Laying the Groundwork for a Licensure Assessment

Licensure is a strict form of practice regulation: People must first earn a license before they may legally engage in professional practice. Typically, the last hurdle in the licensure process is the passing of an assessment of skills (responsibilities) and knowledge important for competent beginning professional practice. A content-oriented approach to validation is often applied to licensure assessments, and implementing a job analysis is a critical component in such a validation strategy. The job analysis conducted to define the content domain for the School Leaders Licensure Assessment—a licensure assessment for school principals—is described. Content experts first defined responsibilities and knowledge areas believed to be important for competent, beginning professional practice. The survey responses of 2,460 school principals confirmed these judgments. The methods and results of the job analysis are discussed.