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The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the
Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) and the
Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois
State University (ISU) were honored by the Education
Commission of the States (ECS) at its recent
National Forum on Educational Policy in Washington,
D.C.
Illinois was named winner of the 2014 Frank
Newman Award for State Innovations for the
collaborative implementation of new school principal
preparation and certification standards. The two state
agencies and the ISU education policy center
partnered with stakeholders throughout the state to
redesign the strategy for preparing school principals
through upgraded standards and professional
development.
“In improving our schools, there is little that
matters more than the quality of our principals,” said
Jeremy Anderson, president of ECS. “Illinois’ work
exemplifies what can happen when stakeholders
collaborate in such a critical area.”
Dr. Erika Hunt, senior policy analyst at the ISU
Center, said collaboration was the key to successfully
implementing the new program.
“The ideas for strengthening principal
preparation came directly from the educational
professionals throughout the state,” Hunt said. “This
work is a result of a grassroots effort based on over
five years of planning and input both through formal
state task forces and also planning and feedback by
the field. The Center facilitated and staffed these
meetings, but the success of this work is dependent
on so many people and organizations that
championed the voice of the field and piloted new
approaches for preparing effective principals."
Brad Hutchison, who retired as a school
superintendent last year, was one of the IASA
representatives on the design team and said he
thinks the program will help better prepare
candidates to become effective principals.
“I have witnessed first-hand the benefits of the
redesigned
Principal
Preparation
Program
(PPP). The principal candidates in my class are
eager to become principals, rather than just acquiring
a Type 75 certification for possible use sometime in
the future. It is my belief that students who complete
the PPP will be ready to successfully serve as an
instructional leader of an Illinois school,” said
Hutchison, who now serves as the P-12 Program
Coordinator at ISU. “As a former superintendent of
schools and member of the statewide Principal
Redesign Team, it brings me great joy to know that
the Illinois work on this important topic has been
recognized at the national level.”
The Illinois Education Research Council (IERC)
at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville has been
awarded a two-year $500,000 grant from the Robert
R. McCormick Foundation and a two-year $50,000
grant from the Wallace Foundation that allows the
IERC to conduct an implementation review study of
Illinois’ new policy for redesigning principal
preparation programs, gathering both university and
pre-K through 12
th
grade perspectives. The IERC will
collaborate with the University of Chicago Consortium
on Chicago School Research on this study.
For more information about the program visit:
Illinois wins innovation award for
new principal preparation program
