Policy analysts have advocated for better licensure assessments to determine leadership candidate quality and improve readiness for school leadership roles. Through a professionally guided design team process, California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) developed initial leadership assessments [three cycles of the California Administrator…

The practicum experiences in which educational leadership students participate serve as critical bridges between the classroom work and the field. One regional university restructured the experience to include 15 hours of fieldwork embedded in each course leading up to an 85-hour field-based capstone course. The intent was three-fold: (1) to…

Leadership is less about our needs, and more about the needs of the people around us and the organization we are leading. Leadership styles are not something to be tried on like so many suits, to see which fits. Rather, they should be adapted to the particular demands of the situation, the particular requirements of the people involved and the…

Traditional approaches to leadership development frequently draw on Eurocentric, patriarchal discourses located in frameworks aligned to adult learning that may not be culturally or contextually relevant, or fail to pay attention to the needs of young women leading within and beyond their school communities. This research engaged an alternative…

Faced with scarce resources and high expectations, school principals must increasingly rely upon the power of persuasion to promote ongoing school improvement. We maintain that the development of a vibrant and tangible leadership brand constructed upon a principal's core values and noble character can motivate stakeholders and stimulate school…

As a continuum of professional learning for building and district leaders transitioning from leadership preparation programs into practice, the state of Kansas enacted mentoring and induction requirements as part of their role in supporting development of leadership skills important to on-the-job application of essential knowledge. One approved…

In this article we use organizational learning theory as a framework for thinking about how participation in CPED has influenced changes in the EdD program established in 2003 at the University of Connecticut. Both single and double loop learning were a part of our process of institutionalizing a culture of organizational learning, a process that…

In this paper, we present a review of the field of professional development for school leaders. The paper sets out a framework for defining what professional development is, articulates criteria to define "high quality" professional development, and describes goals for professional development. It then critiques the research on…

Educational leadership redesign efforts have been numerous in recent years. Scholars have reported descriptions of these redesigns and have included important and relevant program improvements (Brooks, Reames, & Reed, 2010; Browne-Ferrigno, 2011; Buttram & Doolittle, 2015; Mountford & Acker-Hocevar, 2013; Phillips, 2013), unique…

In England, despite making up 60% of the secondary school teaching workforce, women continue to be underrepresented in secondary school headship. In this paper, we focus on the experiences of women working in the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) as a site for headship preparation. This paper draws on survey findings from a study of women's and men's…

This article tries to "put a face" on the complex and abstract process of program change in relation to key principles from the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). We examine the principles of the "scholarship of practice," "laboratory of practice," and "signature pedagogy" within a…

This case study report will identify modifications made to a traditional leadership program's structures and the effects of the work on faculty perceptions of non-traditional doctoral programs. Union Free School District is the only school district to ever be taken over by the state. A nearby university's research-based educational leadership…

Research on leadership preparation programs in our field typically focuses on program design and delivery mode (e.g., closed cohorts, internships, distance learning, partnerships), curriculum and pedagogy (e.g., learning theories, syllabi content, learning outcomes), and occasionally program faculty. A critically missing component of research is…

PhD in Education and EdD programs have overlapping but distinct aims. With their focus on developing leaders who can apply knowledge to improve learning outcomes, CPED EdD programs have features not found in most PhD programs. The focus on developing scholarly practitioners who can effect constructive change in practice provides the overarching…

Various state and national forces are influencing principal preparation programs, including competition from online for-profit institutions, teacher evaluation, school accountability, equity, and Response to Intervention mandates that require university-based leadership preparation programs to re-examine and revise program delivery and content.…