As our nation faces a severe principal shortage, Sandra Stein and Liz Gewirtzman offer a timely breakthrough--a detailed overview and explanation of a principal training model that can easily be implemented through school-university partnerships.

The authors base their book on the Aspiring Leaders Program (ALP), a collaboration of several New York City school districts and the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College, The City University of New York. The program takes a unique approach to principal development that integrates the craft knowledge of master practitioners with the theoretical knowledge and research of college professors. Stein and Gewirtzman provide not only a provocative rationale for radically transforming school leadership development through such a program, but also a practical guide to get there through a model that includes:

• systems of accountability
• cycles of continuous improvement
• responsiveness to local realities
• delivery of a rigorous curriculum
• instruction as the center of the principal's role.