The Role of Candidate Assessment within Educational Leadership Doctoral Programs

Abstract

Contemporary efforts to reform educational leadership preparation programs span more than three decades. As scholars have chronicled this critical examination of leadership practice and preparation, they have also proposed new directions, addressing the very fundamentals of preparation program design, including student selection, content, pedagogy, field-based learning, and assessment. This article reports findings from a larger national survey of doctoral-level educational leadership programs (n = 103) and is descriptive of assessment activities that are embedded in EdD and PhD leadership programs. Implications of findings and avenues for future research and development in the areas of student assessment are discussed.