In part, because many planned organizational improvements fall short of their intended goals, higher education administrators have not been able to promote sustained improvements. Most university leaders have been promoted into leadership roles without experience and training to enable them to foresee and address unintended outcomes of their decision making; often, the culture in higher education institutions promotes continuation of the status quo. However, in times of crisis, such as those related to reductions in budgets, many unintended consequences develop as leaders attempt to address change. Unintended consequences have implications related to the success or failure of planned change and higher education administrators must address such outcomes appropriately. This article discusses issues related to unintended consequences of policy changes in higher education.

This study used an organizational socialization lens to examine factors influencing participants’ choice to pursue the principalship and an alternate administration certification program. Through an analysis of participants’ interviews, factors emerged from the codes that were compared with dimensions of a socialization framework. A key finding from this study is the intersection of socializing factors that influenced participants’ decisions to pursue the principalship and their decision to pursue an alternative preparation programs. This intersection impacted how these aspiring and current principals came to participate in the alternate preparation program.

In July 2008, Riverbend Public Schools (RPS) in Western Michigan and Grand Valley State University (GVSU) received a grant from the Wallace Foundation that supported the development of a specialized educational leadership program. The project was designed to customize an existing degree program in the university’s College of Education, focusing on leadership skill sets for urban school leaders. The project, titled the “Aspiring Leaders Program,” allowed 34 urban teachers and new principals to obtain a master’s degree in educational leadership or an educational specialist degree in educational leadership with special expertise in urban schools. The program ran from November 2008 through the fall semester of 2009. In the late fall of 2009 and again in 2012, follow-up studies were conducted to determine if this customized program had benefited the participants and if they continued to use the skill sets they had been taught. This study describes the 2012 three-year follow-up study and discusses its results.

The purpose of this study was to determine the decision-making and problem-solving approaches most frequently used by school superintendents in two mid-western states when confronted with district dilemmas. The research replicated a study conducted by Polka, Litchka, Caizi, Denig and Mete (2011) in five Mid-Atlantic states. The survey used in both studies was based on the work of Tarter and Hoy (1998). Results between the two regions were compared and significant differences were found in how superintendents manage dilemmas and their preferences for making decisions. In addition, significant differences were found between male and female superintendents in the mid-western states.

This study focused on understanding how and to what extent school leaders shift their vision of school technology leadership as a result of being exposed to theoretical, practical, and empirical data focused on school technology leadership. Prior to the intervention, educational leadership doctoral students were asked to write their vision statement for school technology leadership. After completing a three-credit hour graduate level course developed around the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A) (ISTE, 2011), the students were asked to revise their vision statement. Pre- and post-treatment analyses were conducted to determine the depth of conceptual shifts as measured by the technology leadership standards. The researchers found that each student experienced shifts in their vision that more closely aligned to the NETS-A.

The purpose of this study was to examine the comparative influence of college administrator credential programs, on-the-job experiences, and the ISLLC Standards in the development of leadership expertise among urban public school principals. An exploratory, ex-post-facto research design used both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A survey of 101 randomly selected urban school principals from 25 of America’s largest metropolitan school districts was given, followed by telephone interviews with a subset of 20 randomly selected survey participants. Data were analyzed through the use of inferential and descriptive statistics and descriptive narratives. On-the-job experiences were significantly more important in developing leadership expertise than college credential programs on each of 41 ISLLC-based learning tasks. However, college credential programs are also important sources of leadership development. Several significant differences were found between comparative ratings of learning tasks by subgroups (experience, gender, school type). Respondents ranked 78% of the ISLLC Standards as very important to the field of school leadership. Interview subjects expressed concern about lack of preparation in budgeting, data analysis, teacher evaluation, and change management.

This is the second part of a study conducted by Barton and Cox (2012) investigating administrative credential candidates’ pre and post self-assessment results. Candidates who successfully complete principal preparation programs should possess the requisite knowledge and skills to assume leadership positions in P-12 schools. This study was designed to assess self-reported growth in knowledge of effective school leader practices connected to the California Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (CPSELs). A total of 82 candidates participated. Results indicated significant differences in pre and post knowledge disaggregated by CPSEL, total years of professional experience, and degree of change. Included are implications and future plans to improve the assessment of candidates based on these results.

Instructional Leadership faculty at the University of South Alabama redesigned their program’s curricula between 2004 and 2006 to include new standards for instructional leaders. Seven of eleven public school superintendents in the University’s service area signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the College of Education to plan, implement, and evaluate the program. The redesigned program’s capstone experience is a full-semester in local schools to give residents opportunities to observe and lead teachers in improving student achievement. Data obtained from surveys and the Leadership Practices Inventory© reflect residents’ and mentor principals’ satisfaction with the program. Forty nine residents in eight cohorts indicated on their end-of-program survey that they wanted more time and interaction with mentor principals. Principals responded to a similar survey statement that they gave residents adequate guidance and ample feedback about job performance. These divergent perceptions will be a focal point for improving the program in the future.

This exploratory study investigated the prevalence of single evaluation methods courses in doctoral education leadership programs. Analysis of websites of 132 leading U.S. university programs found 62 evaluation methods courses in 54 programs. Content analysis of 49 course catalog descriptions resulted in five categories: survey, planning and implementation, research and inquiry, leadership and school improvement, special approaches, and original student research. Most often elective and outside the required curriculum, evaluation methods appear to hold a consistent but secondary place in doctoral leadership training, despite its applicability in education.

Even after decades of use, designing and implementing worthwhile educational administrative internships remains a work in progress. What appears to be a logical conclusion that this experience would enhance the training of aspiring building leaders defies the gathering of definitive empirical evidence. The quest to validate what constitutes a successful internship experience intensified in the 1980s when research affirmed the positive relationship between effective school leadership and school performance. The research results contained in this study attempt to provide information that will lead to the improvement of internship experiences for aspiring school administrators. In order to accomplish this purpose, current building principals in Indiana were surveyed regarding their internship experiences in the areas of program structure, components of the internship, time requirements, and recommendations for improvement. This research is a replication of a 2009 study, Improving Administrative Internship Programs: Perceptions of Illinois Principals, authored by Thomas Kersten, Margaret Trybus, and Daniel White. The differences and similarities found in the comparison studies are discussed in the Summary and Conclusions.

The purpose of this study was to determine if principal tenure, principal stability, and principal educational experience in public education along with school-level variables predicted elementary school student achievement. A second purpose was to examine whether there was a significant difference between (a) levels of principal tenure and levels of principal educational experience on elementary school student achievement and (b) levels of principal stability and levels of principal educational experience on elementary school student achievement. The findings revealed that the school-level variables were stronger predictors of student achievement than principal-level variables. However, for both grade 3 and grade 5, principal tenure was a significant predictor across subject areas tested. As the length of a principal’s tenure at a school increased, the schools mean scale scores increased. Findings also revealed that schools with greater principal stability had higher school mean scale scores. In addition, principal educational experience had less of an impact on student achievement than principal tenure or principal stability.

The article presents the evaluation of the training programme for secondary school principals conducted in the period between 2006 and 2009. A mixed method approach was used to conduct the summative evaluation with 28 graduate participants. For the impact evaluation, 15 of the graduates were interviewed three years after the programme was completed. The quantitative data was analyzed using means and standard deviation. The findings revealed that participants gained technical and relational skills but responses were less favourable in relation to cognitive or conceptual skills, while the support from lecturers and workplaces was strong but less favourable from the central ministry. There was a positive impact on participants’ performance during the period of training, especially in the areas of confidence, collegiality and overall leadership. For the impact evaluation, graduates credited the programme for their promotion to become principals, vice principals, senior teachers or give added responsibilities. They identified areas to be enhanced for any further programme to include school law, financial management, policy development and interpretation, and conflict management and relational skills. The main recommendation is that for any further programme for the training of principals should be guided by the findings of the evaluation.