In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, a Principals' Instructional Leadership Development Project has brought schools closer together and institutionalized a means for principals' development. Principals are exhibiting their leadership by extending their focus from their own schools to educational outcomes in general. (MLF)

Since principals are chiefly responsible for school improvement and effectiveness, professional development opportunities must be provided throughout their administrative careers. Research has identified certain behavior patterns causally related to principals' effectiveness. Since the summer of 1984, the North Central Regional Staff Development…

To address the problem of increasing professional isolation of building administrators, the Principals' Inservice Project helps establish principals' collegial support groups across the nation. The groups are typically composed of 6 to 10 principals who meet at least once each month over a 2-year period. One collegial support group of seven…

Inservice training for school administrators is often characterized as sporadic rather than sustained, as topical rather then developmental, and as externally planned rather than internally developed and controlled. There is little evidence to suggest that much of current inservice activity contributes to significant improvement in administrators'…