Summary

The study of educational administration in the United Kingdom began in a limited way in the 1970s, but it became much more significant following the 1988 Education Reform Act, which gave substantial powers to principals and school governing bodies. This led the scope of leadership and administration to be greatly expanded to include management of finance, staff, pupil admissions, and the school site as well as their traditional roles as instructional leaders.

Provision for public education was disaggregated from 1999, when education devolved to assemblies in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as part of the government’s devolution agenda. In England, the government established the National College for School Leadership in 2000, which had a major impact on policy, research, and practice for the next decade, before its decline starting in 2013 and its eventual closure in 2016. School leadership preparation is now at a crossroads, within an increasingly fragmented school system and without the national voice that the College provided.