Education Week recently highlighted ULM’s College of Education and Human Development.

After state policymakers in Louisiana raised the standards for graduate programs in educational leadership, ULM produced the only immediately fully-approved plan for new training programs, according to Education Week.

Fourteen other Louisiana universities submitted plans. Nine were approved conditionally, and five were sent back to the planning stage.

The idea behind the new requirements is to ensure that Louisiana universities produce better-qualified school administrators to lead school improvement. Louisiana is not the only state to issue the ultimatum to redesign the pre-service programs or refrain from training school administrators.

The new training programs are less concerned with certain courses being taught and more focused on producing students who have mastered skills like data-driven decision-making, parent engagement and leadership of staff development.