Current information about this program can be found under the Education Research program.

CFDA Number: 84.305A
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants, Contracts

The Institute's Education Leadership research program addresses five goals (1) identifying the characteristics and practices of education leaders (e.g., principals, district superintendents) that are associated with better student outcomes from kindergarten through Grade 12 and identifying programs and practices for the preparation or professional development of education leaders that are associated with better student outcomes (e.g., student achievement, high school graduation) from kindergarten through Grade 12, as well as mediators and moderators of the relations between student outcomes and these leadership characteristics, programs, or practices; (2) developing new programs and practices for the preparation or professional development of education leaders that will eventually result in improving the teaching and learning environment at the local level and, ultimately, student learning and achievement; (3) establishing the efficacy of programs and practices for the preparation or professional development of education leaders for improving the teaching and learning environment and, ultimately, student learning and achievement; (4) providing evidence of the effectiveness of programs and practices for the preparation or professional development of education leaders that are implemented at scale and intended for improving the teaching and learning environment and through it, student learning and achievement; and (5) developing and validating new assessments of the quality of education leaders, or validating existing assessments of education leaders against measures of student achievement from elementary grades through high school.

Long term outcomes of the Education Leadership program will be an array of tools and strategies (e.g., pre-service and in-service programs, policies, assessments) that have been demonstrated to be effective for improving and assessing the performance of education leaders (e.g., principals, superintendents) in ways that are linked to increases in student achievement. In this Request for Applications, the term preparation refers to pre-service training of education leaders, and the term professional development refers to the in-service training of current leaders.