OAR 584-420-0060
Principal License: Program Standards

(1) Purpose of the Program: To prepare candidates for the Principal License. Program completers must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, professional dispositions and cultural competencies necessary to promote the academic, career, personal and social development of pre-kindergarten to grade 12 students.

(2) To receive state recognition of a Principal License Program, the program must include:

(a) Clinical practices as the foundation of the program, with coursework as a support to the practical learning experience. In addition, the EPP must meet the minimum Commission standards for clinical practices, as provided in subsection (10) of this rule; and

(b) Practical experience and content that will enable candidates to gain the knowledge, skills, abilities, professional dispositions, and cultural competencies to meet the standards set forth in this rule and the TSPC Program Review and Standards Handbook.

(3) Standard 1: Mission, Vision, and Core Values. Program completers who successfully complete a Principal preparation program understand and demonstrate the capability to promote the success and well-being of each student, teacher, and leader by applying the knowledge, skills, commitments, and equity lens necessary for: 1) an inclusive, shared mission and vision; 2) a set of core values of high-quality education, equity, and inclusion; 3) a support system; 4) a school improvement process designed to prioritize addressing race and other group-based inequities; and 5) the development of partnerships between schools, preschool and early childhood education programs, and postsecondary education, which recognize their importance to successful student learning. Program completers must understand and demonstrate the ability to:

(a) (MISSION AND VISION) Develop, advocate for, and implement a collaboratively developed, and data-informed mission and vision for the school rooted in the values of equity and inclusion;

(b) (VALUES) Articulate, advocate, model, and cultivate a set of core values that define the school’s culture and stress the imperative of child-centered education; high expectations and student support; equity, inclusiveness, and social justice; openness, caring, and trust;

(c) (SUPPORT SYSTEM) Build, maintain, and evaluate a coherent, inclusive system of academic and social supports, discipline, services, extracurricular activities, and accommodations to meet the full range of needs of each student; and

(d) (IMPROVEMENT) Engage staff and school community to develop, implement and evaluate a comprehensive, continuous, responsive, sustainable, data-based school improvement process to achieve the mission of the school and address gaps in resources, opportunities, and outcomes for historically marginalized groups.

(4) Standard 2: Ethics, Professional Norms, and Sociopolitical Leadership. Program completers who successfully complete a Principal preparation program understand and demonstrate the capability to promote the success and well-being of each student, teacher, and leader by applying the knowledge, skills, commitments, and equity lens necessary for: 1) professional norms; 2) decision-making; 3) educational values; 4) ethical behavior, and (5) sociopolitical awareness. Program completers must understand and demonstrate the ability to:

(a) (PROFESSIONAL NORMS) Enact the professional norms of integrity, fairness, transparency, trust, collaboration, perseverance, learning and continuous improvement in their actions, decision making and relationships with other school personnel and students, as provided in 584-020-0035 (The Ethical Educator), the Ethical Educator;

(b) (DECISION-MAKING) Evaluate the moral and legal consequences of decisions;

(c) (VALUES) Model essential educational values of democracy, community, individual freedom and responsibility, equity, social justice, and diversity;

(d) (ETHICAL BEHAVIOR) Model ethical behavior in their actions and relationships with other school personnel and students, as provided in 584-020-0035 (The Ethical Educator), the Ethical Educator; and

(e) (SOCIOPOLITICAL) Understands, values, and responds to the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context including the state of Oregon’s and the local community’s cultural, social, intellectual, and political resources to promote student learning and school improvement.

(5) Standard 3: Equity and Cultural Leadership. Program completers who successfully complete a Principal preparation program understand and demonstrate the capability to promote the success and well-being of each student, teacher, and leader by applying the knowledge, skills, commitments, and equity lens necessary for: 1) equitable protocols; 2) equitable opportunity and access; 3) culturally responsive practices; 4) an inclusive school community; and 5) promotion of cultural pluralism. Program completers must understand and demonstrate the ability to:

(a) (EQUITABLE PROTOCOLS) Develop, implement, train and evaluate equitable guidelines, procedures and decisions that ensure each student and stakeholder is treated fairly, respectfully, and with an understanding of culture and context, including teacher and administrator practices, procedures and decisions related to disciplinary referral, discipline, suspension and expulsion of students and the effects and potential for disproportionality of the discipline practices on marginalized populations;

(b) (EQUITABLE OPPORTUNITY AND ACCESS) Ensure that each student has equitable access to effective teachers, learning opportunities, academic, social and behavioral support, and other resources necessary for success;

(c) (RESPONSIVE PRACTICE) Develop responsive practices among teachers and staff so they are able to recognize, confront, and alter institutional biases that result in student marginalization, deficit-based schooling, and low expectations associated with race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual orientation, and disability or special status;

(d) (INCLUSIVE SCHOOL COMMUNITY) Build and maintain a school culture that ensures each student and family is treated fairly, respectfully, in a responsive manner and free from biases, including the capacity to name and address how power, privilege, whiteness, racism, ableism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, xenophobia and other forms of “othering” operate to sustain inequities for historically marginalized students and families; and

(e) (PLURALISM) Promote the preparation of students to live productively in and contribute to the diverse pluralistic cultural contexts of a global society.

(6) Standard 4: Instructional Leadership. Program completers who successfully complete a Principal preparation program understand and demonstrate the capability to promote the success and well-being of each student, teacher, and leader by applying the knowledge, skills, commitments and equity lens necessary for inclusive and culturally responsive: 1) learning systems; 2) instructional practices; 3) assessment systems; and 4) learning supports. Program completers must understand and demonstrate the ability to:

(a) (LEARNING SYSTEM) Develop, align, and implement coherent and inclusive systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment that are responsive to student needs, embody high expectations for student learning, align with academic standards within and across grade levels, and promote academic success and social emotional well-being for each student;

(b) (INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE) Promote challenging and engaging instructional practice consistent with knowledge of learning theory, child development, and culturally responsive pedagogy and practice;

(c) (ASSESSMENT SYSTEM) Employ technically appropriate system of assessment and data collection, management, analysis, and use to monitor student progress and improve instruction with a focus on addressing the ways in which the learning and organizational conditions of the school produce disparate outcomes for students based on their race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual orientation, and disability or special status; and

(d) (LEARNING SUPPORTS) Employ effective and appropriate technologies, staffing, professional development, structures, and communication to support equitable access to learning for each student.

(7) Standard 5: Community and External Leadership. Program completers who successfully complete a Principal preparation program understand and demonstrate the capability to promote the success and well-being of each student, teacher, and leader by applying the knowledge, skills, commitments, and equity lens necessary for meaningful, reciprocal, inclusive, and mutually beneficial: 1) communication; 2) engagement; 3) partnerships, including, but not limited to early childhood and postsecondary education providers; and 4) advocacy. Program completers must understand and demonstrate the ability to:

(a) (COMMUNICATION) Maintain effective two-way communication with families and the community;

(b) (ENGAGEMENT) Engage and develop a welcoming environment for families, early learning partners, community, and school personnel in strengthening student learning in and out of school;

(c) (PARTNERSHIPS) Build and sustain productive partnerships with communities and public and private sectors to promote school improvement and student development; and

(d) (ADVOCACY) Identify needs of the school, district, students, families, and the community, with a focus on prioritizing groups whose needs have historically gone unmet due to their race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual orientation, and disability or special status.

(8) Standard 6: Operations and Management. Program completers who successfully complete a Principal preparation program understand and demonstrate the capability to promote the success and well-being of each student, teacher, and leader by applying the knowledge, skills, commitments, and equity lens necessary for: 1) management and operation; 2) equitable distribution of resources; 3) communication systems; and 4) legal compliance. Program completers must understand and demonstrate the ability to:

(a) (MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION SYSTEMS) Develop, monitor, and evaluate school management and operation systems to address and support each student’s learning needs;

(b) (EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES) Plan for, seek, acquire, and manage resources, including the planning and responsibility for school budgeting; physical resources; technological resources; data; and other resources to support student learning, collective professional capability and community, and family engagement with attention to equitably distributing resources to students who have been historically marginalized;

(c) (COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS) Develop and coordinate communication systems to deliver actionable information for classroom, school improvement, and community engagement; and

(d) (LEGAL COMPLIANCE) Comply with applicable laws, rights, policies, and regulations as appropriate so as to promote student and adult success, including the principal’s responsibility to:

(A) Assure proper assignment of licensed teachers, administrators and other licensed school personnel within their school;

(B) Supervise the conduct of all school personnel volunteers, who have direct contact with students in their school;

(D) Monitor and supervise the access of non-school personnel and visitors to the school campus;

(E) Properly authorize out-of-school suspension and expulsions of the students under their authority;

(F) Properly authorize the expenditure of public funds under their authority; and

(G) Properly conduct investigations of complaints and employee misconduct to assure the safety of Oregon school children.

(9) Standard 7: Human Resource Leadership. Program completers who successfully complete a Principal preparation program understand and demonstrate the capability to promote the success and well-being of each student, teacher, and leader by applying the knowledge, skills, commitments, and equity lens necessary for: 1) human resources; 2) professional culture; 3) workplace conditions; and 4) supervision and evaluation. Program completers must understand and demonstrate the ability to:

(a) (HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT) Develop and implement a human resource management system that recruits, hires, and supports, develops, and retains effective, culturally responsive, caring, and diverse educational personnel and creates leadership pathways for effective succession;

(b) (PROFESSIONAL CULTURE) Develop and sustain a professional culture of engagement, trust, equity, inclusion, and commitment to shared vision, goals, and objectives pertaining to the education of the whole child;

(c) (WORKPLACE CONDITIONS) Develop workplace conditions that promote employee leadership, well-being, and professional growth; and

(d) (SUPERVISION AND EVALUATION) Implement research-anchored, equity-focused systems of supervision and evaluation, including mentorship and support of newly-assigned educators, that provide actionable feedback about instruction and culturally responsive and other professional practices, promoting collective accountability.

(10) Standard 8: Clinical Practice Program completers who successfully complete a Principal preparation program engaged in a substantial and sustained educational leadership clinical practices experience that developed their ability to promote the success and well-being of each student, teacher and leader through clinical practice within a building setting, monitored and evaluated by a qualified, on-site mentor.

(a) (FIELD EXPERIENCES) Candidates are provided coherent, authentic, experiences that provide opportunities to synthesize and apply the content knowledge, develop and refine the professional skills, and demonstrate their capabilities as articulated in each of the elements included in Principal License Program Standards (1) through (7).

(b) (AUTHENTIC) Candidates are provided a minimum of 2 semester or 3 quarter credits of concentrated (10-15 hours per week) Principal clinical experiences, with a minimum of 300 hours of total clinical practice experiences provided throughout the program. The clinical practice experience must include authentic leadership activities within a building setting and must include experience in both the elementary and secondary levels.

(c) (MENTOR) Candidates are provided a mentor who has demonstrated effectiveness as an educational leader within a building setting; understands the specific school context; is present for a significant portion of the clinical practice; is selected collaboratively by the candidate, a representative of the school and/or district, and program faculty; and is provided with training by the supervising institution.

(d) (OBSERVATIONS AND EVALUATIONS) Candidates are provided a minimum number of observations and evaluations, as provided:

(A) Faculty Supervisor: The faculty supervisor must conduct evaluations and observations of the administrator candidate during their clinical practice, including:

(i) At least two formal observations of the candidate, which include information on the administrator’s performance from the mentor; and

(ii) At least one formal evaluation of the candidate.

(B) Mentor: The mentor must conduct evaluations and observations of the administrator candidate during the clinical practice, including:

(i) At least two formal observations of the candidate; and

(ii) At least one formal evaluation of the candidate.

(11) Implementation of Standards: The Commission may not deny approval of a Principal License program for failure to comply with the standards until August 1, 2022 if the EPP:

(a) Develops a plan to comply with the standards; and

(b) Submits the plan to the Commission prior to August 1, 2021.

(12) A plan submitted under this section may phase in implementation of the requirements if implementation is completed by August 1, 2022, which is the beginning of the fourth academic year following the date the Commission first adopts the Principal License standards.

Source: Rule 584-420-0060 — Principal License: Program Standards, https://secure.sos.state.or.us/oard/view.action?ruleNumber=584-420-0060 (accessed May 26, 2025).

California:	Codes
Colorado:	C.R.S.
Florida:	Statutes
Nevada:	NRS
New York:	Laws
Oregon:	OAR, ORS
Texas:	Statutes
World:	Rome Statute, International Dictionary

OAR 584-420-0060 Principal License: Program Standards

OAR 584-420-0060
Principal License: Program Standards