Chapter 3: Principal Succession Planning: How One School District Successfully Improves the Quality and Quantity of Principal Candidates

American school systems face the daunting challenge of recruiting and preparing quality candidates for the demands of the secondary principalship. In a time when qualified principal candidates are difficult to find, school districts are beginning to develop district lemvel “grow your own” principal preparation programs. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of one school district’s secondary “grow your own” principal preparation program. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to collect and analyze data for this study. Daniel Stufflebeam’s context, input, process, product model of evaluation was used to formulate 6 research questions to guide the research. The findings indicated that the secondary leadership development program increased the quantity of principal candidates within the school district, was cost effective, and participants of the program perceived themselves to have moderately high levels of leadership behaviors. The program did help participants understand the administrative culture of the school system. Inconsistencies were found with the implementation of the program’s components which required a more collaborative, systematic approach to address. The scope of the program, access to executive staff members, cohort groups of study, and the developmental team meeting were identified as strengths of the program. The content of monthly seminars, communication between the program and stakeholders, and the professional development team meetings were identified as areas of the program that needed to be improved.