ETSU was chosen as one of five universities by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) to participate in a 3-year program aimed at redefining how K-12 school leaders are trained.
Chosen from among 60 applicants, ETSU along with Clemson, North Texas State, Oklahoma State and Jackson State University will partner with the Atlanta-based SREB in the innovative University Leadership Development Network.
“The competition was stiff,” said Mark Musick, president of SREB. “Consider this as both a feather in your cap and as a leadership flag that has been handed to you.”
Funded by Wallace Reader’s Digest, the network was created to spearhead the movement to fundamentally change the training of school administrators in the midst of increasingly higher state education standards.
“The real problem is that recruitment, preparation and professional development programs for educators who want to become leaders are out of sync with our scaled-up expectations,” reports the SREB.
The problem is exacerbated by the imminent retirement of about 32,000 principals, 40 percent of school leadership and almost half of the superintendents within the SREB system who will reach retirement eligibility by 2005.
“We know we’ve got to revise drastically the way we prepare administrators,” said Dr. Ron Lindahl, chairman of ETSU’s department of educational leadership and policy analysis. “The Southern Regional Education Board has challenged us. . . through this grant opportunity to make full revision on the way administrators are prepared for public schools, and we’re very excited about that.”
When asked what the program will look like, Lindahl said, “We don’t have a clue,” but stated that ETSU would work “hand-in-glove” with regional public schools to develop the program’s particulars.
Lindahl did say that several components “proven to help better prepare administrators” would be integrated into the program.
One such component is “tapping” or encouraging public schools to take a proactive role in the pre-selection of administrators by evaluating and choosing from “their best and brightest” teachers who exhibit potential for stellar leadership.
Another change expected to take place is an emphasis on studies in curriculum and instruction.
Educational leadership students can also anticipate spending more time in public schools where they will be given “legitimate responsibilities as administrators or quasi-administrators” as the program moves from coursework-based to field-based.
“We want to turn out teachers and administrators that will engage students in the present and future,” said ETSU President Dr. Paul E. Stanton. “If we can engage students now, they will live as engaged citizens … and we look forward to delivering that product.

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