How do school leaders make tough decisions in the moment?  Do novices decide differently than veterans?  Do their decisions differ across countries?

A four-country research project, “Innovative School Leadership Formation Across the Americas (ISLF)” is seeking answers to these questions for the first time in the Americas.  Originally a project integrating RILE (Red Interamericana de Liderazgo Educacional) with PELS (Penn Educational Leadership Simulations), this hemispheric research effort brings together faculty from Teachers College, Columbia University; University of Pennsylvania; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia; and the Ministry of Education, Perú. 

The study explores school leaders’ day-to-day decision-making in the following way. Drawing upon the accumulated experiences of veteran school leaders in several countries, the project collaboratively developed a single web-based decision-making simulation (with an accompanying survey) for a challenging scenario faced by a public urban school principal.  Each participant takes on the role of the principal and must make a series of decisions typical of the daily work of school leaders, all in a confidential space.  After finishing the simulation, each participant receives a personalized dashboard of feedback, briefly describing their decision-making patterns.

The project is now recruiting participants from Chile, Peru, Colombia, and the United States. If you are interested in this first-of-its-kind, free cross-national experience – and/or if you know of colleagues who may be interested – please email Dr. Mike Johanek at mcj2009@tc.columbia.edu .