CHAPTER V

SCENARIO, CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS,

AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.

—John F. Kennedy, July 4, 1960

Research questions were developed to investigate and compare supervisors' assessments of traditionally certified site administrators and administrators certified via examination in Riverside County, California, on leadership performance as measured by the ISLLC Standards for School Leaders. The six standards for school leaders address shared vision, school culture, management, collaboration, professional ethics and community advocating. Demographic data were collected from each participant in addition to data on each research question. The final chapter presents a summary of the research. The first section presents a job posting and hiring scenario followed by the major findings, implications, and conclusions. The final section includes recommendations for further research.

Scenario

The following job posting is representative of the qualifications and skills required of site administrator applicants in Riverside County. School districts are seeking highly qualified candidates with appropriate certification, previous teaching, and administrative experience, a master's degree or higher, and ability to effectively demonstrate each of the six ISLLC Standards for School Leaders.

JOB POSTING:

XYZ Unified School District Southwest Riverside County ** ADA 32,200 (K-12)
The XYZ School District is seeking dynamic individuals who:
Have the ability to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to develop a shared vision to improve student achievement. (Standard 1 and 4) Are highly skilled in the areas of communication and interpersonal skills. (Standard 3) Are committed to academic excellence while facilitating learning communities. (Standard 2 and 4) Have an exemplary professional reputation and work ethic. (Standard 5) Have a strong commitment to collaborative problem solving and working as a team. (Standard 4) Have an understanding of the importance of treating individuals with dignity and respect. (Standard 2) Have a comprehensive knowledge of law, regulations, and procedures. (Standard 3) Are willing to seek out innovative ideas which increase student achievement. (Standard 2) Are willing to work with diverse communities. (Standard 6)
PRINCIPAL, Sample Middle School Salary: $109,724 to $123,496 (Excellent Fringe Benefits Package) PLUS: $1,200 Doctoral Stipend- 216 days Effective Starting Date: July 1, 2008
Qualifications: Valid CA Administrative Services and Teaching Credentials Minimum (2) Years Successful Administrative Experience Minimum (4) Years Successful Teaching Experience Master's Degree Required/Doctorate Desirable

Site Administrator Applicants

The following applicants represent profiles of a traditionally certified site administrator and a site administrator certified via examination who would be likely to apply for current job openings (Table 35). Profile information is based on the demographic and personal characteristics of participants found in this study. Either means or highest percentages observed for each characteristic are reported.

Table 35

Site Administrator Profiles: Traditionally Trained and Certified Via Examination

Applicant A	Applicant B
Gender	Male	Male
Ethnicity	White	White
Years in current district	9 years	5.5 years
Years in education	10.5 years	15 years
Years experience as an administrator	3 years	2.5 years
Education	Master's +30	Master's +30

Conclusions and Implications

Whom Would You Hire?

Without knowing each of the above candidates’ certification route, how would you decide who to hire?

With today's high-stakes accountability, hiring the best candidates to lead our schools is increasingly important. Traditionally, school districts review a candidate's education, credentials, and experience during the initial screening process. Typically, in California, school districts require a candidate for a site administrator position to have a minimum number of years of teaching experience (3-5 years), hold or be eligible for a credential authorizing service as an administrator, and prefer or require a candidate to hold a master's degree. Some positions may also require previous site administrative experience. Since the SLLA has been offered, some districts have started to include additional language specifying "all courses leading to the administrative credential required" or "coursework leading to the administrative credential preferred." These statements indicate a preference for traditionally trained site administrators. Jensen's (2005) study also revealed a hiring bias against school administrators certified via examination. School district personnel assume that those certified via examination come to a site administrative position with fewer of the requisite qualifications than those traditionally trained. These biases do little to promote the efficacy of the SLLA as a means to help with the current administrator shortage by increasing the pool of administrator candidates.

Who Are These People?

Although research provides educators with a typical site administrator profile in California, no research has been conducted to establish a profile of site administrators certified via examination. The current study provides information regarding site administrators' demographic and personal characteristics including gender, ethnicity, years of experience in education, and education level. The previous hypothetical applicants (Table 35) represent the profile of traditionally trained site administrators (Candidate A) and administrators certified via examination (Candidate B) found in this study.

The data revealed that both traditionally trained site administrators and those certified via examination were typically White, 65.2% and 72.7% respectively, and 61.8% of all site administrators were male, 38.2% female. Interestingly, statewide, males typically hold 41% of administrative positions and females 59% (CDE, 2008b). Additionally, in 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, females represented 63.3% of the candidates who took and passed the SLLA compared to males who represented 33.6% (CCTC, 2006), thus creating a larger pool of female site administrators certified via examination. Therefore, it would be expected the site administrators certified via examination identified would tend to be female. However, this may not be observed because females tend to obtain elementary administrative positions (Pounder et al., 2003) in contrast to the current findings that revealed site administrators certified via examination tend to hold secondary administrative positions.

The data showed that site administrators certified via examination had many years of experience, with 14.73 years of experience in education on average, whereas traditionally trained site administrators had 10.57 years. Therefore, site administrators certified via examination had 4.16 more years of experience in education on average than their traditionally trained counterparts. These findings imply that highly experienced teachers are pursuing the role of site administrator via examination and have well above the minimum 3 to 5 years of teaching experience required for most administrative positions. Further, although assumed by some district personnel, those new to the field of administration are not accessing the certification via testing route as a means to take a shortcut to leadership preparation (Jensen, 2005).

In this study, site administrators certified via examination also reported high levels of education with 90.91% holding a master's degree plus an additional 30 units of coursework. Only 65.22% of traditionally trained site administrators held the same level of education or higher. Site administrators certified via examination overwhelmingly held a master's degree; however, the master's degree may not have been earned in school administration. Site administrators certified via examination may hold master's degrees in curriculum and instruction, instructional leadership, teaching, cross-cultural teaching or other fields. These educational backgrounds, although not specifically educational administration, may provide some of the necessary background knowledge and skills needed to serve as a site administrator. Specifically in the area of curriculum and instruction, the knowledge obtained through coursework in this area may contribute to a site administrator's ability to serve as an instructional leader.

It is evident that site administrators certified via examination in this study function at very high levels of the profession. Many site administrators certified via examination may be veteran teachers who may not have the time, money, or desire to be away from their families in order to go back to school to take the required coursework in school administration. Typically a program in school administration consists of 27 units of coursework for the credential only and 39 units for a master's degree in school administration. Programs can take anywhere between 1 and 2 years to complete and cost between $5,921 at a state university and $15,390 for an online private university. In comparison, the SLLA is a 6-hour exam with a fee of $425, substantially both less time and money than pursuing certification through the traditional route. Additionally, only 4% of principals cited their university training as the most valuable source of preparation for their current position (Farkas et al., 2003). These factors may discourage candidates who demonstrate the characteristics, abilities, and experience to be successful site administrators from pursuing the traditional certification route. The SLLA, certification via testing route, serves to bridge the gap for teachers with something to offer and wishing to immediately pursue a career in school administration without the loss of time and money.

With experience and education being two of the primary prerequisites for a position in site administration, these findings call into question the assumptions being made by some district superintendents and human resource personnel regarding school administrators certified via examination. It is concluded that districts should be proactive in their identification of teachers within their organization with high levels of teaching experience and education that have the desire to enter school administration in order to encourage them to become certified via examination. This conclusion implies that districts, local universities, and professional organizations should also provide training for these candidates either prior to them assuming their first administrative position or concurrently upon hire.

What Positions Do They Hold?

Differences were also observed among the levels of schools served and positions held. Traditionally trained site administrators in this study tended to serve in elementary (47.8%) and middle or junior high schools (39.1%), whereas school site administrators certified via examination predominately served middle or junior high schools (45.5%) and high schools (36.4%). This suggests that the certification via examination route may be providing additional candidates to serve schools the literature reports are the hardest administrative vacancies to fill, secondary schools (Pounder et al., 2003).

There were also differences noted in the positions held by traditionally trained site administrators and those certified via examination. Traditionally trained site administrators in this study were more likely to be serving as a principal (43.5%) than administrators certified via examination (18.2%). The reverse is true for assistant/vice principal positions. Site administrators certified via examination were found to hold an assistant/vice principals position 72.7% of the time, whereas traditionally trained site administrators held the position 52.2% of the time. These findings could be explained by the fact that site administrators certified via examination tend to serve in secondary schools. There are fewer principalships at the secondary level with only 139 secondary schools in Riverside County compared to 265 elementary schools.

The implications of the above findings are that some school districts may be unnecessarily excluding a very experienced, highly educated group of aspiring site administrators who are willing to assume positions in hard-to-fill secondary schools through their hiring practices. Assumptions about site administrator candidates should not be made without empirical evidence certification route contributes to the effectiveness as a site administrator. In fact, in hard-to-fill positions or as administrative shortages become more prevalent, districts should be proactive in identifying and targeting talented teachers within their organizations and encourage them to become certified via examination. Additionally, districts, local universities, or professional organizations should also provide training for these candidates either prior to assuming their first administrative position or concurrently upon hire. Lastly, site administrative candidates certified via examination should make themselves aware of the positions they may be most likely to obtain (secondary administrative positions) when seeking out their first administrative employment and gain knowledge and experience at the secondary level.

How Well Do They Perform?

Another assumption often subscribed to is that the best way to become a good school administrator is by going to a graduate school in school administration. This assumption was tested in the current study. Traditionally trained site administrators and those certified via examination were rated by their supervisors on 30 performance indicators representing each of the six ISLLC Standards for School Leaders including shared vision, school culture, management, collaboration, professional ethics, and community advocating. Traditionally trained site administrators and administrators certified via examination overwhelmingly were ranked "highly effective" or "effective" in this study. Further, no administrators, regardless of certification route were rated "highly ineffective." Upon comparison, no significant differences were found for any of the 30 performance indicators. Although not statistically significant, site administrators certified via examination rated higher on all performance indicators of Standard 5, Professional Ethics. Certification route did not impact administrative performance on the standards for school leaders in this study. Site administrators certified via examination demonstrated as high of levels of performance on each of the six standards for school leaders and brought to the table skills and knowledge as valuable as their traditionally trained counterparts.

The above findings have several implications. First, it calls into question whether graduate training in school administration makes the difference in the effectiveness of site administrators or might there be other dispositions, characteristics, and experiences that contribute to effective leadership. A previous study by Tucker and Codding (2002) argued that, even at elite educational administration programs, "there is typically very little connection between the curriculum taught and actual demands, conditions, and problems of everyday practice" (p. 13). This could explain the lack of significant differences on the performance indicators observed in the current study, as each of the site administrators reported over 2 years of actual "hands-on" administrative experience. It is assumed that both traditionally trained site administrators and administrators certified via examination gained substantial knowledge, experience, and skills during their years of previous experience which would have contributed to their high levels of performance on the standards for school leaders. Further, site administrators may have received additional training related to their positions once they secured their first administrative positions either provided through their districts or through local universities. In this case, it is concluded that graduate school administration programs and school districts should identify those characteristics and dispositions of successful administrators in order to recruit potential school administration candidates and provide them with the experiences and education that will contribute to them being effective on the standards for school leaders.

The lack of significant differences found in this study between traditionally trained site administrators and administrators certified via examination on any of the 30 performance indicators suggests that school districts may want to reconsider their hiring practices and eliminate the requirement a credential be earned through coursework as an unnecessary barrier to employment. This barrier may be limiting the hiring pool and may be turning away otherwise highly qualified and effective future school leaders. Additionally, school districts may consider being proactive in identifying those individuals serving in the teaching ranks that exhibit leadership potential and encourage them to become certified via examination. This would enable districts to work closely with aspiring site administrators currently serving in the teaching ranks and provide mentoring, practical experience, and knowledge of district operations and procedures. This support and training could be provided through district-based leadership academies, local universities, or professional organizations.

Summary

Leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school (Waters et al., 2003). Finding highly qualified school leaders is becoming increasingly more difficult in the state of California. Site administrator shortages across the country are becoming a reality as large numbers of veteran school administrators are nearing or have entered retirement. To combat this shortage, some states have turned to alternative routes of certification to increase site administrator candidate pools. Specifically, California offers an option for candidates to become certified via examination and forego traditional coursework in school administration. This has been met with mixed reviews.

Although the certification via examination option has produced candidates for administrative positions over the last 5 years, bias against candidates certified via examination exists among the highest levels of school district personnel and is evident in many districts' hiring practices. The assumptions made are the examination is a "shortcut" and candidates certified via examination come to the profession with fewer of the prerequisite abilities, skills, and experience of those trained traditionally through graduate coursework in school administration. These assumptions are reducing the ability of districts to hire the best candidates that may be available regardless of certification route. Consequently, some schools are being led by ineffective leaders, which can have disastrous consequences for the students they serve. Unfortunately, these assumptions and biases in hiring practices persist despite the fact the current study found the assumptions to be grossly inaccurate.

This study found that site administrators certified via examination are not new to the profession and have more years of education experience and graduate education than their traditionally trained counterparts. Further, this study found no significant differences in assessed performance of traditionally trained site administrators and administrators certified via examination on the standards for school leaders. Site administrators certified via examination are effective administrators with a wealth of abilities and skills and demonstrate innate leadership characteristics. Candidates certified via examination should be considered without bias for any administrative opening in the state of California.

Although districts may have a sufficient number of applicants for each administrative opening, many districts report that it is difficult to find the candidate they want to hire (i.e., they hired, but were less than pleased or they reopened the position) (Kerrins et al., 2001). In order to avoid hiring site administrators who completed school administration coursework, but may be ineffective, school districts need to look beyond the traditional ways (online job postings, flyers, and local universities) of finding school administrative applicants.

School districts need to be proactive in identifying and nurturing those individuals serving in their teaching ranks that they know are experienced, highly educated, and exhibit innate leadership characteristics in order to encourage these individuals to gain certification via examination and fill administrative openings. This approach will enable districts to target aspiring site administrators currently serving in the teaching ranks and work closely with them to provide mentoring, practical experience, and knowledge of district operations and procedures in preparation for an administrative position. In turn, an immediate, perpetual pool of highly qualified candidates will be created in which to hire from rather than being limited to candidates the district has no prior knowledge of.

Recommendations for Further Research

The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare supervisors' assessments of traditionally certified site administrators and administrators certified via examination on leadership performance as measured by the ISLLC Standards for School Leaders. Based on the findings, the recommendations for further research are as follows:

Conduct a replication study with traditionally trained site administrators and administrators certified via examination from other counties and districts within the state of California.

Conduct a study to identify the dispositions and characteristics of successful site administrators in order to develop a profile for identifying potential administrative candidates within school districts.

Conduct a study to explore the educational backgrounds and experience of traditionally certified site administrators and administrators certified via examination.

Conduct a study to explore the motivations and barriers to employment of site administrators certified via examination.

Conduct a study to explore the actual employment rates of site administrators certified via examination.

Conduct a study to explore the types of schools traditionally trained site administrators and administrators certified via examination serve.

Conduct a study to determine if the type of administrative certification influences the effectiveness of the school based on state and national performance standards.