Evaluating School Leadership Preparation Programs

• In Event: Roundtable Session 84
  In Roundtable Session: Contemporary Preparation Program Initiatives: Lessons Learned From School Leadership Programs

Abstract

This workshop session strand will focus on the program evaluation activities currently underway with the various School Leadership Programs (SLPs). Evaluation results are critical to inform districts and universities about the success and/or challenges of their programs. These results can enable university faculty to facilitate discussions about leadership, program design and delivery, and continuous improvement, as well as enable district-level discussions about leadership, roles in supporting preparation, career transitions and new principals (Orr, King, & La Pointe, 2010). There are a number of different formative and summative evaluation methods currently in use with the SLP grants. We will share commonalities in evaluation across grants and share how these tools are being used in programs. We will also discuss how evaluation is a co-constructed activity (Guba & Lincoln, 1989) and provide examples of this through the SLP grants. These co-constructed activities allow assumptions about leadership and preparation to surface between universities and districts, allow data collection instruments to be co-constructed to facilitate formative and summative evaluation results, and enable iterative feedback processes (Guba & Lincoln, 1989).

The 2002 and 2005 SLP grants concluded three years after their inception. The final program evaluation results were provided to the federal government shortly after the conclusion of their programs. The program evaluation reports from these projects have been reviewed and a
compilation of evaluation tools used in the projects will be provided. Additionally, a listing of the current evaluation tools in use by the 2008, 2009, and 2010 funded grants will be provided to session attendees.

This strand will provide an opportunity for participants to conceptualize evaluation research beyond grant funding compliance requirements to include formative and summative evaluations, as well as systems change. We will also discuss conducting evaluation research and the relationships between evaluators and program directors, implications for districts, implications for leadership preparation programs and their institutions, and discuss recent SLP grant evaluation findings.

Authors

• Karen L. Sanzo, Old Dominion University

• Steve P. Myran, Old Dominion University