The Longer Road to Implementation

There were many facets to the full implementation of the new rules and regulations, some of which are still being ironed out almost a decade later. Because this brief is concerned with the incorporation of early education into principal preparation, it focuses on how different preparation programs have addressed this issue both in terms of curricula and field experiences.

Broadly, the new law required that the coursework for prospective principals “address student learning and school improvement.”¹ Throughout their preparation, principals should engage in coursework that is grounded in conceptual frameworks and prepares them to meet the practical, everyday demands of their roles as leaders. This means developing proficiency in instructional leadership and supporting teachers in serving all students well.² Experts agree that high-quality coursework should include evidence-based practices and be aligned with professional standards.³ Successful curricula show candidates how to apply theory to actual practice through adult leadership opportunities.

Research suggests that clinical experiences, such as internships, assistant principalships, and mentorships are extremely valuable.⁴ In fact, the Wallace Foundation describes clinical experience as “potentially the most powerful learning opportunity for aspiring principals.”⁵ And 99 percent of respondents to an American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education survey said clinical practice or internships in the field are important for effective principal preparation.⁶ To ensure quality experiences, the Illinois legislation requires internships to align with the 13 critical success factors and 36 associated competencies outlined in The Principal Internship: How Can We Get It Right? published by the Southern Regional Education Board.⁷

In Illinois, most preparation programs require students to complete approximately one year of part-time coursework before beginning their internship. As part of the reform, courses are intended to focus heavily on instructional leadership. Programs have interpreted the requirement around early childhood education in different ways, however, and used a variety of approaches to integrate this content into coursework.

As mentioned, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) principal preparation program was viewed as a model that informed the statewide reform efforts. Yet Tozer described the early education requirement as a “heavy lift” for most programs, even UIC. According to Tozer, “Early childhood was not originally part of the conception of UIC’s program; it was K–12, not PreK–12.” Part of the challenge with incorporating early childhood was that most of the program faculty had no early childhood background.⁸ UIC received a grant from the McCormick Foundation to begin incorporating early childhood into the program in 2009, before the reform passed in 2010. With this grant, UIC brought in early childhood experts to identify places throughout the curriculum where this content is relevant, such as literacy, math, and education law. Ultimately, UIC’s faculty agreed that every course should have early childhood content unless the instructor could demonstrate that it was not relevant. Tozer calls this “default inclusion,” but added that “it’s very easy to not follow through and to fail to implement. It requires strong progress monitoring.” This is something that UIC continues to work on, he said.

At Illinois State University (ISU), where professors had been leading the state reform work, there was a concerted effort to infuse early education into coursework. To meet the new standards, ISU added a new course, called “Leadership for Stages of Mind.” According to the course description, “Topics chosen for this course are both content-focused and leader-focused, giving insights about learning at different stages of mind, from early childhood to adulthood.”⁹ A major assignment for this course involves writing a “position paper on early childhood learning environments,” which requires visiting an early childhood classroom, interviewing a principal about practices that support young learners, and analyzing the impact of a PreK–3rd approach on elementary schools. Early childhood is incorporated into other courses as well, as ISU’s goal is to demonstrate “the principle of redundancy.”¹⁰

ISU was one of four universities that worked with the McCormick-funded Leadership to Integrate the Learning Continuum (LINC) project during implementation.¹¹ In addition to providing technical assistance statewide on developing PreK–12 leadership programs, LINC provided in-depth technical assistance to a network of universities to redesign their programs: ISU, Loyola University Chicago, North Central College, and Western Illinois University. This work was led by Erika Hunt, Lisa Hood, and Alicia Haller. The goal of the two-year grant was to help programs build content around early childhood, English learners, and special education. In 2013, LINC released a toolkit detailing redesign efforts at these four institutions and offering lessons for others.¹² Loyola University Chicago, for instance, sought out expertise from faculty outside its department and program to weigh in on course content. It asked early childhood faculty what principals need to know about early childhood and integrated topics like “selecting and supporting developmentally appropriate curricula” and “ensuring early childhood educators are meaningful members of the school community” into the redesigned program.¹³

At Concordia University Chicago, which is the largest provider of principal preparation in the state, early childhood appears to be addressed in the internship as opposed to in coursework. Victor Simon, a school superintendent and adjunct professor at Concordia, said of the various courses he teaches as part of the principal preparation program, none of them contain a section explicitly focused on early education. He described his teacher evaluation course and his course on curriculum, instruction, and assessment as grade-level agnostic.¹⁴ Concordia’s Joan DuChane said she “knows early childhood is not incorporated into the finance course. Special Education gets focus there because it’s a federal program (IDEA).”¹⁵ Simon said, “There is not a good understanding of early childhood instruction.” He attributes this to the lack of early education programs in general. Aspiring principals “need to understand what this level of instruction should look like and they just haven’t seen enough examples yet,” he said.

A 2016 study by the Illinois Education Research Council and the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research¹⁶ reviewing implementation across the state found that overall, coursework now emphasized special populations, including early education, more than before.¹⁷ However, it was relatively common for programs to have no early childhood content prior to the redesign. The study found that “the interviews and syllabi review suggest that, in many instances, ECE content is addressed only superficially or voluntarily.” A review of syllabi from 14 institutions found that of the special populations included in the new law, “ECE content had the least coverage by a substantial margin, and there was wide variation between programs… .”¹⁸ Investigators also found that early childhood was often included as a component of other classes as opposed to as a subject unto itself.

ISBE ultimately determined that the internship would span the course of one year and be competency-based instead of based on a set number of hours. Through the internship, candidates are supposed to have instructional leadership opportunities that closely match those of a first-year principal. The internship is also where the partnerships between preparation programs and school districts tend to come into play.

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has a strong partnership with Chicago Public Schools, which is by far the largest district in Illinois, with over 600 schools. UIC students complete a full-time, year-long residency, usually outside of the school where they previously worked. Chicago Public Schools funds the residency and pays residents approximately $100,000 in salary and benefits for the year. According to Tozer, “The district can’t afford not to invest in the principal pipeline because of what it is getting out of it. The general estimate is that principal turnover costs $75,000 per position, but it’s really much more. So this is really cost effective.”¹⁹

When asked about exposure to early childhood, Tozer said, “We often place [aspiring] elementary principals in high schools so they will develop a high school background and vice versa. We are cross-fertilizing. This is so that any UIC candidate you get has a substantial PreK–3rd background.” UIC requires everyone in each cohort to conduct structured visits to elementary schools and pre-K classrooms regardless of their residency placement. Zavitkovsky said, “Principals need to be prepared to start leading conversations on PreK–3rd alignment strategies. Coaches [who work with students during the residency] end up being the ones who are most responsible for ensuring that residents have rich opportunities to lead work in this area.”²⁰

Illinois State University (ISU) requires students to complete 36 leadership tasks over the course of their internships that align with the competencies referenced in the legislation.²¹ Located in central Illinois, ISU has partnerships with a few surrounding school districts, and ISU student internship experiences can differ substantially depending on the district.²² Tracy Donath, a 2019 graduate, attended ISU while teaching elementary school in McLean County Unit District No. 5. Her district paid for a semester-long substitute so that she could be released to intern full time in an assistant principal role at a neighboring elementary school. The internship was one semester, but she had the full year to complete ISU’s 36 leadership tasks while she resumed teaching. Overall, she found the internship and associated tasks to be very challenging, but said “I really felt by the time I was done that I was ready to be a principal. Not an assistant principal, but a principal.”

One of ISU’s leadership tasks is focused on pre-K: creating an early childhood school improvement plan. To complete this task, Donath and one of her fellow cohort members met with the administration and teachers at a district pre-K school to determine current challenges they were facing, and then drafted a solution to present to the principal. Their project was to identify a new screening tool for incoming students that would identify their language ability in both English and Spanish to help ensure that Spanish-speaking students were placed in the appropriate bilingual, English learner, or monolingual classroom setting. Donath and her partner found a potential screener that fit the school’s needs, presented it to the principal, and with the principal’s enthusiastic recommendation, presented it to the superintendent for funding.

While the pre-K program benefited from Donath’s help, she realizes that advising on these types of tasks does take time out of school administrators’ days. She said, “There are not that many schools that specialize in pre-K. And because ISU is in this town, aspiring principals are consistently wanting to work with the same schools.” She also acknowledged the importance of having a semester off to complete these tasks, saying, “We had to meet with the pre-K school probably five times. I’m not sure how you do this if you are not relieved from teaching duties.”²³ Many of her classmates were in districts that did not have the funding to hire a substitute for a semester and thus had to complete the tasks on top of their full-time teaching jobs.

From 2013 to 2018, ISU had funding from the U.S. Department of Education for the Illinois Partnerships Advancing Rigorous Training (IL-PART) Project to strengthen relationships between preparation programs and school districts.²⁴ Co-directed by Alicia Haller and Erika Hunt, this grant funded full-time, semester-long internships for principal candidates where they “were engaged in authentic principal duties collaborating daily with an experienced principal mentor and receiving immediate coaching and feedback.”²⁵ The grant provided full-time substitute teachers for $25,000 each. Unfortunately, since the grant has expired, the only way for candidates to do fully immersive internships is if their district finds the funding.

For all students at Concordia University Chicago the internship is unpaid, as there is no formal partnership with a school district. Students almost always stay in their home schools for the internship and continue working in their current roles. Victor Simon, adjunct professor for Concordia since 2011, said he has known students to “take on leadership roles such as running the school’s summer or tutoring program.”²⁶ When it comes to incorporating early childhood, he said, “At Concordia, it’s about exposure and building some sense of familiarity with this grade level, and not necessarily expertise.”

Joan DuChane, co-director of principal internships and partnerships at Concordia, said, early childhood education falls into the diverse learner category. “We define diverse learners as special education, early childhood education, English learners, and gifted education. Each of the diverse learner groups has a specific project to provide students a basic understanding of each group,” she said.²⁷ During the second semester of the internship there are specific projects for each diverse learner group, including an evaluation of an early childhood program. This requires visiting a public early learning program and interviewing an administrator. Candidates analyze the instructional setting, materials, staffing, and other aspects of the program. DuChane said that, “high school interns always seem reluctant” to go to early childhood classrooms, but “they come back almost in awe of the work being done with children at that age. Usually they remark that those teachers are not paid enough.” DuChane believes they benefit from this wider view.

“High school interns always seem reluctant” to go to early childhood classrooms, but “they come back almost in awe of the work being done with children at that age.”

Apryl Lowe, principal of Illinois Park Center for Early Learning in Elgin, which serves solely pre-K students, has hosted multiple aspiring principals in recent years from different preparation programs, such as National Louis University, as they aim to complete their early childhood education requirement. Most of the students are teaching full time and completing their internships part time. Lowe works with them to create projects that can be mutually beneficial. For example, she had one student analyze whether pre-K attendance or participation in the school’s family engagement activities were correlated with third grade test scores. Another student designed and ran a parent education activity, and another created an online handbook to streamline useful resources for teachers. Lowe believes these projects are important: “Early childhood is a different beast,” she said, “and many elementary school principals are still trying to wrap their heads around it.”

The 2016 study reviewing implementation across the state found that overall, it was difficult for candidates to secure an early childhood education placement during the internship.²⁸ One reason is that some schools or districts did not have early childhood centers, making it harder for candidates to access in-district placements (in Illinois some districts are only made up of secondary schools). However, there is nothing in the legislation or rules that bars students from doing course, clinical, or internship experiences with community-based early learning centers such as Head Start or private centers. The study also found that UIC’s year-long residency-style internship is not the norm. The researchers found that in most programs “candidates typically participate in an unpaid, part-time internship that is generally two or three semesters (approximately one year) long in duration.” In interviews, candidates said they would have preferred a paid, full-time internship if given the option.

While some stakeholders have argued that the reform was too prescriptive,²⁹ it did leave room for flexibility, allowing institutions to implement the reforms in different ways and incorporate early education to varying degrees.

For example, UIC is a doctoral program that works with aspiring principals over five years. The doctoral requirement in and of itself attracts a certain type of candidate. Former UIC coach Zavitkovsky said, “Turning principal prep into a doctoral program let the university have coaching access for five years or more. This allowed us to stick with people across important thresholds in their early development as leaders. This created a different kind of vibe that went beyond completing coursework and getting a degree.”³⁰ The year-long residency is followed by three years of formal, on-the-job coaching. UIC is highly selective and is a small program, admitting only 10 to 20 students per year. With its strong partnership with Chicago Public Schools, UIC is committed to urban school reform. UIC also keeps close track of the impact its principals have on student outcomes.

Concordia University Chicago, on the other hand, produces by far the highest number of graduates. It is a two-year program and with no district partnership, students keep their current jobs and complete the program requirements part time. According to Simon, “The program is marketed as flexible and more affordable.”³¹ He feels the time commitment is more realistic for most teachers who are balancing a demanding job with their other responsibilities. Concordia does not track which of its graduates go on to become principals or how those that do impact student outcomes.