We’re Not Preparing School Leaders—We’re Credentialing Them: Fixing the Way We Grow Leaders
- Heather Lyon
- May 14
- 6 min read
Hello,
In biology, stem cells are known for one powerful quality: they can become anything. Given the right conditions, they can develop into nerve cells, muscle tissue, or even vital organs. That potential makes them essential—but also incomplete on their own. Because while a stem cell can become anything, it eventually must become something to serve a purpose.
That same logic applies to how we prepare school and district leaders. Leadership certification programs often treat aspiring administrators like educational stem cells: broadly trained, technically ready, and assumed to be able to morph into whatever role the system needs. Principal? Curriculum director? Superintendent? Sure—you’re certified. Go figure it out.
But leadership is not theoretical. It’s situational, complex, and role-specific. And the truth is: leaders are rarely equipped for the jobs they’ll actually hold—especially their first ones.
And, if we’re being honest, often not their last ones either.
What the Peter Principle Reveals
The Peter Principle is a concept from organizational theory that suggests people tend to be promoted to their level of incompetence. In other words, someone does a great job, they get promoted, and eventually reach a position they’re not equipped to handle—because the skills that made them successful before aren't the ones they need now.
We see this across fields. A great salesman who loves working directly with customers becomes a manager who struggles to respond to emails, build spreadsheets, and facilitate meetings. A strong store manager who likes being connected to a hubbub of a single location becomes a regional manager who hates paperwork, creating system-wide protocols, and going to meetings. People who were really good at X are promoted to Y where they are no longer operating from a place of expertise, but exhaustion, discontent, and disappointment.
In education, this looks different. You can’t be promoted to an administrative role simply because you’re a stellar teacher. The system requires formal training and certification to avoid exactly this kind of misalignment. That’s the intent, anyway.
But here’s where it breaks down: while initial certification ensures some readiness for entry-level administration, it treats all other leadership roles as interchangeable. So once you’re in, you’re on your own.
Adding insult to injury, the training you went through to become an admin didn’t prepare you for the realities of your entry-level position. How do you earn your building-level certification in NY? Up until this year, you took 30ish hours of coursework in educational administration and completed an internship. Want to be a district-level leader? Tack on two additional courses and an internship. Voila! You’re ready to lead! The result? An initial training experience that’s a one-size-fits-all, we’re-never-going-to-see-you-again model. And that’s how we end up falling into the Peter Principle trap anyway.
A teacher becomes an assistant principal—but wasn’t trained for the job-specific demands of entry-level leadership. Over time, and with informal mentoring, they get good at being an AP. Then they become a principal. But being a principal requires an entirely different skill set. And when they excel at that, they eventually apply for a superintendent role. By that point, it’s been a decade or more since their original coursework. They’ve never worked at the district level. Suddenly, they’re overwhelmed by budgeting, strategic planning, and managing a school board. An exceptional building leader becomes a district leader—and is thrown into systems thinking, large-scale communication, and political navigation without the training those responsibilities demand.
They weren’t promoted because they were unqualified. They were promoted because they were excellent—in a different role.
This isn’t a story of failure. It’s a story of a system that sets great people up to struggle. Because when we rely solely on general preparation to carry leaders through increasingly complex jobs, we do so at their expense—and at the expense of the communities they serve.
Coursework Helps—But It’s Not Enough
To be clear, coursework has a role to play. If it’s timely, role-specific, and aligned to actual job demands, it can be powerful. Good coursework builds a shared language, introduces foundational theory, and contextualizes key practices. But coursework alone is insufficient.
To truly prepare leaders to succeed in their jobs—not just a job—we need job-specific preparation paired with real-life exposure and targeted support. That means mentoring, coaching, and practice-based learning grounded in the realities of the role. It’s one thing to take a course on supervision. It’s another to shadow a school leader as they mediate a conflict between high-performing teachers or coach a struggling educator with clarity and empathy. Those moments matter. And they can’t be simulated in a university classroom. They need to be seen—and supported—by someone who’s ready to move into that level of leadership.
A Role-Specific Model for Leadership Development
What if leadership development actually mirrored the pathway educators walk? Imagine a modular, scaffolded leadership pipeline—one that builds capacity at each level, provides relevant coursework and immersive experiences, and supports advancement through mentoring and coaching.
Here’s what that could look like:
Initial Certification – For Entry-Level Leadership Roles
Target Roles: Deans, Assistant Principals, Instructional Coaches, Coordinators
A 15-credit foundational program focused on the essential entry-level skills:
Time management
Adult communication
Student discipline systems
Conflict navigation
Instructional leadership basics
Balancing immediate building needs with long-term planning
Scheduling
This initial certification would be paired with a structured internship in an entry-level leadership role, where the candidate experiences the practical demands of early-stage leadership. Under the guidance of a skilled, in-service, entry-level leader, aspiring administrators would learn how the theory plays out in the day-to-day complexities of real school environments.
Each subsequent leadership tier would involve targeted coursework paired with structured mentoring and would result in an endorsement recognizing the leader’s preparation for that specific level of responsibility.
This model abandons the outdated idea that one-size-fits-all, 100% front-loaded leadership prep is worthwhile or sufficient. By aligning professional learning to specific roles, we prepare leaders with the tools they’ll actually need—when they need them. It also creates space for specialized leadership pathways, like directors of special education, HR, or technology, who require targeted knowledge not found in traditional, generic coursework.
Full Circle: From Potential to Purpose
Just like stem cells, school leaders need more than just potential. They need clear direction, the right environment, and meaningful, role-specific development.
We can no longer afford to treat leadership preparation as if “close enough” is good enough.
Because when we prepare every leader in the same way and hope they figure it out on the fly, we feed into the very dynamic the Peter Principle warns us about. We promote excellent people into roles they weren’t actually trained for—and then wonder why turnover is high, confidence is low, and systems stagnate.
Let’s change the model.
Let’s stop preparing leaders for a job.
And start preparing them for their job.
Because leadership isn't about generic potential. It's about purposeful readiness.
~Heather
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The show is based on a true story about a woman diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer who turned her experience into a podcast by the same name---one that ultimately inspired this series. And wow… get your tissues ready. This show will make you cry tears of joy, laughter, and sorrow. Sometimes all at once.
You’ll find yourself not wanting anyone to walk into the room—not just because of what might be on screen (again, it gets spicy), but because you won’t want anyone to see you uncontrollably weeping. Most of all, Dying for Sex is one of the most honest and beautiful portrayals of friendship I’ve ever seen. You’ll want to call your best friend at the end of each episode—just to say, “I love you.”
P.P.S. Please remember to...
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Thanks for this Heather. There is so much talent and potential waiting out there in leaders who have only to get re aligned from a good educational systems chiropractor. Alignment Alignment Alignment...
I've been in education for 30 years now... your article was the first time I considered the Peter Principle as an example of district leadership. It all makes complete sense. And, yes, we need to prepare our administrators, directors and superintendents to become instructional and institutional leaders-- not managers. There's a difference. Thank you for your thoughts!