Measuring Principals' Content Knowledge of Learning-Centered Leadership

The core challenge facing America’s schools, especially urban schools, is the improvement of students’ opportunities to learn. Such improvement will ultimately depend on improving teaching practice. The available evidence suggests that schools that cultivate particular in-school processes and conditions such as developing a shared vision and instructional norms, taking collective responsibility for students’ academic success, and supporting regular reflective dialogue among staff, create incentives and opportunities for teachers to improve (Purkey & Smith, 1983; Bryk & Driscoll, 1985; Newmann & Wehlage, 1995; Camburn, 1997). School leadership, especially principal leadership, is widely recognized as important in promoting these in-school processes and conditions (Rosenholtz, 1989; Lieberman, Falk, & Alexander, 1994; Louis, Marks, & Kruse, 1996; Sheppard, 1996; Bryk, Camburn, & Louis, 1999). Hence, meeting the excellence and equity challenge in urban schools will depend on school leaders who can effectively lead improvement in instructional practice (Barth, 1986; Leithwood, 1994).

The knowledge base on developing school leadership capacity is thin. While principal preparation and professional development programs are numerous, and new programs frequently appear on the scene, we lack strong empirical evidence about whether and how these programs contribute to improved school leadership practice. We also lack robust empirical evidence about how school leadership practice is connected to teachers’ efforts to improve their teaching and to student achievement. The experimental evidence on principals, their practice, and the effect of principal training programs (either professional development or pre-service) is virtually nonexistent (Camburn et al., 2007).

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