, shaped, and readied them for the moment when they step on stage, the moment when all their training and preparation come into focus and the energy they give comes back to them in the appreciation of an audience. (Julliard School, 2008, p. X)

Under the guidelines established for educational leadership programs seeking Educational leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) accreditation through the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), performance means that a student must accomplish some kind of meaningful task that teaches or reflects a skill that a school administrator might perform in day-to-day work.

This performance expectation does not diminish the importance of content knowledge required to explain the task or understand how one thinks through an activity. Performance, in context to meeting standards, means educational leadership programs must expect students to demonstrate the applied nature of their knowledge in order to show that they both know and can do the job of school administrator.

Pre-service university preparation

Aligning a curriculum with the ELCC standards has impacted university-based preparation programs. The renewed focus on learning-by-doing has emerged as central to the preparation of educational leaders. The emphasis on practice that was fondly referred to as war stories told by former school administrators who had been hired as university faculty—has now come full circle. The renewed focus on assuring that students not only know but can do has meant curricula must be developed that increasingly emphasizes skills and behaviors that will transfer to the applied aspects of administration and leadership.

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Source:  OpenStax, Performance assessment in educational leadership programs; james berry and ronald williamson, editors. OpenStax CNX. Sep 26, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11122/1.1
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