Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this qualitative, case study was to identify important leadership competencies for principals, as identified by 5 superintendents in Southern California, and to explore leadership development practices being implemented to advance those competencies. Methodology. A case study design, using semistructured interviews was used to answer the following central research question: How do 5 Southern California superintendents develop critical leadership competencies in site-level administrators? The researcher used a purposeful sampling approach to interview 5 district superintendents for this study. Findings. Superintendents identified CPSEL 1 and CPSEL 2 as the most critical leadership competencies needed by site-level administrators. Three major themes emerged with regard to the methodologies that are being used to develop CPSEL 1 and 2 in principals. The 3 themes were (a) leadership development using internal coaches, (b) leadership development using district staff, and (c) leadership development using external consultants. Conclusions. While there are currently 6 CPSELs, the participants in the study identified 2 CPSELs as being more important than the others. Furthermore, the superintendents interviewed stated that they are being intentional in developing those CPSELs in their site leaders. While a variety of methodologies were identified to build the leadership capacity in their site leaders using internal coaches, leadership development using district staff and leadership development using external consultants were most consistently identified as current practices. Recommendations. This research study adds to the field of leadership development by providing results that demonstrate the need for ongoing and systematic methodologies to build the leadership capacity of school site principals. Future research should be conducted that includes a larger sample size in order for the results to be more generalizable. Additional studies could investigate the effectiveness of current trainings being used to develop leadership competencies. In addition since this study utilized a case study methodology, further studies should be conducted applying other research methodologies to strengthen the generalizability of the data set. Finally, it is recommended that further studies be conducted, which focus on the perceptions of school principals.