Assessing Learning-Centered Leadership: Connections to Research, Professional Standards, and Current Practices

Abstract

Effective school leadership is key to students' academic success. But the development of effective school leadership has been seriously hampered by the lack of technically sound tools to assess and monitor leaders' performance. This article presents the research base and conceptual framework for a leadership assessment instrument under development.

This article was developed to provide the rationale for the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-Ed) project—an initiative to develop a national evaluation for school principals and school leadership teams. The project is being funded by a generous grant from the Wallace Foundation. This support is gratefully acknowledged by the authors.

Notes

¹The Wallace LEAD districts are Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools; Fort Wayne (IN) Community Schools; Providence (RI) School District; Springfield (MA) Public Schools; St. Louis (MO) Public Schools; Eugene (OR) School District; Hartford (CT) Board of Education; Atlanta (GA) Public Schools; Springfield (IL) School District; Trenton (NJ) Public Schools; New York City Region One; and Jefferson County (KY) Public Schools. The SAELP states are Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.