Working Together to Prepare Illinois School Leaders

The quality of school leadership is a key factor in improving student achievement, second only to instructional quality, which leadership strongly influences. As such, it is essential that Illinois focus attention and resources to strengthen school leaders’ capacity to improve classroom instruction, teacher knowledge and skills, and student performance.

Illinois has engaged in a statewide effort to strengthen principal preparation since 2005, beginning with the work of the Commission on School Leader Preparation. The Commission detailed their findings in a report titled, School Leader Preparation: A Blueprint for Change . In 2007, the Illinois General Assembly resolved that the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) and the office of the Governor jointly appoint the Illinois School Leader Task Force (ISLTF) to recommend strategic steps to implement improvements in school leadership preparation based on the measures detailed in the Blueprint for Change.

In 2008, the ILSLTF submitted a report to the Illinois General Assembly detailing systemic changes in state policies, formal partnerships and refocused principal preparation. In response, ISBE and IBHE are collaboratively working to produce a single set of standards-based program approval criteria for all principal preparation programs. By July 2013, all programs seeking to prepare school principals must be approved under these revised standards.

Reaching out to the stakeholders who this will affect, ISBE and IBHE have sought the assistance of statewide redesign teams charged with developing draft content around specific areas in the revised program approval criteria.