Increasing School Leader Diversity in a Social Justice Context: Revisiting Strategies for Leadership Preparation Programs

To meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, leadership preparation programs must tackle the mutually-reinforcing goals of increasing the development of leaders from under-represented populations and cultivating culturally responsive leadership. This paper adds to the discussion of how best to improve leadership preparation by drawing on the literature related to equity in the leadership pipeline, and social justice and culturally responsive leadership frameworks, to examine one university-based leadership preparation program, highlighting the program's recent external partnership focused on increasing Black and Latinx administrators across the state and improving school leaders' cultural responsiveness.

As the trends continue in our country's schools toward a changing and more racially and ethnically diverse student population (Passel & Cohn, [60]; U.S. Census, [68]), those who train and prepare educators and leaders have a crucial role to play in meeting the moment. Predictions for non-Hispanic whites becoming a minority in the U.S. population have circulated for decades and California reached that status by 2014, along with nearly 300 counties around the country as of 2018 (Krogstad, [48]; Panzar, [58]). While California is often the harbinger of shifts that reverberate across the country, the state nonetheless maintains a stark contrast between the demographic composition of the students in our schools and those chosen to educate them. Almost 78% of California public school students identify as students of color, while only about 40% of teachers (California Department of Education [CDE], [11]) and approximately 34% of administrators identify as educators of color (Levin & Bradley, [50]; U.S. Department of Education, [69]). Furthermore, in the face of persistent and potentially increasing academic disparities in student outcomes (Carter & Reardon, [15]; Reardon, [64]), the need to better prepare teachers and leaders to mitigate these inequities among students is ever more pressing. Developing an educator and leadership workforce to be more reflective of the student population, and also better-prepared to address the many and diverse needs of that student population, is the expansive and challenging roadmap that leadership preparation programs have in front of them.

Research and practitioner experience , reinforce the idea that school leaders play a critical role in improving schools, second only to good teaching, in large part because school leaders are well-positioned to foster a positive school culture, to set the academic vision, and to drive the quality of professional development and coherence of programs (Bryk et al., [9]; Leithwood et al., [49]; Louis et al., [53]). Empowering teacher leaders to develop a safe and rigorous learning climate may be one of the most significant roles that principals serve (Sebastian et al., [66]) and racially and ethnically diverse leaders are particularly important in setting this learning environment in schools with increasingly racially and ethnically diverse staffs and student bodies.

Some research indicates that principals of color may be more apt to increase the diversity of the teaching force and improve working conditions for teachers of color; for example, by hiring or empowering more teachers of color to take on leadership positions or by sustaining less turnover of teachers of color than their counterparts (Bartanen & Grissom, [4]; Grissom & Keiser, [40]; Myung et al., [56]). Some emerging research suggests that schools with administrators of color may experience better student outcomes for students of color – for example, African American students experiencing higher achievement in schools with African American principals (Bartanen & Grissom, [4]) and students overall experiencing better outcomes in schools with African American or Latinx principals (Kress et al., [47]). However, more research is needed to examine whether these benefits are consistent across student subgroups and intersectional subgroups, regions, and over time.

Additionally, a growing body of research on the student-teacher racial or ethnic match has begun to suggest similar positive effects on achievement, behavior, and academic perceptions and attitudes, though we also do not know enough about how consistent these effects are across subgroups, context, and time (Dee, [30]; Egalite, Kisida, & Winters, [33] Egalite & Kisida, [32]; Gershenson, et al., [37] Gottfried et al., [39]; Holt & Gershenson, [43]; Redding, [65]). Some of the student-teacher race match research has examined what researchers have termed the passive effects (e.g., by serving as a role model or by reducing students' experience of stereotype threat) or the active effects of the match, such as bias in teacher expectations, interactions, or assessments (Dee, [31]; Ouazad, [57]). So, too, must we continue to explore the underlying passive or active dynamics at work in schools with administrators of color, and further examine whether different student subgroups benefit differentially from diversifying the administrator workforce. Moreover, if administrators of color facilitate a more diverse teaching force, and those teachers of color are supporting the positive outcomes of students with whom they match on race or ethnicity, then administrators of color could, in theory, have multiple layers of promising effects for students of color.

Much is still unknown about which strategies and conditions best mitigate or exacerbate barriers that leaders of color face in accessing, and advancing along, the pipeline. Culturally responsive leadership frameworks emphasize the importance of examining and challenging aspects in the system, community, school, or individual levels that serve to marginalize students of color, by engaging in individual and organizational critical dialogue and self-reflection (Barakat et al., [3]; Gooden & Dantley, [38]; Khalifa et al., [46]). Still, more information is needed on how best to put these culturally responsive leadership frameworks into practice effectively in leadership preparation programs and how to infuse social justice throughout the preparation process. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on one university-based preparation program that is grounded in social justice and culturally responsive leadership preparation principles (Barakat et al., [3]; Black & Murtadha, [5]; Capper et al., [14]; Khalifa et al., [46]), while also considering potential equity potholes on the path to leadership.

The leadership preparation program examined here is situated in a metropolitan city in Southern California, where the demographics roughly match the diversity in the state, with just slightly more Black and Latinx residents than the state as a whole; in other words, the program sits in a community with substantial racial and ethnic diversity. The leadership program is also embedded in a private university with an explicit social justice mission and Jesuit tradition, with an emphasis on service to others, transformation through action, challenging of the status quo, uplifting the voices of – and walking humbly and collaboratively with – those who are marginalized (Ellacuria, [34]). Within the university, the leadership program is housed in the leadership department of the school of education, both of which reinforce the university's social justice mission and have at their core, explicit aims to develop culturally responsive leaders and change agents and to improve access to the leadership pipeline for marginalized populations.

We consider this leadership preparation program because the context within which it sits should be conducive to meeting the demand for a more racially and ethnically diverse leadership workforce and to develop leaders driven by social justice principles and prepared in cultural responsiveness. In addition, the school leadership program is unique in that it incorporates tailored programs for administrative positions across sectors, including public, private, charter, and Catholic schools. Moreoever, the program and the fellowship that deepens and extends the reach of the program are both designed and led by educational leaders of color. Several of the coauthors lead and/or teach in the program or lead the fellowship work, which allows us a window into the design and implementation process; at least one coauthor does not teach in either program, which provides an arm's distance view of the program as well.

The school leadership program is guided by three main tenets: (1) Social Justice and Cultural Responsiveness; (2) Learning through Praxis; and (3) Commitment to the Whole Student. These tenets draw on the social justice goals that drive the mission of the university and the school of education; the department's cultivation of practitioner-scholars oriented toward transformation through action; and the program's focus on developing culturally responsive leaders drawing on Jesuit traditions as well, of educating through respect, ethical practice, a commitment to the education of the whole person, the promotion of service to others, and a commitment to striving toward justice for all, particularly those who are marginalized.[1]

In the past year, the university preparation program launched a collaborative fellowship program with a statewide nonprofit whose aim is to improve student outcomes for Black and Latinx students in the state by increasing the number of Black and Latinx school administrators and improving cultural competence and responsiveness of school leaders. The jointly-developed, cohort-based fellowship program is meant to provide aspiring and rising Black and Latinx school leaders in California with an empowering leadership experience through the lens of Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CSRL), one intended to enable fellows to facilitate transformative change and expand and deepen their impact within their school community. The program is designed with opportunities, for example, to explore how their own cultural identity affects their leadership and how systemic and structural racism have impacted them and their service to students and families.

We start with the premise that an educator's journey to the principalship is likely influenced at many points along their life path, even before becoming a teacher. While we cannot give full treatment to the chronologically prior moments that shape educators' earlier lives and the societal factors and dynamics that led to their becoming educators, we recognize that inequities in students' K-12 educational experiences can contribute to disparities in attainment (high school graduation, college-going), which can then influence the population eligible to become teachers (Cowan, et al., [24]) and the supply (or shortage) of teachers (Ingersoll, [45] Podolsky & Sutcher, [63]; Sutcher, et al., [67]). Once in the classroom, teachers' experiences in the classroom and their prior preparation may shape who remains in the profession and makes up the pool of potential administrators, and whether they choose to enter the principal pathway (Boser, [8]; Carver-Thomas & Darling Hammond, [16]; Clotfelter, Ladd, Vigdor, [20]; Hill, et al., [42] Ingersoll, et al., [44]). In contexts experiencing Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the leadership preparation field may each choose different points along this school leadership trajectory to intervene. Preparing the next generation of school leaders in a comprehensive way will necessitate a simultaneous focus on addressing current cracks in the pipeline and disparities in the supply chain of eligible educators, while acknowledging the earlier academic disparities and social inequities that produce those disparities, as well as instilling in educators and leaders a deeper understanding of how to meet and support the diverse needs and cultural experiences of students in their communities.

Like a majority of states, California requires that school leader candidates have at least five years of full-time teaching or other credentialed professional experience (e.g., school librarian, counseling, or health services) by the time they receive their administrative credential, and that they complete a state-accredited leadership training (or intern) program (CTC, [22]; S. Davis et al., [28]). In addition, in 2013, following similar trends in other states, the CTC incorporated the requirement of a passing score on a performance-based assessment, the California Administrator Performance Assessment, or CalAPA, which preliminary administrative credential candidates would complete during their professional preparation programs. The assessment calls on candidates to identify and address inequities, through careful analysis of equity gaps at their own school site, and to develop and implement strategies for addressing those disparities. The state's required performance assessment content further reinforces the call to focus leadership preparation on equity and social justice concepts.

Research on performance assessments for principal licensure is limited, but some recent research has suggested that standardized exams for principal licensure may be biased against candidates of color (Grissom et al., [41]) and disparities in passing rates of teacher candidates on licensure exams has been duly noted (National Research Council, [1]). Given the gate-keeping nature of this current assessment within California's licensure context, leadership preparation programs and state agencies charged with overseeing credentialing must be vigilant in monitoring passing rates for disparities, and programs need to ensure that all candidates have the tailored support they need to succeed on this performance assessment.

To improve the supply of qualified administrative candidates, some states and districts have also instituted partnerships with universities or internship programs or provided alternative pathways or fast-track options to the administrative credential program, i.e., through an assessment or series of assessments, rather than a university-based credentialing program (Cambron-McCabe & McCarthy, [12]). California implemented such an alternative to completing a credentialing program in 2011, where prospective administrators are able to take the California Preliminary Administrative Credential Examination, or CPACE. The CPACE assesses examinees on content and performance aspects, to measure "standards-relevant knowledge necessary for competent professional practice" (CTC, [23][23]). Only a limited number of educators take this alternative pathway to school leadership (roughly 6,500 examinees since 2011), and thus far the evidence is not sufficient or clear as to whether the exam has helped to encourage more diverse candidates than traditional programs (at least in term of racial and ethnic demographics). Additional attention to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of educators flowing through this alternative pathway will be important, too, if this were to become a significant alternative avenue to leadership preparation programs for under-represented administrative candidates.

The program examined in this article operates within this state licensure context. Below, we discuss key steps along the path to leadership and the ways that program strategies can be more responsive to the obstacles that present at each stage and more responsive to the needs of the students as well as educators. Specifically, the next sections will address three stages: 1) before a candidate enters a leadership preparation program, as a teacher, and the recruitment and admissions strategies that may be useful in removing potential entry barriers; 2) while a candidate is in a leadership preparation program and the curricular and instructional strategies that may support candidates of color and prepare them to respond to the diversity of the students they serve; and 3) after program completion, and the supports that may improve placement and retention, particularly of principals of color.

In order for candidates to engage in any well-designed leadership preparation program, candidates must first decide they want to enter and then gain entry into the leadership pipeline. In order to meet the goals of increasing the diversity of the school leader workforce, leadership programs must pro-actively seek out and invite a diverse set of teacher leaders into the pipeline and help them to overcome barriers to entry and completion. Understanding the facilitating factors and obstacles to considering administrative positions is one step in that direction. Policies and practices of leadership preparation programs around recruitment, admissions, and financial aid are a potentially impactful piece of the puzzle in addressing potential roadblocks.

Just as the cost of post-secondary education at the undergraduate level can disproportionately impact low-income and under-represented youth (Cahalan et al., [10]; Castleman & Long, [17]), developing affordable programs and providing financial aid to under-represented candidates must similarly be a critical piece of the recruitment and admissions approach for educational leadership graduate or certificate programs. Some national organizations, such as the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), have advocated for state and federal government scholarships, loans, or tax breaks for educators who complete their administrative credential, especially those who serve in high need schools (Castro et al., [18]); similar federal and state financial support could help to incentivize administrative credential completion for certain subpopulations to more adequately reflect the student population that they will serve. Moreover, as programs train more leaders of color, drawing on the networks of those leaders to recruit and support teachers as future prospective leaders of color would be another important way of further widening the recruitment pool (Castro et al., [18]).

To address many of the issues above, the university-based program seeks a diverse set of candidates by personalizing its outreach and follow up and utilizing its networks of partners (districts, charter management organizations, and Catholic dioceses) and alumni throughout California and beyond to identify teacher leaders and potential leaders of color. The program's partner and alumni base have substantial numbers of educators of color, which provides a diverse pool of potential recruits as a starting point. The local school districts surrounding the university provide a diverse pool of potential candidates from which to recruit; in the neighboring district alone, over 25,000 teachers and almost 1,800 administrators are employed, with a slightly higher proportion of school administrators of color (77%) than teachers of color (67%). While diverse, the demographic breakdown of district teachers and leaders does not entirely mirror the student profile, where almost 88% of students are students of color. The program draws on the rich pool of potential candidates while implementing a high-touch outreach approach during recruitment and admissions, where 1000s of e-mails and regular outreach sessions become 100s of personal contacts by the program director. This individualized contact provides opportunities to address some of the obstacles and reservations potential candidates may have, and typically yields a carefully-selected group of 16–20 candidates in each cohort.

In addition, in the spirit of continuous improvement and adaptation, the program continues to evolve and respond to the field. To that end, the program has periodically examined new ways to improve access and remove cost barriers for under-represented leaders. As an example, a major factor in making the credential program cost prohibitive for potential candidates is that an administrative credential is seen by federal loan programs as a Certificate program and not a degree; therefore, candidates are not eligible for federal financial aid funds that may be available for other degree programs. Students with financial needs would need to explore private or alternative loans, which may come with higher interest rates and less favorable terms. Consequently, this creates an even greater divide and limits access to the program. To improve access and competitiveness, the administrative credential program went through a process to streamline its course offerings and sequence, and now provides the credential for five units less than in prior instantiations (while still offering the same content), saving the candidates a significant amount of tuition and reducing some of the cost barriers.

The fellowship builds on the lessons learned from course streamlining and the existing networks of potential candidates, but specifically targets recruiting and admissions efforts toward Black and Latinx leaders. The fellowship recruitment also focuses outreach to districts and networks with larger percentages of Black and Latinx teachers. The program also provides financial resources that all but eliminate the financial burden of the administrative credential, which can be a major obstacle for many aspiring leaders of color. Because this financial support is a powerful recruiting tool, the fellowship also increases expectations for fellowship candidates. In the standard leadership program, candidates can enter the program with three years of experience in the classroom (so they meet the minimum state requirements of five years by the time they finish the program). For the fellowship, eligible candidates must have four and a half years of experience to enter the program; thus, the fellowship program is further targeting Black and Latinx educators with more experience under their belts.

As graduate programs and degrees in educational leadership have continued to increase or expand over the last several decades (Baker et al., [2]; Perrone & Tucker, [61]), so too have calls for redesigning and reforming initial certification and preparation programs for school leaders. Much debate has ensued about the expansion, with concerns not only about the rigor of the programs but of the accessibility of these programs and their relevance to the field (Levine, [51]; Murphy et al., [55]). Greater attention has been paid more recently to re-shaping leadership programs to address the long-standing disparities in educational outcomes by more explicitly and intentionally integrating aspects of equity, social justice, and cultural competence and responsiveness (Barakat et al., [3]; Black & Murtadha, [5]; Cambron-McCabe & McCarthy, [13], [12]; Capper et al., [14]; I. E. Bogotch, [6]; Khalifa et al., [46]). Social justice leadership literature also suggests a need to focus on values and ethics, care and respect, and equity and access; to integrate a deep consideration of issues of race, gender, class, disability, linguistic background, or sexual orientation within school contexts; to foster interrogation of structures and systems that reinforce or reproduce long-standing inequities; and to empower students to seek and enact change (Cambron-McCcabe & McCarthy, [13], [12]; Furman, [36]; Marshall & Oliva, [54]).

To prepare school leaders to lead with social justice and culturally responsive praxis, leadership preparation programs need to provide future leaders with the tools to work with the entire school community to create a positive and equitable environment, one that is not only responsive to the needs of the community and students of color in particular, but also addresses, through critical dialogue, refelction, and often collective action, issues of structural and systemic racism, including possible marginalization threats to students of color built into the school's own structures, processes, or interactions (Barakat et al., [3]; Gooden & Dantley, [38]; Khalifa et al., [46]). More specifically, Khalifa and colleagues ([46]) draw out specific school leadership behaviors from a review of the empirical literature on culturally responsive leadership in schools, including: 1) engaging in critical consciousness and self-reflection about their values, beliefs, and dispositions related to identity, culture, and race and ethnicity; 2) ensuring that their teaching staff have the capacity to develop, improve, and sustain their culturally responsive practice (e.g., through recruitment and retention, resources and PD, modeling); 3) fostering an inclusive and culturally affirming school climate (e.g., through interrogating marginalizing patterns or behaviors and holding courageous conversations); and 4) engaging students, families, and communities by promoting and honoring community identities and behaviors and advocating for community needs.

The coursework for the university-based leadership preparation program is curated to integrate aspects of culturally responsive leadership (Khalifa et al., [46]), to provide ongoing and iterative opportunities for candidates to develop their vision and educational purpose or their "north star," as well as to interrogate their values and critically reflect on their own agency, positionality, culture, race and ethnicity, and other aspects of identity throughout the curriculum. In the process of building bridges from theory to practice, to provide the tools and practice for effective application in the field, candidates also engage in hands-on learning via immersion experiences and demonstrations within the safe space of a classroom as well as with the scaffolded support of their fieldwork mentor at their own site. These field-based activities often relate to aspects of improving the inclusiveness of school climate, developing supports and professional development for their colleagues, or engaging parents and the community in their children's learning, but all must have a focus on an area of disparity that has been identified by the candidates through an equity gap analysis at their site. In addition, because so many of the faculty have K-12 leadership backgrounds, real cases of use and application are brought into the classroom throughout the program.

Additionally, programs need embedded supports for candidates to ensure that they successfully complete each of the milestones in the program, especially those who are first-generation graduate students. The program provides formal mentorship through retired administrators, as they advise and mentor them through their fieldwork. The program also provides informal professional networking and mentorship throughut the program and in more limited ways once candidates complete the program. The program has over a 90% completion rate and over a 90% first-time passage rate of the state-required CalAPA exam.

Similar to the existing administrative credentialing programs, the curriculum for the fellowship is aligned to the state's professional standards, with intentional preparation for the state-required performance assessment and a focus on addressing equity gaps. In addition, similar to the traditional programs, there are professional and administrative skills-based activities, with critical self-reflection; and there is support from fieldwork mentors, who advise candidates and provide ungraded, constructive feedback and advice. However, the curriculum provided to candidates through the fellowship is more deeply enriched by the voices and experiences of Black and Latinx leaders; is designed around candidates' exploration of their own diverse backgrounds, cultures, and experiences to construct their leadership philosophy; and provides additional strategies to foster an inclusive and culturally affirming school climate and to nurture cultural responsiveness in their teaching staff. As part of the partnership, the fellowship has developed an assessment tool to measure cultural competence and responsiveness and monitor progress on some of those domains. Fellowship and program directors hope to learn about candidates' growth in these domains for continuous improvement and reflection on the effectiveness of the strategies for developing culturally reponsive leaders but also to extrapolate lessons that may apply to the other leadership preparation programs.

In addition, as online programs operating in California increase in number, and as more candidates seek convenient programs to fit their busy professional lives, the fellowship program will be offered in an "executive" format, with a hybrid delivery mode, in which candidates convene in person roughly every other week during the semester, while engaging in online modules during the asynchronous weeks. This model allows the fellowship to be responsive to the needs of current educators, particularly those with financial constraints, and also to evolve with the current landscape of school leadership preparation. Fellows are also mentored during the program and as they advance along their leadership trajectory (discussed in more detail below).

While leadership preparation programs and the number of degrees conferred have both increased, simply producing more graduates from these programs – even if they are more diverse racially and ethnically – will not be sufficient to turn the tide on who is represented in leadership positions if the graduates are not hired, or if they decide not to pursue the principalship even after receiving the administrative credential. In contexts experiencing principal shortages, some research indicates that it is not necessarily the supply or quantity of candidates produced by preparation programs, but that eligible candidates are not applying for those jobs, often because the jobs are unappealing (e.g., compensation, workload and time demands, accountability and other constraints), or that the quality of the candidates is not seen as adequate (Whitaker, [71]; Whitaker & Vogel, [70]). Removing actual and perceived obstacles to the principal pathway, particularly those that lead to further disparities, will be paramount in developing a diverse and highly prepared pool of candidates to lead our schools. More research is needed to determine how various factors impact the various stages of the job search, including educators' readiness to take on the role, the availability of positions and competition for those positions, or other structural biases during the process.

Some research has shown that eligible candidates may encounter barriers to placement at many points along the job search, including making the decision to apply in the first place, receiving a job offer, and accepting the job offer (DeAngelis & O'Connor, [29]) and others have found variation in outcomes along those job search stages by race and ethnicity (Crawford & Fuller, [25]; B. W. Davis et al., [27]). Salary, for example, can be a factor affecting decisions to move into the principalship, particularly if compensation is not much more than experienced teachers, even with the additional responsibilities and time requirements of the job (Papa et al., [59]; Pijanowski & Brady, [62]). Some studies also suggest that availability of principal positions differs depending on whether the school is an elementary or secondary school, whether it is in an urban context or not, and the size of student enrollment in the school (Papa et al., [59]; Pijanowski & Brady, [62]).

Other research has suggested that Black and Latinx candidates were more likely to be placed in assistant principal positions and less likely to be placed in principal positions (Crawford & Fuller, [25]; Fuller et al., [35]), indicating some potential biases may be occurring in the principal selection process. Some qualitative studies have documented administrator of color experiences in gaining access to and thriving in leadership positions in K-12 schools (Coleman & Campbell-Stephens, [21]; Liang & Liou, [52]) but these experiences and the specific barriers and facilitating factors that support them in gaining placement in administrative positions have been under-researched. Understanding the barriers and supports for placement and retention in an administrative position is critical in redesigning educational leadership preparation programs to support administrators in gaining and sustaining their positions.

The leadership preparation program is dedicated to supporting candidates in their academic and professional success with robust mentorship, especially since some have suggested mentors can have a significant influence on leaders' progression on the pathway to leadership (Clayton et al., [19]; Crow & Matthews, [26]). The program caps each cohort at 20 students to allow for a more intimate learning experience while also allowing for individualized attention to the needs of each candidate from a multi-faceted support team. The program director makes direct connection with each candidate throughout the program and engages in one-on-one check-ins during each candidate's first semester in the program to gather feedback and ensure that each candidate's academic needs are met. A team of supports, including the program coordinator, academic advisor, fieldwork coordinator, fieldwork instructors (mentors), and professors, work together to support each cohort member. This combination of individualized and structured team support creates a strong network that is committed to each candidate's success.

The program also provides more limited and informal mentorship after program completion. Mentors assist candidates with tasks such as reviewing a curriculum vitae, providing networking support and guidance with job searches, and giving feedback at practice sessions for job interviews. The program has also established an alumni network to support the program, and many alumni are integrated into key events and activities throughout the program, including as guest speakers at new student orientation, as guest speakers and discussion panelists during coursework, and as volunteer evaluators at the culminating final presentation event for each cohort. These events rely on alumni to serve and support the next generation of credential candidates and future alumni. Alumni are also recruited to connect with and discuss the program with prospective applicants to the program. In addition, through the program's deep alumni and partner network that includes Superintendents and other district, charter, and diocesan leaders across the region and state, program staff remain connected with leaders in the field for possible placement and pathways to administration.

Fellows receive additional, formal support in job search, interviewing, and placement goals, including mock job interviews with educational leaders in the community, as well as connecting to alumni and other educational leaders and institutions in the community to support their placement in leadership positions. Networking and mentorship opportunities are strategically designed and coordinated by the fellowship administration, to foster a community of practice with other school leaders of color. This mentoring support is more structured and enduring than the traditional program, since the mentorship continues 10 months after program completion, which is funded externally through the fellowship partner organization. The fellowship program has already inspired more formal and racial or ethnic affinity-based mentoring and support networks in the traditional program.

Success for our program and the aspiring leaders we serve is monitored through multiple measures. As a starting point, success in meeting program goals is measured via surveys from site supervisors in the field, fieldwork instructors' evaluations of the candidates, the candidates' own self-evaluation data, and the performance of candidates on the California state required exam. The fieldwork component of the program aligns to the California clinical practice requirements and with guidance from the program's mentorship team, candidates are able to demonstrate that their clinical practice tasks meet the performance expectation of the state. Results from these multiple measures are promising, signaling that the program is preparing school leaders to meet state standards, which means that they have engaged in concrete practice-based, improvement-oriented activities in collaboration with their colleagues to address an equity gap they identify at their school site. Candidates gain new understandings about the influence a leader can have in supporting teachers, building community, promoting equity in all actions, and holding the school community accountable for the outcomes that are critical for students and their community.

In addition, given the focus on diversifying the leadership pipeline, the department and units throughout the university are working to improve the institutionalization of data collection and analysis on race and ethnicity and other demographic factors of the potential candidates we reach out to and the candidates who move through our programs. The program supports a strong pool of leaders of color through the preliminary administrative credentialing process. Over the last three cohorts (including the most recent Fall of 2020 cohort), 45% of candidates identified as Latinx, 30% white, 14% Black or African American, and 10% Native American. While the program celebrates supporting African American and Native American school leaders at higher rates than are found in the local population, program leaders also recognize that addressing historical disparities is a long-term undertaking, particularly as they aim to expand the depth of focus on supporting specific under-represented populations in school leadership. The fellowship initiative focuses on the support of Black and Latinx school leaders, and endeavors to yield an additional 100 transformative Black and Latinx principals in the state over the next three years. The program is also developing an initiative to build up a stronger bench of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) leaders as well, given the significant population of AAPI students and educators throughout the state and the lack of proportionate representation in the leadership bench.

Similarly, through ongoing program reflection, program leaders and faculty are engaged in refining curriculum offerings to focus more directly on anti-racist and culturally responsive leadership approaches. The fellowship has already served as an incubator for further developing and refining adaptations that can improve the culturally responsive preparation of future leaders of all backgrounds, and the curricular refinements and instructional approaches used in the fellowship program are used and shared by faculty teaching in both the fellowship and the traditional program. This cross-pollination of strategies and materials that faculty find effective across both programs will be extremely valuable for program improvement. The fellowship program provides a more structured mechanism by which many of the supports for leaders of color are provided and will also serve as a proof of concept for many initiatives, which can lead to improvements in our traditional programs and in the diversity and preparedness of candidates trained therein. The traditional program does not have the funding to replicate the fellowship financial aid and the long-term mentoring after program completion, for example, but as the fellowship rolls out and expands the numbers of cohorts served, program leaders anticipate that the expanding network of Black and Latinx leaders of color will further facilitate recruitment, mentoring, placement, as well as fundraising activities for both programs.

Leadership preparation programs have a distinct role to play in supporting educators of color as they encounter a range of potholes along the path to becoming an educational leader. Disparities that contribute to the lack of diverse leaders start early on, since students of color are often graduating from high school, completing college, and going into teaching at lower rates than their white peers, and fewer teachers of color are remaining in teaching long enough to cross the gauntlet of requirements, costs, and job responsibilities involved in becoming an administrator. Structural, financial, and programmatic factors within the credentialing process itself may also further exacerbate inequitable access to leadership positions. To address some of these barriers, program leaders have engaged in ongoing reflection and tailoring of the administrative credential program content and supports to reimagine program aspects and smooth out some of the bumps along the road to the principalship, in order to produce a diverse cadre of leaders who lead with social justice, cultural responsiveness, and inclusiveness at the forefront. Increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of school leaders and their preparedness to serve a diverse student community requires repairing that road, through systematic analysis of the potholes and more widespread use of intentional, reflective, and equity-driven approaches. Infusing a social justice and culturally responsiveness orientation throughout each stage of the pipeline, including recruitment and admissions, preparation and support, and placement and retention, drives leadership preparation programs to relentlessly re-commit to developing new and creative ways to address the chronic inequities found throughout our education system.

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).