Cohorts are an innovation being employed in many educational leadership programs. To determine faculty perceptions of the advantages and liabilities of this approach, including the potential of cohorts to develop quality school leaders, a large-scale survey of educational leadership program faculty was conducted. The perceptions of both cohort users and nonusers were captured, revealing sharp contrasts in how those embracing or rejecting cohorts view this innovation. Promising lines of future inquiry also are discussed.

The practice of using cohorts in educational leadership programs is examined from conceptual and practical viewpoints. Suggestions for developing cohorts are followed by discussion of the effects of cohorts on students, faculty, educational programs, and systems. Lastly, this paper takes a look at the potential of using the cohort concept as a vehicle for the development of transformational leaders.

This article describes a process of incorporating future school administrators’ value clusters into a university preparation program. The university's role in integrating a values dimension in school administrators’ preparation programs is elucidated. The “Principal's Reflective Experiential Preparation Program” is described, with an emphasis on the use of the “Hall-Tonna Inventory of Values” to ascertain the future administrators’ value clusters as they relate to the individual's leadership classification. It is noted that this process of values and leadership articulation affords clarity regarding the future administrator's philosophical foundations as they relate to educational practice and to the determination of future career decisions. Finally, reflections are given regarding future directions to enhance values integration in administrative preparation programs; such programs are challenged to integrate the candidates’ value clusters—those that energize humans, within programmatic development.

This article describes a process of incorporating future school administrators’ value clusters into a university preparation program. The university's role in integrating a values dimension in school administrators’ preparation programs is elucidated. The “Principal's Reflective Experiential Preparation Program” is described, with an emphasis on the use of the “Hall Tonna Inventory of Values” to ascertain the future administrators’ value clusters as they relate to the individual's leadership classification. It is noted that this process of values and leadership articulation affords clarity regarding the future administrator's philosophical foundations as they relate to educational practice and to the determination of future career decisions. Finally, reflections are given regarding future directions to enhance values integration in administrative preparation programs; such programs are challenged to integrate the candidates’ value clusters—those that energize humans, within programmatic development.

Universities face a major chal lenge as they seek to prepare leaders for tomorrow's schools. It is essential that they move from a focus which perpetuates the sta tus quo to one that promotes educational renewal. Such a direction will require that attention be given to the very nature of how the leader thinks.