Computer Simulations

Published Online: October 30, 2007 Published in Print: October 31, 2007 Computer Simulations Hone Leadership Skills By Lynn Olson Lowell, Mass. An $11 million executive-training course for principals, modeled after best practices used in the corporate, medical, engineering, and military worlds, is starting to gain traction among states. Developed by the National Institute for School Leadership, or NISL, a for-profit company based in Washington, the program is now used widely in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania, as well as in individual school districts in five other states. Computerized simulations designed to help prepare principals who are instructional leaders lie at the heart of the 14-unit curriculum. “War games, exercises, simulations are at the core of any culminating experience,” explained Robert C. Hughes, the president of NISL, “because it requires the application of knowledge to a new scenario.”