Founded in 1999, the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at the University of California, Berkeley, has three areas of work: aspiring leader preparation, early career leader induction, and professional learning support of a diverse community of equity focused leaders who will improve education for vulnerable and historically underserved students in California. Fifteen years ago, Berkeley PLI began the practice of leader induction as an innovative model for early career support. Originally designed as an invitational and voluntary continuation of the preparation program, the current mission of PLI’s Leadership Support Program (LSP), is to induct a diverse community of equity focused school leaders who will improve education for vulnerable and historically underserved students in California’s public schools in support of social justice. In total, LSP has inducted over 300 leaders in California to earn the Professional Clear Administrative Services Credential or full administrative licensure. In the last five years alone (2014-2019), LSP participants worked in over 50 districts or local educational agencies in California.
The pioneering work of Berkeley PLI positioned the program to anticipate and support the implementation of a key new policy that mandated leader induction for all new administrators in California. Specifically, in 2014, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC), an agency in the Executive Branch of California State Government that serves as a state standards board for educator preparation for the public schools of California, approved dramatic shifts in
licensure for school leaders in the state by mandating a two-year leader induction program as the single pathway to obtaining full administrative licensure. This was a radical departure from the prior requirements that were more flexible and less time consuming. The purpose of this new policy was to address important concerns posed by then State Superintendent of Instruction Tom Torlakson who stated in his report Greatness by Design that “With its pioneering [Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment] program, California has been a national leader in developing mentoring programs for beginning teachers. In its early years, this program was shown to reduce attrition and improve teacher competence... [yet] in comparison to other states, California has lagged in supporting school leaders (p.42).”