Pursuant to the By Laws (Revised, 2021), the mission of NCPEL is to
• establish networking among members of NCPEL and education stakeholders
• inform policy and practice pertaining to the preparation of educational leaders
• foster collaboration between educational leaders’ preparation programs and PK-12 schools and school districts to prepare and develop educational leaders
• share research and engage in problem-solving within and across member institutions to improve the general condition of practicing educational leaders
• provide opportunities for professional growth and development for its members and their key affiliates
• provide policy advocacy for the academic discipline through relationships with organizations who share a commitment to preparing and developing educational leaders
The impetus for North Carolina Professors of Educational Leadership (NCPEL) emerged from the 2008-2010 North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) directive to revise university educational leadership programs, particularly how North Carolina public school principals were educated and licensed. The directive brought together professors from across the state to discuss licensure programs embodied in the Master of School Administration, Specialist in Educational Administration, and Doctorate in Educational Administration programs.
Among professors responding to the SBE directive, Drs. Ken Jenkins, Appalachian State University; Hal Holloman, East Carolina University; and Thomas Alsbury, North Carolina State University, emerged as key actors. On May 16, 2011, Jenkins, Holloman, and Alsbury filed Articles of Incorporation Nonprofit Organization with the North Carolina Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall. Alsbury was named registrant and first president of NCPEL. As an IRC 501(c)6 membership organization, NCPEL later became an affiliate organization of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators (NCASA).
According to one early NCPEL president (personal communication with Carl Lashley, retired Professor of Education, University of North Carolina Greensboro, October 2022), college and school of education faculty were significantly involved in developing the structures and processes of the Masters of School Administration program. The outstanding feature of each program was to be the principal candidate portfolio, a collection of artifacts building on each of the seven North Carolina Standards for School Executives (NCSSE) codified in 2007.
Once university program faculty presented their revision to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), a decision was made stipulating the review of principal candidate’s electronic portfolio. Two or three educational administration professors from a university program, other than that the student attended, would be reviewed in the summer following graduation. In other words, the outcomes of the revisioning project would be evaluated.
Drs. Hal Holloman, East Carolina University; and Ann Davis, University of North Carolina Greensboro, piloted the evaluation process. Holloman and Davis determined that an incredible amount of time and energy would have to be devoted to the annual review of portfolios. Faculty also questioned whether reviewers would be paid and how discrepancies in evaluations would be resolved. Because student performance, as reflected in the portfolios, was to be a factor in university preparation-program accreditation, NCPEL raised concerns about how programs would be evaluated and classified. Those concerns were not to be allayed.
In 2011, leadership at NCDPI Instruction and evolution in thinking about program approval left the revised process in bureaucratic limbo, according to Lashley. Although programs were expected to follow the process then in place, a system for evaluating student portfolios and re-configuring program approval was never implemented. NCPEL minutes suggest continued attention to the matter was warranted.
The challenge for NCPEL and its members, however, did not stop with the unevaluated principal-preparation programs. During the period from 2011–2014, work began on how to construct an evaluation system for central office administrators and superintendents and how universities would design senior district leader programs. NCPEL member Dr. Art Rouse of East Carolina University led the effort. Documents were generated and portfolios were archived but as of this writing implementation remains a work-in-progress.
According to Lashley, among issues to be decided were: 1) whether or not superintendents could be employed without a license through a waiver from DPI; 2) how developing portfolios, artifacts, and reflections about issues of public concern could ensure confidentiality; 3) the extent to which the portfolio may distract from doctoral research and scholarship; 4) whether or not every candidate who gets a license must experience the same kind of licensure; and 5) the extent to which processes already in place were moribund due to the workload and complexity of evaluation process.
By 2014, work on licensure, evaluation, and program approval was overtaken by other NCPEL priorities. No effort to revitalize standards, student evaluation, or leadership program approval were made or appeared to be on the horizon. The lull among state policymaker activity, however, proved to be short-lived. Over the next two years, growing talk among policymakers about new principal standards led to the creation of Preparing Education Professional Standards Commission (PEPSC) charged with reviewing and revising school leader standards.
PEPSC’s impact on university principal and superintendent preparation program design and implementation and the reconfiguration of the Principals Fellows Program (PFP) convinced many NCPEL members that the need for a seat at the table had never been greater. At the same time, NCPEL Executive Council member resignation, retirement, and relocation created a need to reorganize and revitalize the organization.
Filling the leadership vacuum, in November 2018, Drs. Barbara Howard, Appalachian State University; and Steven Bingham, High Point University, called a meeting of former and potential NCPEL members. Convened at High Point University, over 40 professors representing 14 of the 17 qualified university preparation programs attended the event.
A feature of the event was a panel discussion of The Future of Principal Preparation for North Carolina Schools, featuring members of PEPSC and PFP. In new business, attendees approved a special vote for new officers. Howard was elected president and Jim Palermo, Gardner-Webb University, president-elect. Attending professors from each university appointed representatives. Bingham was appointed executive director.
Despite the worldwide pandemic constraining university personnel travel, face-to-face meetings, and professional development, the period 2018 through 2022 witnessed the growth of NCPEL membership, financial health, and the discharge of its purposes to advocate for sound educational policy and to support education scholarship.
Accordingly, NCPEL has recently involved DPI, PEPSC, and PEP professionals to present at its meetings and to receive input from its members. New representation on the NCASA Board of Directors has overseen the development of a new category of membership for schools and colleges of education. NCASA professionals routinely present at and has its legislative agenda informed by meetings with NCPEL unit members.
Supporting member scholarship and cross-university collaboration, the NCPEL Executive Council sponsored Preparing Principals for North Carolina Schools, published in a special edition of Journal of Organizational and Educational Leadership. Similarly, the Council sponsored a collaborative Study of North Carolina School Superintendents, the first article of which has also been published in a JOEL special edition. Finally, presentations by teams of NCPEL members at NCASA Annual Conferences is at an all-time high, affirming NCPEL’s support of a robust K-12 education system in North Carolina.
As the investment adverts remind us, past performance is not necessarily an indication of future returns. The same may be said for the future of NCPEL. Nothing is given. As with every organization, however, leadership ultimately will be responsible. In little more than a decade of NCPEL’s existence, its leaders—and that would be every member–have much to celebrate.
Dr. Steven Bingham
Executive Director
November 1, 2022