Illinois’ New Policy for Principal Preparation Experiences Some Initial Successes and Challenges
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Illinois Education Research Council (IERC), in partnership with the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (Consortium), has released an interim report of research study examining the implementation of Illinois’ new principal preparation policy.
Passed in June 2010, Illinois’ legislation requires all principal preparation programs to meet new requirements by June 2014 for preparing Illinois’ pre-K to grade 12 educational leaders. The restructuring in Illinois was part of a nationwide movement to provide stronger training for principals in order to better equip them to direct instructional change and lead schools that produce high levels of student achievement, according to Dr. Brenda Klostermann, associate director and project lead.
Interviews with program representatives and key education stakeholders during the initial years of the new policy’s implementation identified benefits due to the new requirements, as well as new challenges that are highlighted in the report.
The goals of the current mixed methods study—the Illinois Principal Preparation Implementation Review Project (I-PREP)—are to describe how the new policy is being implemented, learning which aspects of the implementation have been challenging and why they present challenges, and how programs are addressing challenges and realizing improvements in the preparation of their candidates, Klostermann added.
Results of interviews with program representatives and key Illinois education stakeholders showed the majority of those interviewed support the goals of the new policy and have a positive outlook on its future impact of principal preparation in Illinois, Klostermann said. Most believe the redesigned principal preparation programs will ultimately create better prepared school administrators, improved student achievement, and more successful schools.
Additional data is being gathered this fall with site visits to selected approved programs and an online survey to all approved programs. The final report, due in summer 2016, will integrate the findings from this interim report, the site visits, and survey to provide research-based insights in how to improve the policy and its implementation. This study is supported by a grant from The Robert R. McCormick Foundation and The Wallace Foundation.
For more information, contact Klostermann, (618) 650-2840 or (866) 799-4372. A complete report is available at http://ierc.education/our-research/publications/.
The Illinois Education Research Council (IERC) is an independent research organization at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) that conducts education policy research on issues of import to the state of Illinois. Since 2009, we have been the legislated research arm of the Illinois P-20 Council. Our policy research follows important educational trends in Illinois and is disseminated through our research reports, presentations to the Illinois P-20 Council and its subcommittees, and through conference presentations.
The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) conducts research of high technical quality that can inform and assess policy and practice in the Chicago Public Schools. We seek to expand communication among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners as we support the search for solutions to the problems of school reform. CCSR encourages the use of research in policy action and improvement of practice, but does not argue for particular policies or programs. Rather, we help to build capacity for school reform by identifying what matters for student success and school improvement, creating critical indicators to chart progress, and conducting theory‐driven evaluation to identify how programs and policies are working.
