Educational Leadership Preparation Programs in Kansas and Texas: A Comparative Study.

• In Event: Case studies in educational leadership

Proposal

Leadership is at the heart of quality education. There is a growing belief that educational leadership is the second most important factor impacting student achievement, second only to teaching (Leithwood, et al., 2004; 2020; Louis, et al., 2010). In modern times, a school leader, known in different contexts as principal, director, headmaster, or administrator, is faced with the responsibility of dealing with an entire school swayed by an incredibly wide array of inputs from political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, systemic, institutional, and educational forces (Gurr, 2024; Wallace Foundation, 2014).

Despite the fact that school leaders are expected to deal with a multitude of demands in an incredibly wide array of areas of expertise, little interest has developed concerning in-depth studies on the characteristics of this important position in education. School leaders have fallen through the cracks, often perceived as people who obediently complete administrative tasks while expecting others to be obedient to them (Rousmaniere, 2013).

Now, despite the fact that leadership is understood to be at the heart of quality education, numerous leadership preparation programs do not include content in areas of leadership, such as organizational structure and culture, decision making, the politics of negotiation, team dynamics, digital literacy, and managing change and stress, among others. Moreover, in many contexts, the requirements to function as an educational leader are three years of classroom teaching and a masters-degree level certification mainly focusing on school logistics and management.

This comparative, qualitative study presents a comparison of the status of educational leadership policies and two leadership preparation programs in Kansas and Texas. While the current literature provides ample discussion on this theme, to the best of our knowledge, there is no research directly comparing how educational leadership preparation programs compare between states in the US.

This study challenges our self-perception regarding the effectiveness of our educational leadership programs. This study begs us to review our answers to the question: “Are our academic programs preparing educational leaders to face the multidimensional challenges posed by the school environments and communities of the second half of the 21st century?”.

Authors

• Ricardo Lozano, Texas A&M International University

• Donna Augustine-Shaw, Kansas state university

• Susan Yelich Biniecki, PhD, Kansas State University