Educational Leadership Preparation and Professional Roles: Are We Serving the Needs of Leadership Roles Along the Leadership Continuum?

As the complexity of school and district contexts continue to evolve, there is a need to prepare leaders at various points along the leadership continuum. Through this survey research, we analyzed student perceptions of program effectiveness (N = 408) from 2013 to 2020 in one educational leadership program through the lens of student professional roles (e.g., teachers, instructional coaches, central office personnel). Results varied with instructional coaches demonstrating higher perceptions of effectiveness and central office personnel lower perceptions. Findings from this study could serve as the impetus for further research as educational leadership programs serve diverse educational leadership roles.