ABSTRACT
Beginning administrators often characterize their academic preparation as insufficient for dealing with the hard-hitting realities of the job, including the practical knowledge required for success (e.g., Llewellyn, 2004; Mullen & Cairns, 2001; Paquette, 2004). Transitional leaders within their first 3 years on the job in Florida’s public schools have confirmed this general observation, commenting, ‘”My graduate program prepared me well, but then each school specializes in so many different things that there’s always a huge learning curve,”’ and “’My experience as an AP [assistant principal] prepared me tremendously, but it is still a learning curve once you get into the job’” (Mullen, 2004a, p. 91). Our own administrator-interviewees also, predictably, experienced accelerated learning. In a study of early-career principals, learning curve refers to both the experience of having to quickly learn a new job or role, as well as “the projected knowledge base needed for learning a new set of skills” within the context of an “escalated growth cycle” (Mullen, 2004a, p. 91).
