Four Pathways to Prepare Aspiring School Leaders

By Tim Cusack Ed.D & Vince Bustamante, Ed.D

There’s a tremendous need to attract more aspiring leaders into school leadership! The question is: how do we do this? When it comes to nurturing future educators, there are four key pathways that can help guide them on their leadership journey. By attending to leadership standards, culture, leadership experiences, and mastery experiences, you can create the conditions for aspiring leaders in your learning community with the skill, will, and thrill needed to experience success in school leadership.?

Mentorship and coaching are key to the development of aspiring school leaders.

Raise the Bar on Leadership Standards

Leadership standards may be the “mother” of all roots for leadership development. The important thing is that you consistently and wholly use the standards as they are the root from which all assistant principals’ foundational knowledge develops.

Create a Culture for Implementation

By determining the dispositions and strengths aspiring leaders bring with them, you can better understand how they can complement existing leadership at your site. This will lead to what is considered an “optimum learning environment,” that has a certain “feel”: a culture conducive to risk-taking, candor, and trust.

Plan Guided Leadership Experiences

Mentorship and coaching are key to the development of aspiring school leaders. While many school authorities offer a range of support intended for the mentoring of new school leaders, including professional learning consortia or professional associations and organizations, only a few focus solely on the development of leaders. Influenced by Social Cognitive Learning Theory, and through the creation of vicarious leadership experiences, jurisdictions can better equip their principals in supporting the mentoring of leaders.

Attain Mastery Experiences

Through the establishment of high impact experiential-based learning opportunities, aspiring principals will have greater exposure to unique leadership opportunities that are generally reserved for principals themselves. Whether modeled for them, or whether they have had time to participate in them alongside leaders, the next step is for current principals to provide space for them to take the lead by designing mastery experiences.?