New settings and changing norms for principal development

During the 1980s, the field of professional development for school leaders expanded in numerous respects: raw enrollment figures, intensity and breadth of participation, types and number of in-service providers, approaches to program governance, variety of curricular and instructional approaches. Previous analyses have compared this "new inservice movement" with traditional efforts to prepare school administrators. Typically these comparisons have sought to highlight differences between pre- and post-1980 development efforts, thereby unintentionally masking important organizational and programmatic differences among the emergent programs. This article focuses specifically on describing and assessing the range of variation among the predominant professional development programs born in the 1980s. We highlight divergent trends with respect to the organizational processes and program content that characterize these programs and identify their varying potential for reaching competing policy goals. Finally, we suggest implications for both policy and practice in the field of administrative development.