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With 1,130 schools serving 500,000 +  students, California has the largest number of charter schools of any state in the country. The rapid expansion of charters over the last decade has prompted the development of quality charter school leadership preparation programs in southwestern California (Benjamin-Edwards, R. (2012). The new reality for charter and autonomous school leaders. In K. B. Hughes & S. A. M. Silva (Eds.), Identifying leaders for urban charter, autonomous and independent schools: Above and beyond the standards (Vol. 18, pp. 315). Advances in Educational Administration. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.). Charter school leadership programs from Loyola Marymount and Fielding University as well as in-house leadership programs developed by large charter management organizations like KIPP and Green Dot provided the foundation for the Charter Autonomous School Leadership Academy (CASLA), which opened in 2011 at the California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) in Carson, CA. This chapter will capture reflections from sitting administrators who graduated from CASLA about the impact of that program on their practice. It will highlight the specific components of the preparation program that these leaders identify as most strongly influencing their work. The chapter will include a discussion of components such as the leadership framework, field based project, and analysis of leadership dispositions including description of how learning in these areas assists work in charter and autonomous schools.

The Partnership for Improvement in Rural Leadership and Learning (PIRLL) grant had a goal of improving school leadership in rural and remote locations across South Dakota. The work included recruitment and training of aspiring principals as well as capacity building for practicing principals. The two key elements used to meet this goal were development of a customized principal preparation program and providing On-site mentoring and professional development for practicing principals. A desired outcome was to increase the capacity and availability of school leaders who would be culturally responsive to the needs of students and remain in high-needs schools in South Dakota.

To lead effectively, educational leaders need to be both inquisitive about problems of practice and skilled in devising and implementing collaborative plans of action focused on redressing such problems. In response to changes in licensure regulations and criticisms – notably from within the field – that university-based programs have historically graduated ineffective educational leaders who fail to implement mandated reforms, programs have changed to include (a) a focus on the context in which graduates of the program will most likely lead (the local school communities) and (b) the immersion of program participants in a process of inquiry into problems of practice. Internships provide the setting for both these inclusions. Referencing the concept of “elbow learning,” this chapter discusses how the inquiry-based and service learning ideals integrate in Service Leadership Projects (SLPs) conducted during the internship requirement of a university-based educational leadership program in a Mid-Atlantic state in the United States. SLPs are well-designed to enhance the agency of prospective educational leaders, while delivering both tangible and intangible benefits to both the university and the school in which the internship is conducted. SLPs dovetail with a long-standing, state-financed program that supports the development of leaders for public schools.

The focus of this chapter is to compare and contrast two Master of Education programs, one in Louisiana, United States, the other in Ontario, Canada. Our discussion addresses program design including focus of the graduate degree; admission requirements; number of instructor contact hours; nature and dimensions of course content; culminating activities such as e-portfolios, Master's Research Projects, field experiences, internships, and theses; professional and program standards; as well as assessment procedures and accountability requirements. The ongoing pressure to improve our schools in an increasingly competitive global environment has heightened educational standards and expectations as never before (Cowie & Crawford, 2007). In these times of increased accountability and financial strain for publicly funded universities, this analysis of contemporary trends and processes may provide some relevant insight into current practices for those presenting graduate programs.

In September 2009, a special committee of the Israeli Institute of School Leadership has published its final report in which new perspectives, contents, and teaching strategies are suggested to replace old, traditional forms of principal preparation programs in this country. The purpose of this chapter is to describe, first, the new construction of leadership development programs in Israel and its underlying principles and historical background, and, second, to raise some ponderings into its applicability and its quality in terms of practical suggestions and expected teaching strategies. The chapter includes the following elements: a brief introduction of the current principal preparation programs in Israel (briefly), the special committee, the aims of this chapter, importance, and organization of the chapter; the theoretical background based on the research on principal preparation programs worldwide, its shortcomings, and impediments; a historical debate of principal training in Israel – the current state, American influences, weaknesses, rational, basic principles, the new model, purpose, contents, and instructional methods; and critical and future considerations including the weaknesses of the new model, the “chances” to apply this report into the Israeli (or any) educational system, and the potential facilitating versus impeding factors.

Utilizing creative campus partnerships, alliances, and mergers, libraries can move from a traditional support role to a more participatory role that actively engages a university’s academic mission. Libraries, as centralizing, politically neutral hubs for information, can serve as catalysts for collaborative planning that paves the way for creating innovative campus spaces and services in conjunction with other academic or general campus units. By forging alliances and merging services and resources with campus partners, such as Information Technology (IT) and the English and Communication departments, the library can address student need and initiate transformational changes—changes that are broader in scope than those within traditional library functions. The case study in this chapter provides an exploration of the merging of library services with a writing center, an effort which was enhanced by adding an oral communication support service. It provides examples of what can be accomplished through visionary leadership and teamwork in 21st-century academic libraries, focusing on how student need and library use prompted institutional change at a mid-sized regional comprehensive university. The authors highlight the essential structural and operational mergers and alliances involved in integrating existing and developing library and campus initiatives to create a unique integrated service point for research, writing, and oral communication in the heart of the university’s main library. The case study also identifies continued partnership and collaboration, and briefly outlines methods through which libraries might initiate similar transformational changes and mergers at their own institutions, serving as a model for similar alliances in other settings.

Intervention strategies to increase participation and success in STEM areas vary depending on the specific goals of programs and presumably, their funding. Matyas (1991) focused on minority engineering programs and found that successful programs tend to contain the following elements: (a) assistance with admission procedures;, (b) assistance with student matriculation; (c) academic support services; (d) student study center; (e) linkage of students with minority student organizations in engineering; and (f) summer engineering jobs. A recent, systematic review by a panel of experts identified eight design principles that underpin exemplary and promising higher education-based STEM interventions: (a) institutional leadership; (b) targeted recruitment; (c) engaged faculty; (d) personal attention; (e) peer support; (f) enriched research experience; (g) bridging to the next level; and (h) continuous evaluation (BEST, 2004).