0.4 Morrison, m., gosmire, d., & Van osdel, j. (july 2009).  (Page 3/9)

Administrative standards

The current professional standards for educational leadership were developed by the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) in 2002. Member organizations of the ELCC are: American Association of School Administrators (AASA), Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), and the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). The purpose of the standards, which reflect earlier work by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA), is to advance professional standards of educational administration (NPBEA, 2002).

The NPBEA was founded in 1988 by ten associations: The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), American Association of School Administrators (AASA), Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), National Association of Elementary Principals (NAESP), National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA), National School Boards Association (NSBA), University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), and Association of School Business Officers (ASBO) (NPBEA, 2002). One goal of the NPBEA was to develop and advance professional standards for school administrators. Another goal was to develop criteria and standards for administrative training programs. In 1995, the NPBEA standards, “Guidelines for Advanced Programs in Educational Leadership” were approved by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) (NPBEA, 2002). NPBEA ‘s recommendations were “...developed by national associations and regional bodies that described what principals, superintendents, supervisors, and curriculum directors needed to know and be able to do” (NPBEA, p.5).

During the same period, other standards were developed and disseminated by the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLCC). These standards were adopted by many states for licensure of school administrators. The Educational Leadership Constituency Council (ELCC) is responsible for the accreditation of programs in school administration. Murphy (2005) explained the relationship between the ISLCC and ELCC standards.

"To link the important leverage point of accreditation to the goal of reshaping the profession around the vision of leadership embedded in the ISLCC design, the ELCC guidelines were scaffolded directly on the Standards . Indeed the ELCC guidelines are primarily a restatement of the six ISLCC Standards, with the addition of a seventh guideline on the internship (p.155)."

There are seven ELCC Standards and each has multiple elements; however the general topics of each standard, and those used for reporting of data are: Standard 1: Vision; Standard 2: Instructional Leadership; Standard 3: Management; Standard 4: Community Relations; Standard 5: Ethical Leadership; Standard 6: Professional Involvement; and Standard 7: Internship (NPBEA, 2002). However, the new ELCC standards are more than a combination of previous standards. The standards reflect the need and desire to address new conditions and expectations for schools, such as: (a) a global economy, (b) demographic changes, (c) changing expectations for student results, (d) social and family modifications, (e) new technologies, (f) privatization and deregulation, (g) and new leadership and management systems (NPBEA, 2006).