The purpose of this study was to determine the decision-making and problem-solving approaches most frequently used by school superintendents in two mid-western states when confronted with district dilemmas. The research replicated a study conducted by Polka, Litchka, Caizi, Denig and Mete (2011) in five Mid-Atlantic states. The survey used in both studies was based on the work of Tarter and Hoy (1998). Results between the two regions were compared and significant differences were found in how superintendents manage dilemmas and their preferences for making decisions. In addition, significant differences were found between male and female superintendents in the mid-western states.

The purpose of this study was to examine the comparative influence of college administrator credential programs, on-the-job experiences, and the ISLLC Standards in the development of leadership expertise among urban public school principals. An exploratory, ex-post-facto research design used both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A survey of 101 randomly selected urban school principals from 25 of America’s largest metropolitan school districts was given, followed by telephone interviews with a subset of 20 randomly selected survey participants. Data were analyzed through the use of inferential and descriptive statistics and descriptive narratives. On-the-job experiences were significantly more important in developing leadership expertise than college credential programs on each of 41 ISLLC-based learning tasks. However, college credential programs are also important sources of leadership development. Several significant differences were found between comparative ratings of learning tasks by subgroups (experience, gender, school type). Respondents ranked 78% of the ISLLC Standards as very important to the field of school leadership. Interview subjects expressed concern about lack of preparation in budgeting, data analysis, teacher evaluation, and change management.

The article presents the evaluation of the training programme for secondary school principals conducted in the period between 2006 and 2009. A mixed method approach was used to conduct the summative evaluation with 28 graduate participants. For the impact evaluation, 15 of the graduates were interviewed three years after the programme was completed. The quantitative data was analyzed using means and standard deviation. The findings revealed that participants gained technical and relational skills but responses were less favourable in relation to cognitive or conceptual skills, while the support from lecturers and workplaces was strong but less favourable from the central ministry. There was a positive impact on participants’ performance during the period of training, especially in the areas of confidence, collegiality and overall leadership. For the impact evaluation, graduates credited the programme for their promotion to become principals, vice principals, senior teachers or give added responsibilities. They identified areas to be enhanced for any further programme to include school law, financial management, policy development and interpretation, and conflict management and relational skills. The main recommendation is that for any further programme for the training of principals should be guided by the findings of the evaluation.