3.4 Reality check: designing a new leadership program for the 21st  (Page 9/15)

Selection and assignment of field sites

Recent research (e.g., Bottoms, 2004; Davis, 2005) supports the use of practicing administrators in the field asrole models to mentor and help close the gaps among leadership knowledge, theory, and practice. Mentored experiences over anextended period of time provide the opportunity for greater understanding on the part of those mentored and are designed todemonstrate the application of the knowledge and skills emphasized in each instructional seminar.

In the School Leader Preparation program, worksites include public and private educational units. Thoseschools and systems used in the preparation of candidates are diverse in community type, school type, enrollment, gradeconfiguration, race, income level, academic performance scores and/or performance designations.

According to Bottoms (2004), educational administration programs need to select knowledgeable, experiencedadministrators to serve as coaches and mentors. In the program, potential mentors are nominated by their supervisors and/orsuperintendents. Each mentor is selected based on leadership experience, certification type and area, professional activities,personal qualities, successful use of technology, commitment to mentoring interns, and successful participation in a mentortraining seminar. The mentor training seminar provides information on tools and strategies to support and supervise field-based administrative experiences and consists of a program overview,coaching techniques, shared decision-making activities, and assessment and evaluation procedures for assessing programcandidates.

Assessment of candidates

Assessment of program participants is accumulated as artifacts in an electronic portfolio platform ofPASS-PORT, developed by the Louisiana Department of Education. Artifacts are documents that provide evidence of a standards-basedleadership experience and include traditional written narratives and tests, self-assessments, and field-based observationassessments. Periodically throughout the six semesters of the program, candidates must successfully pass through a series of“portals”or gates in order to continue to the next program component. They are required to submit a minimum of two artifactsper seminar for their portfolio. These documents are evaluated using standards-based rubrics developed by university faculty andadvisory council members. Students are required to cite the relevant standards for school leaders with respect to the evidencesubmitted. In addition, each portfolio artifact is accompanied by a reflective summary describing how it documents mastery of therelated standard.

The portfolio documents become part of the formative and summative evaluation process. In addition totraditional methods (e.g., written work, tests) for evaluating and monitoring student progress, the acquisition of skills associatedwith each seminar is documented by the artifacts and evaluated through the use of rubrics. As students progress through theprogram, each portfolio entry is evaluated by the professor of record. As part of the summative program assessment, artifacts areformally presented for defense before a committee of graduate faculty members and field administrators serving as mentors.