Chapter 2: Preparing Principals for High-Need Rural Schools: Lasting Impact of One District’s Efforts to Transform School Leadership

The Principals Excellence Program, a unique leadership-development initiative for principals and administrator-certified teachers in a high-need rural district, was one of the first projects funded in 2002 through the newly created U.S. Department of Education School Leadership Program. Delivered through a partnership between Pike County Public Schools and the University of Kentucky, the program sought to recruit, develop, and retain a cadre of school leaders to serve as visionary change agents whose ultimate impact would be transformed leadership practice and improved student learning in the district. This chapter presents two assessments of sustained program impact—the first conducted in September 2006 for the summative evaluation required by the funding agency, the second in December 2013 for this publication.