WANTED/NEEDED: Leadership Preparation for Leaders of Correctional Education and Alternative Schools.

There is a great deal of research detailing the WHAT of effective school leadership what school leaders in traditional schools need to know and do to lead in those schools. There is little research, however, on what leaders of alternative education programs need to know and do. Also, in contrast to the many higher education preparation programs that prepare school leaders for traditional school leadership, higher education preparation programs for alternative school leaders are mostly non existent. Even with traditional preparation, beginning and inexperienced practitioners are easily overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the WHAT of school leadership, and many contend the training leaders receive is off target. Training leaders for alternative schools remains even more off-target. This article reviews the existing research on school leader preparation and suggests alternative school leader preparation. Also, information obtained from a newly developed survey that examined the thoughts and ideas of administrators in regular and alternative education suggests areas to include or alter in higher education preparation programs. The goal of this article is to suggest ways to better prepare school leaders (in alternative programs) in the WHAT and HOW of leadership in alternative and correctional education schools.