Searching for the Golden Fleece: The Epic Struggle Continues.

N

71

Administrator Education; Administrator Qualifications; Change Strategies; Educational Administration; Educational Change; Elementary Secondary Education; Excellence in Education; Higher Education; Instructional Leadership; Management Development; Program Implementation

The task of improving educational administrator preparation is one of epic proportions. The magnitude of the task is expressed using allusions to the epic style and the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece. The paper presents a quick "environmental scan" to determine how visionary and revolutionary are some current ideas for improvements in educational administration preparation. The current (late 1980's) ideas about educational administration preparation are juxtaposed with prior and various contemporaneous issues. This comparative and descriptive study covers the years 1950-1990. Programs or reform ideas included in this attempts to see just where things seem to be going. Forty-four pages (2) Ford-sponsored Inter-University Project; (3) Education Professions Development Act; (4) Leadership in Education in Appalachia Project; (5) Culbertson; (6) National Commission on Excellence in Educational Administration; (7) American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education; (8) National Policy Board; (9) Danforth Initiatives; and (10) Proposed New Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership for North Carolina. This report shows the interrelationships of the programs and reports, explores their similarities, asks about "vision," and attempts to see just where things seem to be going. Forty-four pages of the individual summaries of key programs or reform recommendations included in the analysis are appended. (28 references) (SI)

1990

ED314822