Improving educational administration preparation programs: What we have learned over the past decade

Abstract

The past decade has been one of great ferment for those of us concerned with the preparation of educational administrators. The press for educational reform that began in the early 1980s with the National Commission on Excellence in Education's (1983) report, A Nation at Risk, soon spread to the recognition of the need to improve leadership in our country's schools. That demand inevitably led to concerns about how these leaders were being prepared. The University Council for Educational Administration, which represents many of the leading higher education leadership preparation programs, highlighted these concerns when it established the National Commission on Excellence in Educational Administration (1987). The commission concluded that preparation programs were marked by of a definition of good educational leadership ... lack of collaboration between school districts and universities ... lack of systemic professional