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PREPARATION OF SCHOOL LEADERS
TEACHING AND ASSESSING DISPOSITIONS IN PRINCIPAL
PREPARATION PROGRAMS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
Ronald A. LindahlThe primary mission of principal preparation programs is to help students acquire the
specific set of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that professional administrative
organizations, e.g., National Policy Board for Educational Administration (2002, 2007) and
the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) (Council of Chief State School
Officers, 1996, 2008) and university accreditation agencies, e.g., National Council for the
Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) (2002, 2007) have deemed as being the
minimum set necessary for success as a school leader. Although much attention has been
given to the required knowledge and skills, little research on how programs deal with
dispositions is extant in the professional knowledge base. Therefore, this study was designed
to investigate how principal preparation programs teach, assess, and make decisions based on
these dispositions.
METHODOLOGY
The researcher contacted faculty in principal preparation programs at over 100 institutions
across the nation. Of those contacted, 35 respondents, representing 33 programs, agreed to be
interviewed and provided information regarding when they most typically would be in their
office. The researcher recognizes that those who agreed to participate may hold different
perspectives about the role of dispositions in principal preparation programs than those who
opted not to participate. That is a limitation of this study. Each telephone interview lasted
between 30 and 45 minutes. Based on the responses of these 35 participants, the researcher
became reasonably confident that he had reached a point of data saturation (Creswell, 1998,
pp. 56-57), so no additional respondents were sought.
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
In 1996, ISLLC, a program of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
promulgated six Standards for School Leaders. The six ISLLC standards were very specific in
identifying 43 individual, but often interrelated, dispositions that school leaders should
consistently demonstrate. In 2002, the Educational Leaders Constituent Council (ELCC)
published its Standards for Advanced Programs in Principal for Principals, Superintendents,
Curriculum Directors, and Supervisors (National Policy Board for Educational
Administration, 2002). Of the seven standards, one pertains to internships within preparation
programs and the other six refer to the knowledge, skills, and dispositions their graduates
should demonstrate. These six standards were closely based on the ISLLC standards.
A major impetus for this research study was that the ISLLC and ELCC standards were about
to be revised. Subsequently, the new ISLLC standards were approved by the National Policy
Ronald A. Lindahl, Alabama State University