District leaders that more actively recruit and groom teachers for leadership positions may increase the quality of future applicants and ease transition periods, some education-leadership experts say.

"There's a perfect storm in the whole education profession, including in leadership: a massive demographic turnover, where the boomer generation is leaving and there's no intermediary generation immediately ready to take over," said Boston College education professor Andrew Hargreaves and co-author of the 2006 book Sustainable Leadership, with Dean Fink.

Succession planning “is essential to widen the applicant pool for school leadership and increase the quantity and quality of future school leaders,” argues a report to be released this week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development comparing leadership policies and practices in 22 countries. “It is a way to counteract the principal shortages that are looming in many countries, and to ensure that there is an adequate supply of qualified personnel to choose from when the incumbent leader leaves the position.”

Yet the study, “Improving School Leadership,” found that “insufficient attention is being given to identifying and fostering potential future leaders in most countries.”

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Source: Education Week, 4.15.08