Indiana

In academic year 2005-2006, educational leadership faculty representatives from all seventeen state-accredited building-level administrator preparation programs in Indiana collaborated, in various ways, in a statewide investigation of principal leadership
preparation. Led by faculty at Indiana University at Indianapolis and supported by the Indiana Department of Education, this statewide study of programs attempts to systematically and coherently document, analyze, and describe features and trends evident across 100% of principal preparation programs in the state of Indiana and to report these findings and policy recommendations in a report to the Indiana
Department of Education in the Fall of 2006. To engage in such research new instruments were written, new alliances were formed, and significant data collection was undertaken by all principal preparation programs in the state.  We found that programs remain significantly differentiated across features such as rationale, size, recency, faculty composition, course structure and curriculum, field experiences, and teaching methods, amongst other characteristics.

The Indiana Building-Level Leadership Preparation Study was proposed
with four objectives in mind:

1. To comprehensively describe the state of educational leadership preparation in the state of Indiana.
2. To report on national level efforts and methods utilized to evaluate and improve educational leadership preparation.
3. To provide data that will inform policy decisions made at the state level as to (1) how programs are approved/accredited to offer licensure and master's degree programs in Indiana and (2) how approved/accredited programs in Indiana are held accountable for delivering the program submitted to the State for approval/accreditation.
4. To provide data to colleges and universities now providing licensure and master's degree programs in Indiana that will inform their program development and operational procedures.
   
   Next steps include editing and publishing the report, submitting a collectively written paper (7-9 authors) for publication which highlights significant findings, reflections on the process as participants, as well as pitfalls and future possibilities. Representatives of educational leadership programs are considering formalization as a state NCPEA chapter and wish to meet and discuss the report and next steps in the spring, particularly if funding is received for a multi-state study from the US Department of Education. Bill Black (IUPUI) is the group’s liaison to the Taskforce; Diana Pounder has served as an evaluation advisor to the group.
   

Missouri

The Missouri Professors of Educational Administration have formed an evaluation subcommittee to support on-going collaborative evaluation efforts. Over the past two years, they have met periodically to discuss evaluation research and undertake collaborative work. As part of this effort, they compiled program documentation information on program practices and reviewed state leadership assessments by institution to identify patterns and implications. Finally, all programs have agreed to field the UCEA/TEA-SIG follow-up survey of graduates, using HostedSurvey, as set up by Brenda LeTendre. Since last year, HostedSurvey has dramatically increased their costs to $600 per institution. The group is putting the survey cost administration into their SAELP grant proposal to the Wallace Foundation.  Jennifer Friend, University of Missouri-Kansas City, is the contact person. friendji@umkc.edu. Terry Orr has served as an evaluation advisor to the group, and Brenda LeTendre has provided support on web-based surveys.

Utah Leadership Preparation Research (report prepared by Diana Pounder, U of Utah

The leadership preparation programs in Utah have made considerable progress to date in conducting a longitudinal / multi-phase study of school leadership preparation.  Below is a brief chronology of their work.

1. In 2004-05, the Utah Consortium for Educational Leadership (UCEL) agreed to cooperate in conducting a state-wide study of school leadership preparation in Utah.  UCEL is a consortium formed in the 1990’s, at the initiative of Professor David Sperry (U of U) and Professor Ivan Muse (BYU) to strengthen the relationship among leader preparation institutions (at the time 3, now 5), administrator professional associations, and the Utah State Office of Education.  Currently, the member institutions include:  University of Utah (UU), Brigham Young University (BYU), Utah State University (USU), Southern Utah University (SUU), University of Phoenix (UP), the Utah Elementary Principals’ Association (UEPA), the Utah Secondary Principals’ Association (USPA), the Utah Superintendents’ Association (USA), and the Utah State Office of Education (USOE).  Linda Alder, the USOE representative is serving as the Executive Director of UCEL.  

2. The UCEL cooperating research team included representatives from four Utah leadership preparation institutions --- Diana Pounder & Madeline Hafner (UU), Joe Matthews (BYU), Mike Freeman (USU), and Katy Herbold (SUU).  The University of Phoenix is represented by Greg Johnson, but UP has only recently begun to implement an administrator preparation program, so has not actively participated due to the lack of sufficient data at the time of data collection.  To date, the research team has cooperated in the collection of the following school leader preparation data:
1. Spring 2005:  Self-Report Program Narratives submitted in a standardized format addressing commonly agreed upon program elements.
2. Fall 2005:  Interviews with a Student/Candidate Focus Group and a Faculty Focus Group from each Institution. 

The findings regarding the research development process and from the program narrative data and the focus group interview data were reported in a conference paper:  Pounder, D.G. & Hafner, M. (2006). Utah Leader Preparation Study:   Preliminary Report of Stage 1 Research.  Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.

3. During the Spring and Summer of 2006, the research team collected survey data from 2006 program graduates regarding their program experience, job intentions, and related 1st order program outcomes (as developed by Terry Orr and the National Joint Task Force on Leadership Preparation).  Utah used largely the same survey items as used nationally, with only minor modifications to reflect Utah leader preparation conditions.

These survey data are currently being analyzed and will be reported in an upcoming UCEA 2006 conference session:
Pounder, D.G. & Hafner, M. (2006).  Utah Leadership Preparation:  Initial Findings of a Longitudinal Study.  Paper presented at the University Council for Educational Administration Conference, San Antonio, TX. 

4. The collective findings from these two initial conference papers will be developed into a single manuscript which will be submitted for review and potential publication in a refereed academic journal.  The findings will also be shared in early 2007 with UCEL member institutions.

5. During the Summer of 2006, Terry Orr (Bank Street College), Bill Black (Indiana University), and Diana Pounder (University of Utah) developed an Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) leader grant proposal to conduct subsequent stages of this longitudinal research across three states (Utah, Indiana, Missouri).  We should know by early Spring 2007 if this grant is funded.

6. The next stages of research in this longitudinal study include:

1. A follow-up survey of program graduates from 2000-2007 to assess their views of their program preparation, their job intentions and/or job attainment to date, their current work priorities and behaviors, and other program outcome variables. (Spring/Summer 2007)
2. For 2000-2007 graduates who have become principals, we plan to conduct a survey of teachers in their schools to assess how these leaders have influenced various school conditions (that are known to favorably influence student outcomes). (2007-08)
3. Lastly, we will conduct a qualitative study of selected program graduates who have become principals and whose schools are performing particularly well in terms of student achievement (with respect to the student population they serve).  (2008-09)

UCEL and Utah’s State Office of Education remain supportive of this multi-stage study and are cooperating in data collection and data access.  (Additionally, a similar multi-stage study is being conducted in Utah on “Novice Teachers”, following them from their preparation program through their provisional teaching years, collecting data on perceptions of their preparation programs, observing their classroom practices, and assessing their students’ value-added learning.  Diana Pounder serves as a research design team member for the Utah Novice Teacher Study.)  Diana Pounder is the primary liaison with the Taskforce.