Knowing "How" Is More Than Knowing "That": A Study of Educational Leadership Expertise

Abstract

While there is ample criticism of principal certification and professional development programs to equip individuals with the expertise they need, we as a field possess few methodologies to measure leadership expertise. There is thus little evidence to inform us of the effectiveness of these programs to train participants. This study explored the content, construct, and criterion validity of a series of open-ended scenarios to measure leadership expertise. I first review recent efforts in the literature to define this construct before I present the findings from three validation studies. Overall the descriptive analyses showed that the scenarios tapped varying levels of expertise, and examinations of respondents’ scenario scores revealed complex relationships between different areas of expertise. Finally, analyses of the scenario scores’ relationships to principal and teacher survey measures showed mixed yet promising results for their criterion validity and suggested multiple directions for future improvements and uses of these measures.