Unpacking the Foundations of ISLLC Standards and Addressing Concerns in the Academic Community

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the foundations of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium's (ISLLC's) Standards for School Leaders. First, the eight strategies used to develop the Standards are discussed. Second, responses are provided to six broad issues raised by colleagues who have provided critical reviews of the Standards.

Educational Considerations, vol. 40(1) Full Issue

“…Similarly, Murphy (1999) reported a separation and mutual suspicion between AASA and UCEA that reflected the different values and orientations of their respective constituencies. In a personal account of a professor at a nationally acclaimed school of education, who was the only former superintendent on the faculty, Davis (2007, 570-571) noted "a growing sense of disconnection" between the research and practice that he attributed to the "arrogance of academe," the careless consumerism of practitioners, and the gap in journals and language between these two groups.…”

“…Designed as a new foundation from both the academic and practice domains and deliberately left as broad, evolving conceptions (Murphy 2005), these six standards, which each have from three to nine more specific functions, concern a shared vision; effective school culture/curriculum; efficient management; school/ community relations; ethical conduct; and advocacy/responsiveness (CCSSO 2008). More than 40 states use the ISLLC standards as the platform for their certification programs for educational leaders (Roach, Smith, and Boutin 2010;Toye et al 2007).…”

Exceptional Scholarship and Democratic Agendas: Interviews with John Goodlad, John Hoyle, Joseph Murphy, and Thomas Sergiovanni

“…Like the other top leaders (e.g., Hoyle, 2003;Murphy, 2005;Sergiovanni, 2000) and the growing numbers of academics who seek democratic change predicated upon social justice values, Goodlad has long been pushing for school renewal. Unlike school reform, it is not ensnared in means/end outcomes and punitive ideologies leading to corrective courses of action (Goodlad, J.I., 1999).…”

“…The "learning-centered leadership" path was once revolutionary: "It's easy to say now that teaching/learning should be at the center of school administration and that we need learning-centered leaders," but for the profession to "come to some agreement on what we valued," the educational leadership field had to change. Three promising foundations -school improvement, social justice, and democratic community -were erected for this purpose (see Murphy, 2005).…”

Standards-Based Leadership Preparation Program Involvement Through the Use of Portfolio Assessments

“…Several programs have elected to use leadership standards to frame this portfolio structure, initially using the National Policy Board for Educational Administration performance domains (Wilmore & Erlandson, 1995), state leadership standards (Bradshaw et al, 1997), and more recently the six ISLLC standards (Hackmann & Walker, 2001;Harris & Arnold, 2001;McCabe et al, 2000;Stader & Neely, 2001). While the use of the ISLLC standards has become the popular measure for school leadership, the standards are being questioned by some researchers for their narrow focus, and some preparation programs are attempting to assess student performance through a broader lens such as social justice issues (Murphy, 2005;Owings, Kaplan & Nunnery, 2005).…”