Staff in the Center for the Study of Education Policy (CSEP) connected with researchers from Prague, Czech Republic, on Tuesday, September 8, to share strategies and practices for preparing and evaluating leadership preparation programs.
Dr. Lynne Haeffele, Dr. Erika Hunt, Dr. Lisa Hood, Dr. Alicia Haller, and Dr. Mark Hansen connected via Zoom with Věra Motyckova, Barbora Zavadilova, and Lucie Markova, researchers at Teach Live. Lead Live is a two-year training course for school leaders designed on research-based school leadership practices.
The Zoom meeting was initiated when Czech researchers contacted staff at CSEP to learn more about evaluation tools developed and used by CSEP staff to support the redesign work of principal preparation programs in Illinois. The evaluation tools were developed through funding provided by the McCormick Foundation and implemented with support from a U.S. Department of Education School Leadership Program (SLP) grant.
“It was an amazing experience to connect through a Zoom meeting and share strategies and lessons with researchers across the globe doing similar work. Although schools in the Czech Republic may seem very different, we quickly discovered that the leadership challenges in schools are very similar,” said Lynne Haeffele, CSEP director.
“It was heartening to see evidence of the growing recognition that leadership matters and not just in American schools. The Lead Live program is new but based on a promising model. We will definitely stay in touch to monitor its growth and discover what lessons we can learn from the successes and challenges that they are having with their program,” Hood said.
CSEP has received national and international attention for its work redesigning principal preparation programs. This includes numerous write-ups, videos, and awards that can be found on the CSEP website.
