Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC)

The Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC), established in 1994, was a conglomerate of 32 education agencies and 13 education administrative associations that worked together to establish and implement model national standards, licensure assessments, professional development, and licensing guidelines for school leaders (principals, superintendents, and other administrators). In 1996, after 2 years of study and the involvement of 30 states and the major national leadership associations representing the educational administration profession, the Consortium adopted six standards for school leaders. More specifically, [Page 482]these standards were developed under the auspices of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) to address the perceived absence of national leadership standards in the United States.

Each of the initial standards was defined by indicators of knowledge, performance, and dispositions. These “knowledge, dispositions, and performance” indicators were later replaced with statements of leadership “functions.” The standards were designed to raise the bar for school leaders and to reshape concepts of educational leadership. They were established to create an integrated and coherent framework for action. They were particularly focused on student learning in the schools by shifting school leaders' focus from management and administration issues to student learning and school improvement. Before the Consortium members began their work to craft the standards, they established guiding principles that acknowledged the changing role of the school leader, recognized the importance of collaboration, and established the importance of an integrated and coherent standards-based system of assessment for school leaders.

During the decade following the initial release of the ISLLC standards, there was widespread implementation of the ISLLC standards by 43 states. Although many of the states adopted their own standards, the influence of the ISLLC standards was apparent in the state standards, as evidenced by the similarities in the language of such state standards throughout the country. In addition, 5 states developed an innovative licensure assessment based on the ISLLC standards; the Educational Testing Service (ETS) was awarded a contract to create tests for initial licensing of first-year principals; and many universities adapted their courses of study to reflect the ISLLC standards more clearly. The National Council for Accreditation of Colleges of Teacher Education (NCATE) approved the use of the ISLLC standards as part of the accreditation process for colleges and universities that prepare aspiring school leaders. In fact, despite the widely accepted status and influence of the standards to fuel discussions about reforming school leadership preparation and practice, the Consortium did not enjoy the same success. Virtually all organized activities stopped between 2001 and 2004. Whether it was due to the departure of the original project director or the completion of the Consortium's original work, the momentum to continue the work was lost. An attempt to restructure the organization on a smaller scale and rename it in 2004 did not totally rejuvenate the organization. The newly named structure, Interstate Consortium on School Leadership (ICSL), had membership from only 15 states and had no school leader associations or higher education institutions.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) accepted a request from the states in 2005 to update the ISLLC standards to reflect the educational and societal changes of the past decade. With funding from the Wallace Foundation, CCSSO and NPBEA worked together over the next 2 years, with the assistance and input of the restructured Interstate Consortium on School Leadership (ICSL), to accomplish this task. In October 2005, ICSL convened a meeting in Washington, D.C., to begin the process of updating the wording of the ISLLC standards and make them more relevant for today's educational leaders. The Consortium's work included a review of the current standards and state leadership policies and information about changes in national and state policy context, relevant research findings, and best practices in the field. The Consortium worked closely with the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA) to engage a broad range of stakeholders and constituents in the revision of the standards. The original ISLLC standards were renamed the Educational Leadership Policy Standards—ISLLC 2008—by NPBEA. As noted earlier, the 2008 edition of the ISLLC standards replaced the previous “knowledge, dispositions, and performance” indicators with statements of leadership “functions.”

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