The "Report to the Legislature: School Leadership Academies Training Initiative" is submitted pursuant to Chapter 61 of the Acts of 2007, line item 7061-941. In FY 08, the legislature appropriated $1 million to support the second year of a program to develop and implement School Leadership Academies for principals and superintendents to increase their capacity to provide effective instructional and educational leadership. This program was first funded for $1 million in FY 07. After many years of Education Reform initiatives, the Department of Education has seen strong evidence that a new kind of leadership for instruction is the key to successful school reform and significant improvements to teaching and learning statewide. Two years ago the Department of Education began to address in earnest the statewide need for recruiting, developing, and sustaining leaders to take Education Reform to the next level, and find ways to support all students to the highest level of achievement. Toward this end, and with support from the Massachusetts Legislature and the Wallace Foundation, the Department has been working with the Massachusetts Education Leadership Alliance to define what "strong instructional leadership" looks like; develop state performance standards to guide school leaders; provide training and support for current educational leaders to be successful; create the pre-service components to enable current and future leaders to meet the rigorous demands of educational leadership in the twenty-first century; and establish licensure requirements that link directly to professional administrator responsibilities and to training programs; expand on current recruitment and retention policies. Three appendices are included: (1) Chapter 61 of the Acts of 2007, Line Item 7016-9411; (2) List of Districts Participating in NISL Training; and (3) NISL Evaluation Executive Summary.