Wednesday, August 1, 2:00-3:30, SUB Ballroom A, Interactive Panel Discussion

The Indian Leadership Education and Development (I LEAD) project has been preparing American Indian educators for school leadership positions for more than a decade. I LEAD graduates have held leadership positions at every level within the American educational system—school, district, state, tribal and federal. Using the I LEAD project as an example of an educational leadership preparation program that purposefully sought to prepare leaders who were responsive to the needs of their rural communities, this panel discussion will explore the following essential question:

How are community responsive leaders prepared and what impact can they have on local rural communities?

In exploring this essential question, the panel will attempt to answer the following questions from the perspectives of program design, program implementation, and local engagement:

  1. What were the explicit objectives of the I LEAD project?

  2. How was the I LEAD program designed to meet these objectives and how has it changed over the course of twelve years?

  3. What is different about I LEAD project that can be generalized to community responsive leadership preparation?

  4. What impact have I LEAD graduates had on school systems serving specific rural communities?