The significant effort made to clarify and measure educational leadership essentials has spawned the assessment center concept. This article examines leadership, describes the development of assessment centers in general, and focuses on the National Association of Secondary School Principals' Principal Assessment Center Project to identify and…

The author describes use of a personnel assessment center, a process that identifies managerial potential for purposes of selection, placement, promotion, development, or a combination of these factors. Elements of the process (determining skills to be assessed, evaluating skills, job skills exercises, interview exercises, written exercises) are…

School study councils should explore adopting assessment center technology (ACT) for selection and development of administrators, a process long used by other organizations. A center's assessors identify, measure, and analyze acceptable position performance levels within simulated exercises and managerial skills. (ll endnotes) (CJH)

A model to evaluate educational administrators' instructional leadership skills and behaviors is described in this paper. A review of literature indicates that methodology for assessing instructional leaders is lacking. An evaluation model is presented, which is based on the following stages: (1) interview; (2) evaluation of instructional…

Higher demands on administrators have rendered traditional selection methods less adequate. Many schools have responded by adopting assessment centers to identify administrator qualifications. Previous research and contact with assessment centers through letters, phone calls, and a survey furnished the information for this study. Twenty-five of…

Gender differences were found in the performance of 103 school administrators (74 men and 29 women) participating in the University of Tulsa's Management Development Program assessment center's evaluations. Exercises included an in-basket, two interviews, an oral presentation, and two leaderless group discussions. Women scored higher on the…

Describes the operation of assessment centers for determining administrators' strengths and weaknesses, identifies managerial competencies, and discusses the implications of using assessment center technology in university programs for preparing educational administrators. (PGD)

A national study was conducted to determine the means by which school districts choose principals. The main goals of the study were to describe and characterize both common practices in principal selection and promising alternatives for improvement of common practice. Accordingly, the study was designed in two phases. In phase 1, field research…

The Teacher Training Agency's National Professional Qualification for Headship is a (nearly mandatory) initiative leading to a threshold qualification for headship. This article examines NPQH, contrasting it with recent school management provision history in England and Wales and with international practice. With modifications, NPQH may contribute…

While senior administrators in all educational institutions have highly complex positions and are very expensive to train and replace, human resources departments have always been challenged to find competent administrators that fit well into the organization. Four main variables in the selection process are: the organization's self-awareness of…

Assessment centers, used in business, industry, and government for the selection and development of promising individuals, have been used for school administrator selection only since the mid-1970s. Currently the Assessment Center Project of the National Association of Secondary School Principals is the only one in widespread use. To gather data…

Issues related to the assessment and induction (preparation, recruitment, and selection) of educational administrators are of critical importance because of the never-ending flow of entrants into administration, and because of the complex variables associated with assessment and selection criteria. Accordingly, this monograph traces the…

To determine the criterion-related validity of the Dade County (Florida) Management Assessment Center for the selection of school-level administrators, ratings of 121 school principals, assistant principals, and candidates were correlated with subsequent job performance ratings. The center predicted job performance to a significant degree. (SLD)

The principal plays a crucial role in determining the overall effectiveness of the school; therefore, attention must be focused not only on principal preparation, but also on principal recruitment and selection. Today a greater emphasis is being placed on managerial skills in principal selection, but personal characteristics still exert a heavy…

This ERIC Digest is an overview of the process of recruiting and selecting principals. Criteria for selecting a principal should include problem analysis, organizational ability, decisiveness, effective communication skills, and stress tolerance, along with personal qualities such as dedication, creativity, and enthusiasm. Innovative steps that…