0.2 3. a paradigm shift in preparing instructional leaders revisited  (Page 8/9)

The discrepancy between mentors’ responses to statement number three in Table 1 and Residents’ responses to statement number four in Table 3 warrants further investigation. Respondents were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of formative feedback from mentor principals. The mean score for statement number four for residents, 3.22, was sixth in rank order. The mean score for mentor responses to statement number three in Table 1, 3.92, was second in rank order.

Further, residents lacked confidence that their mentors understood what tasks were to be accomplished during the residency. The residents’ mean score for statement number three in Table 3 was 3.13, the lowest-ranked item. The mentors’ mean score for statement number two in Table 1 was first in rank order at 3.98.

Multiple assessments helped to guide residents through leadership experiences. The ALSDE, however, requires anyone seeking licensure to pass a discipline-based PRAXIS II examination. The PRAXIS is a rigorous, norm-referenced and timed test on which students must earn at least 610 points of 900 to attain a passing score in the area of educational administration.

Several students in each cohort bought practice tests for group study and discussion. Fifteen of 16 students in cohort one passed on their first attempt and the cohort’s mean score was 660. The lone member who failed scored 590, but was successful on a second attempt. The cohort’s 94% first-time passing rate was greater than the national average of 85% for educational administration programs.

Four of six students in the second cohort received a passing score on the PRAXIS on its first administration. One of the remaining two passed on a second attempt; the other earned a passing score on a third attempt. The cohort’s mean score was 720.

All six students in cohort three passed the examination on their first attempt. Their mean score was 710.

Limitations

The LPI was to be completed by each resident, his/her mentor principal, and as many as five observers twice during the residency. Its administration should be preceded by a workshop in which procedures, terminology, and use of the instrument are discussed. Instead, mentor principals and residents were informed about the LPI and its purpose during the summer orientation for mentor principals without clarifying descriptions of leadership skills included on the Inventory.

It was not possible to determine accurately which teachers would be asked to serve as observers in the LPI process. Transfers from one school to another and other administrative reassignments often were not decided until several days before schools opened for the year in August. Consequently, observers received no training in using the LPI or in understanding its terminology.

Finally, residents and observers use of the LPI was limited on occasion by local school systems’ inability to remove firewalls that blocked delivery of the on line instrument. Further, observers and principals, despite reminders from residents, sometimes failed to complete their portions of the LPI in time to record their responses.