3.4 Reality check: designing a new leadership program for the 21st  (Page 2/15)

In order to design an exemplary program, distributed and shared leadership must be practiced at alllevels—state, university, and district. Shared/distributed leadership is neither a top-down nor a total grass roots model. Ashared decision making model is the best for total commitment and sustainability. This has prompted the use and development ofpartnerships, especially at the university/district level. Successful partnerships have been developed in places such as EastTennessee State University (West, 2003), University of Kentucky (Browne-Ferrigno, 2004) and other universities across the country.During district partnership sessions, East Tennessee based its program on themes rather than distinct subjects (West, 2003). TheUniversity of Kentucky Partnership identified the lack of knowledge and dispositions for instructional leadership as one of the mainneeds of preparation and professional development programs (Browne-Ferrigno, 2004). The goal of this paper is to discuss thelessons learned and challenges faced in developing a partnership program at Southeastern Louisiana University in hopes of helpingothers in their quest to improve school leadership preparation program.

Louisiana’s Redesign of School Leadership Preparation Programs

In 2001, the state of Louisiana formed a partnership with the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) thathas been instrumental in the development of school leader preparation programs. Support in new program development andteaching strategies have been offered to help university/district partnerships. In spring 2005 the Southeastern Louisiana Partnershipbegan the recruitment, selection, and implementation process for the new school leader preparation program and professionaldevelopment of sitting school leaders. This article focuses on the LEAD Southeastern Louisiana Partnership; LEAD is an acronym forLeading, Engaging, Assessing, and Developing (School Leaders) in Southeastern Louisiana. A knowledge and skills base for schoolleadership preparation has been developed and is constantly being reviewed and renewed with the assistance of such groups as theNational Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). Two major problemswith respect to principal preparation exist: (1) How to bring this new knowledge base to school leaders in the field throughprofessional development, and (2) How to design and implementleadership preparation programs to effectively teach these skills. The focus here is on the latter, concerned especially withexamining the creation and implementation of the new research-based program at Southeastern Louisiana University. The creation processbegan in 2001, implementation with the first cohort of students in fall 2005, and the collection of the first assessments and surveysin May 2006. An example of the design and implementation process of a new school leader preparation program and the challenges of thechange process are presented in this article. Until 2005, the plans had only been on paper, and now the reality check is in theimplementation.