A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF
TRADITIONAL STANDARDS FOR
ADMINISTRATORS
The traditional definitions of what an administrator needs to know in terms
of awareness, knowledge, and skills have always been set through standards
such as those provided by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure
ROBERT JASON HANCOCK AND JOHN FULWILER 42
Consortium (ISLLC), which produced one of the first sets of leadership
standards. The history of standards in educational administration largely
centers around ISLLC and the activities of its parent organizations. In 1988,
10 educational associations who had a vested interest in having standards for
administrators created the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA), the parent organization of ISLLC (Council of Chief State
School Officers, 1996). These associations (1996) included the American
Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, American Association of
School Administrators, Association of School Business Officials, Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Council of Chief State School
Officers, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National
Association of Secondary School Principals, National Council of Professors
of Educational Administration, National School Boards Association, and
University Council for Educational Administration. In 1994, these organizations comprising NPBEA created the ISLLC as professional standards for
administrators using funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the
Danforth Foundation (Council of Chief State School Officers, 1996). ISLLC
was primarily comprised of members from various relevant academic
institutions and members of the parent professional organizations with
representatives from all over the nation. From 1994 through 1996, ISLLC
went through a process of authoring the standards and circulating them for
review. In 1996, NPBEA formally adopted the standards and turned them
over to the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) for publication.
From 1996 onward, CCSSO has worked with certifying agencies to ensure
that ISLLC standards form a basis for professional assessments such as the
Praxis, SLLA, and SSA. According to CCSSO data (1996), 41 states currently
report either having adopted ISLLC standards or standards aligned with and/
or derived from ISLLC standards..