The formation of a personal development instrument that will facilitate growth for educational administration students at Kansas State University

Kansas State University does not have a method of assessing personal strengths and skill development needs of graduate students in Educational Administration. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument that could be used to assess personal strengths and skill development needs of Educational Administration students so that program planning can be facilitated. A total of one hundred eighty one professors of educational administration, school administrators, graduate students, and significant other individuals participated in searching the literature, selecting and validating skill dimensions, and developing and validating the assessment instrument. Twenty-six descriptors and thirty-six search sources were used to secure the documents from which sixty-one skill dimensions that are important for success in school administration were selected. The identified skill dimensions were validated by a group of eight professors of educational administration, a group of three practicing school administrators, and eighty-nine members of three professional administrator groups in Kansas. The assessment instrument was validated using graduate students in educational administration at Kansas State University and significant other individuals selected by the graduate students. The findings of the study indicate that an assessment instrument can be used to assess personal strengths and skill development needs of graduate students in educational administration and feedback from the assessment can be used to facilitate program development for those students.