Chapter 6: Examining The Tension between Localized Bespoke Partnership Educator Administrator Preparation Programs and Centralized Administrator Credentialing

Perceived shortage of principals, increased accountability demands, the changing role of principals, and the growing power of the state over school administration have created a set of challenges for principal certification and licensure (Storey & Johnson, 2017) that have propelled a renewed need for analysis of the role of the state in the certification and licensure of aspiring educational leaders completing “bespoke” administrator preparation programs. The term “bespoke,” traditionally describes an individual— or custom-made product or service. It is applied in this chapter to leadership preparation programs jointly developed by university–school district(s) preparing aspiring principals with the knowledge, experience, and competencies to address challenging local complex problems of practice. Bespoke school leadership preparation programs (urban, suburban, and rural) look at the entire leader development cycle: preparation, licensure, recruitment and hiring, evaluation, development, and support facilitating leadership in buildings and districts. Bespoke school leadership preparation models are aligned to partner district(s) strategic plan and reflect the aspiring principal’s professional learning needs more closely tied to increasing student achievement and growth. Such a program is distinguishable from a localized developed program as it is dynamically proactive due to the frequency of inter partner communication.