| Researchers are continually examining public schools in the United States to determine what makes an effective school. Research in the last decade has shown the critical role the school leader has in creating a school culture that promotes improved student achievement. During the past decade national standards have been developed for the preparation of school leaders. High-performing schools have effective school leaders. Successful school leaders emerge from quality school leadership preparation programs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of educational leadership graduates in their ability to lead based on their educational leadership graduate preparation program. Additionally, this study sought to determine if there were any differences amongst programs, gender, or minorities in the graduates' perceptions.; The researcher surveyed 168 graduates from a Catholic university's educational leadership, management and policy graduate preparation program. The survey was comprised of current employment, demographics, assessment of graduate experience and open-ended questions. The graduate assessment statements were based on the ISLLC Standards and rated using a Likert scale. Analysis of the data revealed that, as a whole, 93% of respondents agreed that their educational leadership, management, and policy graduate preparation program had adequately prepared them to be effective school leaders.; This research provides a look at one Catholic university's educational leadership, management, and policy graduate program. Faced with an impending school leadership shortage, school leadership preparation programs have been restructured. These reforms have led to updates and improvements in the preparation of school leaders. The results from this study can add to the body of literature to show that high quality school leadership preparation programs exist. |
