Introduction

The Council of the Chief State School Officers is pleased to share the recently revised and approved national standards for educational leadership policy, which most of you have come to know over the years as the "ISLLC1 Standards."

The ISLLC Standards have helped guide leadership policy and practice in more than 40 states since they were first released in 1996 by the CCSSO Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC)2. The idea then, as now, was to give policymakers and education leaders a common vision and goals for how to improve student achievement through better educational leadership.

This document is intended to make you aware of the new standards-Educational Leadership Policy Standards: ISLLC 2008 as adopted by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA). We also want you to make them available as you develop, align, and update your policies and other school leadership activities.

Thanks to the help and participation of CCSSO's State Consortium on Education Leadership3, NPBEA member organizations, and a NPBEA/ISLLC Research Panel over the past two years, the revised standards reflect new research identifying what leaders do that influences and improves school and student performance. The new standards- which cover the same six major areas as the previous standards-are intended to help states set policies and guidelines for licensure and lead to assessments that more accurately measure and evaluate leadership performance. These policy standards should drive the development of practice standards that are used by practitioners on a daily basis. They are meant to help direct school leaders along the career continuum from entry-level to expert performance.

"These policy standards are the foundation to building a comprehensive and cohesive leadership system that effectively recruits, supports, retains, and rewards high-quality leaders," notes Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, the national organization that is coordinating the release of the standards. "They give state and district leaders a guide for what to consider in gauging quality and monitoring and supporting improvement in educational leadership."

To provide additional information and guidance, CCSSO is developing a comprehensive publication that will include the standards, explain the research behind the revisions, and provide other material explaining how the policy standards can be used. The publication will be distributed this spring.

"We encourage wide use of these standards and this spring's follow-up publication," said Joe Simpson, the co-chair of the NPBEA Steering Committee. "Share them with your colleagues, the public, as well as policymakers."

Download the full PDF by clicking the following link:

Introduction to the Educational Leadership Policy Standards