A School District Principal Preparation Partnership Program is designed to establish collaboration between a University and school districts that employ the school leaders graduated by the university. This collaboration improves school principal preparation by integrating relevant school district policies, practices, knowledge, and skills into a…

The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) -- in partnership with the Texas Tech University (TTU) College of Education and 12 high-need school districts in Texas and Louisiana -- sought to change principal preparation to produce highly effective administrators to lead high-need schools. The result of the partnership was the…

The purpose of this collaborative action research study was to determine whether practicing instructional coaching with teacher candidates (TCs) improved coaching skills of principal candidates (PCs). Findings indicated that PCs improved their coaching skills. Findings illustrated ways to improve principal preparation in an instructional…

The demographic profile of the United States has been rapidly changing; by 2020, minority students will constitute the majority of the public school student population nationwide. This makes cultural competence a necessity for today's school leaders. Educational leadership preparation programs are responsible for preparing culturally competent…

In this article we describe a graduate program for practicing teachers at the University of Florida. Offered in a blended format (mostly online but supported by a local faculty member), the program embeds graduate work within school reform efforts in hard to staff schools in partner school districts up to 350 miles away from campus in order to…