This toolkit, the most recent update of a product originally released in 2009, is designed to help those who run principal preparation programs, along with school district representatives and/or others, take stock and assess the quality of the training that programs provide to aspiring principals. The heart of the kit is a detailed self-assessment form, with ratings on a scale of 1 to 4, that users fill in to help them identify the strengths and weaknesses of the programming.

The format calls for users to provide evidence of a program’s effectiveness in six domains—candidate admissions, course content, pedagogy, clinical practice, performance assessment and graduates’ success in areas ranging from state certification to job performance. The specifics that are assessed in each domain are based on research about the characteristics of effective principal preparation and are tightly linked to a set of model national job standards for principals, the 2015 Professional Standards for Educational Leaders. A detailed bibliography lists the source material for each of the six domains.

The self-assessment is designed to be conducted with the help of a “facilitator,” that is, a professional trained to guide participants through its complexities from a position of neutrality. But the toolkit could also be useful to those who want to learn about the kinds of research-based elements that make up program quality and get an idea of program-improvement areas on which they could focus.

This 11th edition is an update of the guide’s 10th edition, originally published in 2018 and revised in 2020. The new edition enhances the guide’s commitment to equity by including it in every domain, and adding a set of discussion questions to deepen conversations about equity and equity-centered leaders.​

The author has also developed a self-assessment for operators of programs that are in the process of being redesigned so users can measure the progress of their efforts. This Program Redesign Progress Continuum can be found in the supplemental materials section below.

 Points of Interest
  • The updated edition of the Quality Measures toolkit—a set of rubrics for assessment of principal preparation programs—looks at programming in six areas, including admissions, clinical practice and graduate outcomes.
    The updated edition of the Quality Measures toolkit—a set of rubrics for assessment of principal preparation programs—looks at programming in six areas, including admissions, clinical practice and graduate outcomes.
  • See the updated edition of the Quality Measures rubrics (a self-assessment tool to examine #principal preparation programs) for a detailed bibliography of research about quality in principal prep.
    See the updated edition of the Quality Measures rubrics (a self-assessment tool to examine #principal preparation programs) for a detailed bibliography of research about quality in principal prep.

 Supplementary Materials
  • Download Tool
    University Principal Preparation Initiative: Program Redesign Progress Continuum
Download Report