The National Center for the

Evaluation of Leadership Preparation and Practice

Leadership Preparation Program Features Survey

Purpose 


The Leadership Preparation Program Features Survey has complimentary purposes that serve both individual programs and the field at large.  For programs, it provides comparative data on the core features of building and district level leadership preparation programs. Importantly, your preparation program faculty could benefit from comparative data regarding:

  1. programs within an institution;
  2. programs within the UCEA consortium; 
  3. programs within a region, state or other groupings; and 
  4. programs among types of institutions such as public and private, selectivity, or Carnegie classification.  

Furthermore, completing the survey enables a program to document program design and delivery at one point in time, and if repeated can establish a program history.  For those programs who choose to administer the Center’s SLPPS Alumni Survey, data from the program features survey can also be linked to graduates’ assessments of program design, delivery and effectiveness;

The Program Features Survey is comprised of the following parts:

  • candidate selection practices;
  • program design;
  • core content;
  • instructional delivery approaches;
  • candidate assessment practices;
  • staffing;
  • governance; and
  • financial attributes.

The question format is primarily multiple choice and short-answer.

Program Features Survey Development and Validation


The Program Survey was developed through a multi-stage design, testing, and fielding process.  This process began with a review of research on common and exemplary program features  (Bottoms, O'Neill, Fry, & Hill, 2003; Darling-Hammond, Meyerson, La Pointe, & Orr, 2009; Davis, Darling-Hammond, Meyerson, & LaPointe, 2005; Jackson & Kelley, 2002)  and program documentation required for Educational Leadership Constituents Council (ELCC) applications, particularly on internship delivery, use of assessments and faculty staffing.

The next step was to design and use structured interviews of program directors in one state. The interview guide and results provided the basis for a survey of closed and open-ended survey items in another state. Using these results, the survey was then revised to standardize administration across multiple states. The findings from the field testing were used to finalize the survey. Many members of the UCEA-LTEL Taskforce on Evaluating Leadership Preparation Programs have contributed to the development of the Program Features Survey. Program Features Survey administration and aggregate results are reviewed and discussed by the members at state and national conferences as well as the semi-annual meeting of the UCEA-LTEL Taskforce. The final survey items are aligned with the School Leadership Preparation and Practice (SLPP) Survey to be used as a companion and to enable cross-validation of findings and are included as a survey resource in the Center’s evaluation planner (Orr, Young, & Rorrer, 2010).

Program Features Survey Access and Use

The Program Survey is available to all leadership preparation programs. All leadership preparation programs that field the SLPPS survey are required to complete the Program Features Survey to aid data analysis and reporting. All individual or groups of programs instereted in completing the survey should contact SLPPS@ed.utah.edu

There are three levels of possible data use, each with different access restrictions:

  • individual institution documentation and comparison;
  • groups of institutions’ comparisons;and
  • national comparison and benchmarking.

Individual programs will receive a data file of their survey results. These results may be used for their own reporting and publishing purposes, as governed by their institutional practices for ethical use of data.

Professional regional or state associations of leadership preparation programs may agree to field the survey to compile information on their practices for benchmarking and other comparative purposes.Educational leadership programs at multiple institutions in collaboration with one another and/or affiliations, or associations (e.g., professional regional or state associations of leadership preparation programs) may have access to data for reporting and publishing purposes if terms and agreements for said use are established PRIOR to data collection. Any group of institutions or consortiums interested in fielding the survey together for a combined report should complete the Program Feather Survey consortium consent form.

By participating in the Program Features Survey, leadership preparation programs agree to use of these data by the National Center for the Evaluation of Leadership Preparation and Practice. As part of the administration, the National Center for the Evaluation of Leadership Preparation and Practice will analyze annually the findings from across participating leadership preparation programs. Although a list of participating departments will be generated, findings reported by the National Center will maintain the confidentiality and anonymity of individual programs.

All survey data are maintained confidentially and are limited to restricted use access by authorized researchers affiliated with the National Center for the Evaluation of Leadership Preparation and Practice, which provides coordination of survey administration and support, as well as the cross-case analysis of data from participating leadership preparation programs. No individual leadership preparation program will be identified in any reports. The National Center for the Evaluation of Leadership Preparation and Practice will only report on aggregate findings in which no leadership preparation program is identified. The purpose of these analyses, which will be conducted at regular intervals, such as annually or biennially, will be to provide feedback to the field on normative and outlier practices, and to explore the relationships within and among program features and resources. 

Bottoms, G., O'Neill, K., Fry, B., & Hill, D. (2003). Good principals are the key to successful schools: Six strategies to prepare more good principals. Atlanta, Georgia: Southern Regional Education Board.

Darling-Hammond, L., Meyerson, D., La Pointe, M. M., & Orr, M. T. (2009). Preparing principals for a changing world. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Davis, S., Darling-Hammond, L., Meyerson, D., & LaPointe, M. (2005). Review of research. School leadership study. Developing successful principals. . Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University, Stanford Educational Leadership Institute.

Jackson, B. L., & Kelley, C. (2002). Exceptional and innovative programs in educational leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38(2), 192-212.

Orr, M. T., Young, M. D., & Rorrer, A. (2010). Developing evaluation evidence. Austin, TX: University Council of Educational Administration and National Center for the Evaluation of Educational Leadership Preparation and Practice.