TRANSFORMATION OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP PREPARATION
PROGRAMS: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ALIGNMENT PROCESS AND
CHANGES THAT HAVE OCCURRED DUE TO
ISLLC/ELCC STANDARDS IMPLEMENTATION
An Abstract
of
TRANSFORMATION OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP PREPRATION
PROGRAMS: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ALIGNMENT
PROCESS AND CHANGES THAT HAVE OCCURRED
DUE TO ISLLC/ELCC STANDARDS
IMPLEMENTATION
Crystal Machado
May 2008
Over the last decade school leadership preparation programs across the United States
have been aligning their programs with the Interstate School Leadership Licensure Consortium
(ISLLC) and/or the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards which were
developed to influence school leadership preparation programs and professional development.
This study attempts to document the degree to which faculty nationwide perceive that their
programs are aligned with these standards. It identifies the factors that facilitated and/or
constrained program-standards alignment; and examines the influence that these standards have
had on the way faculty teach and programs operate.
The population was comprised of 378 school leadership preparation programs listed in
The 24th edition of the Educational Administration Directory (NCPEA, 2004). Program
participation was based on NCATE accreditation status, affiliation status and Carnegie
classification status. Using a sequential exploratory strategy qualitative data were gathered from
eight randomly selected faculty members; following which quantitative and qualitative data
were collected from 222 faculty members nationwide.The data were analyzed with the help of two software programs: Atlas.ti and
Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS, v.14). Analysis reveals that programstandards
alignment for the majority of departments occurred between 1998 and 2003.
Faculty report a high degree of program-standards alignment for their respective
departments, which is being achieved through continuous program review and
modification. Group differences in perceived degree of program-standards alignment
was observed across NCATE accreditation status and affiliation status, but not Carnegie
classification status.
Program-standards alignment was essentially a planned transitional change. The
process was reactive, generative and non-linear in nature. Faculty relied more on internal
resources such as: program evaluation by faculty, students, and committees, and less on
external resources. On average, faculty perceived the change environment to be
congenial rather than threatening. Program-standards alignment was facilitated by: a
desire to develop a well recognized program, faculty commitment to program
improvement, and leadership of the departmental chair and influential faculty members.
Time constraints and lack of resources substantially constrained the process.
The direction and nature of the change process suggests that subtle, incremental,
continuous change has resulted in significant change within the areas of program
evaluation, curriculum and assessment; instructional method appears to have changed
minimally. This trend is expected to continue and has the potential to influence the
culture and climate of school leadership preparation programs.