120 PREPARATION OF SCHOOL LEADERS
ELCC standards and reviewed by a committee comprised of three to four faculty members
and one practicing administrator from the same grade level as the intern, i.e., elementary,
middle, or high school. This committee also reviews the student’s performance on the 58
“significant activities” designed by the program faculty to cover the full range of the ELCC
standards. The student must present evidence of successful performance in at least 80% of
these activities. However, although many other programs’ portfolio processes are based on the
ISLLC standards, most give no explicit instructions to include reflections on dispositions.
When asked what would happen in his program when a student did not display the desired
dispositions, one respondent stated that the faculty would hold a student personnel session at a
faculty meeting to discuss the problems noted. Then the student’s professor or advisor would
counsel and monitor the student; this might involve career counseling to discourage the
student from pursuing a career in school administration.
In one program, preparation is offered for the Praxis exam, a certification requirement, as
part of its curriculum. As the instructor for this preparation views many of the Praxis
scenarios as disposition-oriented, the preparation activities help students to perceive their
dispositions and to align them with the ISLLC standards. In some cases, students were
required to reflect upon the ISLLC standards (including dispositions) and base their portfolio
on them. Dispositions are also assessed as part of exit requirements. For example, one
program requires its students to develop a personal code of ethics in the opening, required
course; halfway through the program, the student supplements this with a personal philosophy
of administration; the capstone requirement is the development of a personal platform of
deep-seated beliefs. All three are dispositional in nature. In another program, a mandated exit
question posed to students requires them to reflect upon “one dispositional theme that every
student in our program leaves with.” One participant reported that a follow-up survey of
employers provided the program with assessment information on the dispositions exhibited by
alumni following program completion. Finally, another participant reported looking at the
success of its graduates in administrative roles to determine the extent to which they have the
needed dispositions.
SUMMARY
Perhaps the best summary of the findings of this study can be found in the words of one
participant: “We don’t deal with them [dispositions] nearly as well as we should.” Most, if
not all, participants concurred that their programs have identified key dispositions related to
school leadership and make at least some attempt to teach and evaluate student acquisition of
these dispositions. However, one participant’s comment seems to reflect well the
inconsistencies reported across participants’ institutions: “In some classes, dispositions are
taught better than others.” Internships were generally viewed as the primary place that
dispositions are taught (primarily through mentoring by the supervising principal) and
assessed. Few programs used dispositions as criteria for admission decisions and little direct
assessment of dispositions occurred until the internship or capstone portfolio. Very, very
rarely did the absence of the desired dispositions result in students failing to graduate or to be
certified. Programs would benefit greatly from a better understanding of the legal issues
surrounding the use of dispositions as criteria for admission or dismissal from the program.
With the removal of dispositions as an explicit element of the 2008 ISLLC standards,
continued research is warranted to examine if and how dispositions will be addressed in
principal preparation programs.