A recent editorial article by Linda Seebach (Rocky Mountain News, August 20, 2005) reviewed a report from the Education Schools Project that labeled many graduate programs that prepare school leaders as "inadequate to poor." Seebach's article was provocative -- and so was the report she reviewed.
Written by Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College, Columbia University, the 89-page report, "Educating School Leaders," is a strong indictment of poorly designed, graduate credit dispensing programs with courses that have little to do with what school leaders need to know.
The report describes many university-based programs designed to prepare educational leaders as "...engaged in a counterproductive 'race to the bottom,' in which they compete for students by lowering admission standards, watering down coursework, and offering faster and less demanding degrees." Reminds me of a school principalship course I once endured - but the course did help me decide what I did NOT want to do, so I guess it wasn't a total waste of time and money.
The Full Report and an accompanying Executive Summary identify "Nine Criteria for Judging Program Quality" of educational leadership programs:
- Purpose: The program's purpose focuses on the education of practicing school leaders.
- Curriculum: Rigorous, coherent, and organized to teach needed skills and knowledge.
- Curriculum Balance: integrates theory and practice.
- Faculty: includes academics and practitioners.
- Admissions: recruit students with the capacity and motivation for successful school leadership.
- Degrees: high graduation standards and appropriate degrees for the profession.
- Research: high quality, driven by practice, and useful.
- Finances: resources adequate to support the program.
- Assessment: continuing program assessment and performance improvement.
For PDF versions of the Full Report and the Executive Summary, see www.edschools.org
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