INSPIRE

National  Center for the Evaluation of Educational Leadership Preparation and Practice 

website

https://uepc.utah.edu/our-work/inspire-leadership/

Center directors

Andrea Rorrer 
Utah Education Policy Center, Director
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, Professor 
1721 Campus Center Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
801-243-5463 (cell)
https://uepc.utah.edu


Michelle Young
Dean and professor, School of Education
UC Berkeley
Berkeley Way West Building (BWW)
2121 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94720-1670
(510) 643-6644
bsedean@berkeley.edu

Center purpose/vision

UCEA’s National Center for the Evaluation of Educational Leadership Preparation and Practice embraces UCEA’s commitment to excellence in leadership preparation, research, and continuous improvement. NCEELPP is supported by scholars from the Initiative for Systemic Program Improvement through Research in Educational (INSPIRE) Leadership Collaborative, which provides leadership development and evaluation resources to preparation programs, states, districts, and schools.  The INSPIRE Leadership Collaborative offers validated surveys, including the INSPIRE Graduate Survey (INSPIRE-G), INSPIRE Program Survey (NSPIRE-PP), and INSPIRE Leader in Practice Survey (INSPIRE-LP). The INSPIRE Surveys are aligned with national and state educational leadership standards, and offers evidence about the quality, effectiveness and improvement of leadership preparation and practice. INSPIRE Surveys continue to be used to evaluate the impact of leadership preparation programs on the experiences of graduate students. Recent research using multiple years of data collected through INSPIRE-G and INSPIRE-PP surveys has shown significant positive relationships between program attributes and graduates’ perceptions of program quality, leadership learning, and career intention of becoming a school leader (see for example: Anderson, et al., 2017; Ni, et al., 2022; Xia, et al., 2019). Institutions of higher education that provide leadership preparation programs are invited to participate in the validated INSPIRE Graduate Survey.  



Center research project(s) abstract/summary and/or list of related pubs

Ni, Y., Rorrer, A., Xia, J., Pounder, D., & Young, M. (2023). Educational Leadership Preparation Program Features and Graduates’ Assessment of Program Quality. Journal of Research on Leadership Education.18(3), 457-481. https://doi.org/10.1177/19427751221094865
Xia, J., Ni, Y., Pounder, D., Rorrer, A., & Young, M. (2020). Leadership Preparation Program Qualities and Graduates’ Career Intention. Paper presented at annual virtual conference of the University Council for Educational Administration.
Ni, Y., Rorrer, A.K., Pounder, D., Young, M., & Korach, S. (2019). Leadership matters: Preparation program quality and learning outcomes.  Journal of Educational Administration. 57(2), 185-206. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-05-2018-0093
Pounder, D.G. (2019).  The Evaluation of Educational Leadership Preparation.  In D. Fisher (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Education.  UK:  Routledge.
Anderson, E., Winn, K., Young, M., Groth, C., Korach, S., Pounder, D., & Rorrer, A. (October, 2017).  Examining university leadership preparation:  An analysis of program attributes and practices.  Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 13(4):375-397. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942775117735873
Pounder, D.G (2011). Leader preparation:  Implications for policy, practice, and research.  Educational Administration Quarterly Special Issue on Leader Preparation, 47(1), 258-267.


Opportunities or collaborations

The Institute for Systemic Program Improvement through Research in Educational Leadership (INSPIRE Leadership) Collaborative, which provides a suite of surveys and evaluation resources to support continuous improvement of leadership preparation, professional learning, and practice, seeks research partners and partner institutions.  The INSPIRE Leadership Surveys are available for leadership preparation programs, states, districts, and schools and can be used to provide feedback on program designs, implementation, outcomes, and program improvement.  The INSPIRE Leadership Surveys are aligned with national educational leadership standards and even the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) Institutional and Program Quality Criteria.


The INSPIRE Leadership Suite was designed by and is administered by a team of leadership development experts from the INSPIRE Leadership Collaborative. The INSPIRE Survey suite is administered by the Utah Education Policy Center.

Contact info 

For more information or to participate in the INSPIRE surveys, please contact Matt Doane (matt.doane@utah.edu


Other Info

INSPIRE Leadership Collaborative Team:
Yongmei Ni, PhD                         
Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, University of Utah
Assistant Director for Methodology at the Utah Education Policy Center
INSPIRE Faculty Fellow
Jiangang Xia, PhD
Associate Professor of Educational Administration, University of Nebraska
INSPIRE Support Team
Matt Doane, MPP
Study Coordinator and Research and Evaluation Associate, Utah Education Policy Center
Bill Altermatt, PhD
Lead Data Scientist, Utah Education Policy Center