The present study examined the Essential Leadership Model in which program administrators participated in three key components—training, coaching, and professional learning communities—over a two-year period. The purpose of the study was to assess the feasibility of maintaining administrator participation throughout the full duration of the model, to explore variation in engagement across the three components, and to determine whether specific patterns of high engagement were associated with stronger adoption of the targeted instructional leadership practices. Findings suggest the model demonstrated strong feasibility, with high administrator retention over two years. Among the four high-engagement patterns identified, only high coaching engagement—defined as programs receiving 100% or more of the intended coaching hours—demonstrated significantly higher levels of administrators’ adoption of instructional leadership practices. These findings underscore the importance of sustained, individualized professional learning experiences, such as coaching, in supporting leadership development.
Lee et al. (Mon,) studied this question.