An Analysis of the Aspiring Principal Preparation Programs Provided by Florida School Districts

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify the basis of the aspiring principal preparation program (APPP) components Florida school districts provide to their aspiring principals and their relationship, if any, to the state and ISLLC Standards. A total of 50 school districts in Florida participated in this study. The research was guided by the following questions: To what extent do the Florida school districts provide a formal APPP to their current assistant principals? (b) Upon what are the formal APPPs for current assistant principals based: the Florida Principal Competencies (FPCs), the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards, or another source? (c) To what extent do the school district APPPs in the 67 Florida districts have component requirements that include professional development, mentoring, and a performance-based experience? and (d) Are there differences among the APPP components provided by Florida school districts of various sizes? The findings of the study were found thr

About the Author

Dr. Deborah E. Lawrence is a Third Culture Kid who shares her lifelong learning and experiences with her faculty and students in order to help create the next generation of educational leaders. She completed a doctoral degree at the University of Central Florida in Educational Leadership with a research emphasis on the evaluation and analyses of the components included in school district provided aspiring school principal preparation programs. As part of her master's degree in Educational Leadership earned at Stetson University, she completed an administrative internship with a research emphasis on state of the art curriculum, instruction, and assessment methodologies as applied to opening a new school of the 21st century. In 2003, she was awarded an US Department of Education Fulbright-Hays research scholarship to Mexico. The purpose of the Fulbright was to enhance the level of Florida students' international and cultural understanding through the inclusion of Mexican and Latin American studies in the K-12 a