State Assessment for Principal Licensure: Traditional, Transitional, or Transformative? A Policy Brief

In this policy brief we examine the initial licensure process of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and classify each licensure process as traditional, transitional, or transformative, based on criteria suggested by a panel of expert practitioners and university faculty from the field of educational leadership. The expert panel recommended general certification requirements like a teaching certificate, teaching experience, a master's degree, field experiences embedded in principal preparation coursework, and a yearlong internship. The panel suggested a number of specific leadership capacities that should be measured by assessment instruments, calling for the measurement higher-level capacities that integrated knowledge, skills, and dispositions. The experts proposed that assessment instruments be related directly to PSEL and NELP standards, and cautioned the instruments should be equitable. The panel advocated the use of multiple assessment instruments and multiple assessment environments, constructed responses, discussion with assessors, and performance-based assessment. Based on the expert panel's recommendations, we created a set of rubrics to classify state principal licensure processes as traditional, transitional, or transformative across a number of indicators. We reviewed documents on the initial principal licensure process for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and using the rubrics, we classified the certification processes of 24 states as traditional and those of 26 states and the District of Columbia as transitional. Our analysis of state licensure processes is followed by our own recommendations for policy and practice leading to a transformative licensure process.