While it is not directly the subject of this blog, I know many of our readers teach in educational leadership programs (as do the authors of this blog). So, I wanted to call your attention to a post by Scott McLeod (who always seems to be posting something interesting) on questions that are arising about educational leadership preparation. The post is here. I urge you to read it carefully if you are affiliated with educational leadership preparation.

I just happen to be closely involved with this issue as I was an author of a report in Indiana that will be published soon looking at building-level leadership preparation. Also, I have listen to and spoke with Arthur Levine, Terry Orr, and Joe Murphy whom Scott refers to on this issue. The concerns are real and educational leadership is presently undergoing massive changes. Not only are new programs coming online, but, in addition, traditional programs are actively looking at making massive changes to their preparation. This is not something I am speculating about because I have seen it in real life in the data we gathered in Indiana.

At present, educational leadership preparation is largely being driven by market mechanisms ... i.e. there is a race to the bottom ... and the public is rightly beginning to be concerned. Educational leadership, in whatever form it takes, has to prove to the public that they are a valuable component of the education system. There are efforts underway to do that including efforts on the part of UCEA and AERA. Specifically I have been working with the joint UCEA/AERA Learning and Teaching in Educational Leadership SIG Taskforce on Evaluating Educational Leadership Preparation. Progress is being made in evaluating educational leadership preparation, but it might not be coming rapidly enough as more and more programs enter the field without the kind of quality commitment that is necessary.

If you are involved in educational leadership preparation, this issue is becoming harder and harder to ignore.