ABSTRACT
As universities, school districts, and other committed partners work together to improve school leader preparation, scholars and practitioners should be clear about the goals they intend to pursue in helping leadership candidates achieve. To build the capacity of leadership candidates to assume second-order change responsibilities, programs must consider new approaches, interactions, and experiences that have a substantial likelihood of helping leaders develop the critical knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed. Universities, in partnership with districts and other partners, must strive to perfectly design a system of school leadership preparation that supports the attainment of educational excellence and equity in schools. The chapter concludes with a major source of frustration derives from profession's tendency to equip leaders with tools that might be helpful for tinkering with small refinements to practices, while societal expectations for student learning are growing substantially, at the same time the diversity of the children and families served by schools pose great challenges and opportunities.
