Contact: Alan Richard
(404) 879-5544
Released: 5/9/2006
SREB Report Urges Improved Training for School Leaders
ATLANTA - A 100-page report from the Southern Regional Education Board
urges states to improve training programs for school leaders, especially school
principals. Schools Can't Wait: Accelerating the Redesign of University
Principal Preparation Programs goes further than outlining the problems in
university graduate programs for school leaders. Recognizing the leadership some
SREB states, colleges and universities have taken to improve school leadership
training, it outlines an action plan that state policy-makers can use to raise
the quality of such programs, highlights models for redesigned university
programs in SREB states, and includes a guide for policy-makers on ways to gauge
university program redesign.
“Done right, principal preparation programs can help states put a quality
principal in every school who knows how to lead changes in school and classroom
practices that result in higher student achievement,” SREB President Dave Spence
says in the opening message of the report. “But, as a growing body of research
makes clear, many universities are not getting the job done and are in no
particular hurry to redesign their programs to ensure that aspiring principals
are thoroughly prepared for their role in improving curriculum, instruction and
student achievement.”
The report calls on policy-makers, state education agencies, university
presidents, college-level school leadership programs, and local school districts
and school boards to take specific steps to improve the quality of principal
preparation programs, including:
Create a state commission to plan and oversee the redesign of training
for school leaders, including their selection, preparation, licensure,
induction and continued development.
Require universities and school districts to partner to select
top-quality principal candidates and to improve course content and field
experiences toward raising student achievement.
Challenge university presidents to place a high priority on school
leadership programs and make them essential parts of institutional missions,
funding and staffing.
Require meaningful, yearlong residencies supported by strong mentoring
for new and aspiring school leaders.
Develop new program approval processes based on rigorous standards to
increase accountability for school leadership programs and require
evaluations of their effectiveness that include data on graduates' impact on
student achievement.
Eliminate pay raises for those who earn a master's degree in educational
administration but do not work in school or district leadership.
View the entire report or order a bound copy of Schools Can't Wait:
Accelerating the Redesign of University Principal Preparation Programs here:
http://www.sreb.org/programs/hstw/publications/special/SchoolsCantWait.asp.
This publication is supported by the Wallace Foundation. For more
information, visit Wallace's Knowledge Center at
www.wallacefoundation.org.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia,
advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created
in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and
government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and
economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas,
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West
Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
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