Leadership development programs: investing in school principals

Considering that some university-based principal preparation programmes may not be properly training principals for leadership roles, "grow your own" leadership development programmes have become more popular across the US. This study provides a contribution to previous research in terms of the specific components a district leadership development programme may incorporate into its curriculum in order to positively influence school principals' effectiveness as school leaders. A purposeful sample of second-, third- and fourth-year campus principals working in a large urban school district in the south-west region of the US who had participated in their district's leadership development programme were administered the Principal Effectiveness Survey and participated in semi-structured interviews to examine the influence of the programme on the participants' effectiveness as leaders. Survey results indicated that principals consider training activities related to human capital, executive leadership, school culture and strategic operations as having a "high" influence on their effectiveness as school leaders. In addition, interview data revealed the importance of supervisor support and building relationships with peers as critical to their continued success as leaders.