Project EXCEL (Excellence in Community Elected and Appointed Leadership) was created in 1990 to provide opportunities for assessing job training and personal development needs of public officials in small and midsized communities, as well as to develop a continuing education program to assist public leaders in professional growth and problem…

The "Leader Effectiveness Index (LEI) is a multirater instrument designed to assess the effectiveness of leadership performance of vocational educators. It consists of seven items. The first six items are statements of six broad tasks (or responsibilities) of a leader in vocational education: (1) inspires shared vision and establishes…

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…

Research indicates that conventional training activities are largely ineffective in bringing about behavior change in such dimensions as leadership, initiative, planning and organization, judgment, independence, and delegation. The Niehoff method is a training and development method that was designed to respond to the adult mode of learning. It is…

This paper considers the nature of the Principal Assessment Center (PAC) innovation, discusses probable reasons for its popularity, and offers a few reflections on some implications of the success of this innovation. The first section considers the origin and nature of principal assessment centers and describes the model used by the Educational…

This paper delineates the organizational structure and operational procedures of the Michigan Institute for Educational Management (MIEM) Assessment Center Program for prospective school principals and assistant principals. The program is part of the Assessment Center Project of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). The…

In a brief introduction, this article calls giving and receiving feedback one of the most important skills a manager can possess, defines feedback, provides examples of giving and receiving feedback, highlights the importance and benefits of good feedback, and directs the reader to nine selected feedback resources on the World Wide Web. The second…

Two approaches to career development are assessment centers--in which simulations of work situations explore an individual's abilities, skills, and personality--and career management, which encourages individuals and employers to look realistically at personalities, competencies, and weaknesses and bring aspirations in line with reality. (SK)

Business undergraduates (n=261) participating in an assessment center simulation were evaluated by graduate students and faculty. Assessor-peer and assessor-self ratings lacked convergent and divergent validity, but self-peer ratings had both. (SK)

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…

General and specific information is offered on integrating community policing and other management philosophies into an organization's selection and promotional testing systems. The concept of community policing is not necessarily a new one for many police organizations, but integrating it fully requires bringing internal support structures into…

This report documents the construct validity and reliability of the Professional Development Inventory (PDI), an assessment center sponsored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). The assessment center provides a means for assessing participants in situations simulating those confronted by principals on the job. The…

This document defines the standards and characteristics of an assessment center. An assessment center consists of a standardized evaluation of behavior based on multiple inputs. Multiple trained observers and techniques are used. Judgments about behavior are made, in part, from specially developed assessment simulations. These judgments are pooled…

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…