Termed-Out Eastin to Run Principal-Training Program

Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, termed out after eight years as the chief of California’s public schools, said she will head a new Washington, D.C.-based organization that trains principals.

After leaving the state office next month, Eastin will become executive director of the National Institute for School Leadership, which is to help school districts train principals with an on-the-job curriculum based on models from business, the military and higher education.

Eastin said she turned down several private-sector offers to take the institute job. She said she will use the post to encourage education schools to put more emphasis on preparing school leaders rather than researchers.

“I believe we could do with this model some of what we did in the late ‘70s and ‘80s with business when it helped change what was taught in the schools of business in this country,” Eastin said.

The two-year program prepares administrators within school districts to train working principals in high-level executive skills, said acting Director Robert Hughes, former dean of the National War College. The first to receive the training, Hughes said, will be the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and a large urban district in Florida, which he said he could not identify because the contract has not been finalized.

Eastin served four terms in the California Legislature before winning statewide office as superintendent in 1994. Term limits precluded her seeking a third term. She will leave office Jan. 5, and begin the new job Feb. 1.

During Eastin’s time as the state’s top educator, the public schools underwent almost constant reform, including class-size reduction in kindergarten through third grade and the adoption of new academic standards.