The purposes of this study are to describe the redesigned instructional leadership program at the University of South Alabama and to evaluate its efficacy in preparing future principals to become instructional leaders.
Three cohorts of students in USA’s redesigned program were assigned to mentor principals in local schools for a semester to practice instructional leadership skills. District superintendents paid for substitute teachers. Multiple measures were used to assess residents’ performance, including the Leadership Practices Inventory® (LPI), locally-designed surveys, and paired sample t tests to evaluate the value of Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®.Thirty-three principals and 28 residents evaluated the redesigned leadership program on a 4-point, Likert-type instrument. Mentor principals’ evaluations reflected their belief that the residency is effective, but needs some improvement. Residents’ responses were similar. Paired sample t tests were conducted on the LPI’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership. Gains in each practice between the first and second administrations were statistically significant. All residents passed the norm-referenced PRAXIS examination and are eligible for state licensure.
Tomorrow’s instructional leaders should practice leadership in school settings. Authentic experiences enable new principals to move through the survival stage of leadership preparation.
This manuscript has been peer-reviewed, accepted, and endorsed by the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) as a significant contribution to the scholarship and practice of education administration. In addition to publication in the Connexions Content Commons, this module is published in the
International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, Volume 6, Number 2 (April - June, 2011), ISSN 2155-9635. Formatted and edited in Connexions by Theodore Creighton and Brad Bizzell, Virginia Tech and Janet Tareilo, Stephen F. Austin State University.
About the authors
David L. Gray, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor of Education, and Joél P. Lewis, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Education, The University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama.
Sumario en espanol
Los propósitos de este estudio son de describir el programa instruccional volver a diseña de liderazgo en la Universidad de Alabama del sur y para evaluar su eficacia a preparar futuros a directores para llegar a ser líderes instruccionales.
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An innovative program to prepare instructional leaders
Instructional Leadership became a catchphrase in 2001 when the 107
th United States Congress passed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Almost immediately, the statute’s requirement for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) based on measurable learning outcomes for students brought public attention to underachieving public schools.
The suddenness with which NCLB was implemented and its mandate that students make AYP in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies by 2014 gave pause to many state and local boards of education. They were uncertain about how to help struggling schools, and the failure rate climbed rapidly. Guilfoyle (2006) found that “over 19,000 schools nationwide failed to make AYP in 2002-2003; more than 11,000 were identified as being in need of improvement” (p.10).
