The Status of the Preparation and Hiring of School Principals in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Region. REL Technical Brief. REL 2008-No. 006

This technical brief describes the current status of the preparation and hiring of school principals in the Pacific Region--American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Republic of Palau. The brief answers the question: what academic, practice-based, and standards and policy criteria are used in the preparation and hiring of principals? It finds that many jurisdictions have recent certification standards and policies and that procedures and criteria for preparing and hiring school principals vary across jurisdictions in models, requirements, and implementation levels. Requirements common to all jurisdictions are that principals must complete some college-level coursework and must have teaching experience. The preparation and hiring of principals are increasingly viewed by policymakers and education research professionals as fundamental to successful school reform and improved education outcomes. Although national baseline information on principal certification is available, less is known about certification requirements across the geography of the Pacific Region. Requests of regional state education agencies and the recommendation of Pacific Regional Educational Laboratory advisory groups to build on the "Issues & Answers" report "Preparing and Licensing High-Quality Teachers in Pacific Region Jurisdictions" motivated this study. The researchers designed a descriptive study to identify the certification policies and practices used in each jurisdiction. For each jurisdiction the study focused on identifying components of academic, practice-based, and standards and policy requirements for the certification of principals: certification linkage to standards-based protocols, types of certification offered, professional development offered and required, recognition of external certifications, minimum degree requirements, prior work experience required, practicum or internship requirements, approval requirements from institutions of higher education, and requirement of standardized assessments for certification. These components are common across national certification procedures. Researchers also collected background information on the number of principals employed and the number certified in each jurisdiction. An online search was conducted for publicly available documents and data. Data profiles, previously developed with each jurisdiction to collect information on current certification practices, were used to provide additional data when adequate information was not attainable in publicly available documents. (Contains 2 notes and 5 tables.) [This REL Technical Brief was prepared for Institute of Education Sciences (IES) by Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific administered by Pacific Resources for Education and Learning.]