Policy Focus Converges on Leadership

By Lynn Olson

After years of work on structural changes—standards and testing and ways of holding students and schools accountable—the education policy world has turned its attention to the people charged with making the system work.

At the classroom level, that has meant a flurry of efforts to attract and train good teachers and keep them in their jobs. But nowhere is the focus on the human element in public education more prevalent than in the renewed recognition of the importance of strong and effective leadership.

Widespread agreement that U.S. schools face a dearth of administrators capable of providing that leadership has in recent months roused a broad and influential group of policy contingents to action. Among the players are the U.S. Department of Education, the Broad Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, state governors and education officials, and the leaders...