Despite the large and growing body of research showing that school leadership is the second greatest in-school determinant of student success, most states have yet to construct comprehensive approaches to identifying and developing school leaders.

Many of the world’s top-performing education systems, by contrast, have successfully developed and implemented systems to effectively identify, develop and train all school leaders. These leadership development systems identify highly capable educators and develop them to lead high-performance school organizations centered on teacher professionalism and collaboration, which in turn drives the state, provincial or national agenda for school improvement.

These are the findings of a new report from NCEE, Preparing to Lead: Lessons in Principal Development from High-Performing Education Systems. Authored by Australian researcher Ben Jensen, the report finds that many of the world’s best education systems are providing current and future school leaders with leadership development that is specifically tailored to their unique context, mirrors their day-to-day responsibilities and is focused on real-world problems facing those in the profession.