As associate dean of the College of Education, Lenoar
"Len" Foster's duties include stimulating,
coordinating, reviewing and tracking research proposals
and awards for faculty and graduate students. He also
supervises staff in the Office of Graduate Studies and
reviews curriculum changes for graduate programs.
Research interests
Foster's areas of research include school principals,
school reform/restructuring, socio-cultural influences
in schools, higher education, and historically black
colleges and universities.
His current research efforts include drawing from
historical sources to disaggregate those qualities and
strategies employed by African American school
administrators and teacher leaders that served as
clarion calls for achievement and positive engagement
by African American students. These same qualities and
strategies should be exemplars of the types of
leadership styles employed by administrators and
teacher leaders who work in schools populated by large
numbers of African American students today. He is also
exploring the foundational effects of
distance-delivered instruction and other higher
education services; examining the socialization and
acculturation processes of white faculty members who
administer and teach at historically black colleges and
universities; and looking at the leadership styles and
strategies of school principals designated as
"Principals of the Year" by state and national
administrator associations.
Teaching/professional interests
Foster has a dual appointment in Educational Leadership
and Higher Education. Previously, he served as a
tenured associate professor in the departments of
Educational Leadership at the University of Montana,
and San Diego State University. Foster also taught at
the University of San Francisco where he coordinated a
distance graduate program in educational
administration, and he is a former high school
principal and curriculum coordinator.
Recent accomplishments
- One of eight members of a national research panel
charged with the revision of the Interstate School
Leadership Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards by
the National Policy Board for Educational
Administration (NPBEA). These research
empirically-based standards, used throughout the US and
several foreign countries, govern the academic
preparation and professional certification of
school principals, superintendents, and a variety
of other school leaders. The standards were
disseminated in 2008.
- Research article selected as one of 83 nationally
empirically-based publications used to revise the
Interstate School Leadership Licensure Consortium
(ISLLC) Standards that govern the academic preparation
and professional certification of school principals,
superintendents, and a variety of other school leaders
throughout the fifty states and in several
foreign countries
- Section program chair (Section 5: Leadership
Development) for Division A (Administration,
Organization, and Leadership) for the 2007 annual
program of the American Educational Research
Association (AERA), New York City.
- Named Program Chair for Division A
(Administration, Organization, and Leadership) for the
2009 annual program of the American Educational
Research Association (AERA), San Diego.
- Editor, ASHE Reader Series in Higher
Education Editor, The Black College Review:
Research, Policy and Practice (Stylus Publishing)
Chair, National Task Force on Principal Preparation,
National Association of Secondary School Principals
(2004-2006)
Educational background
- Ed.D. Educational Administration and Higher
Education, University of Nevada, Reno
- Advanced Study, William Coe Fellow in American
History, Stanford University
- M.Ed. Secondary Education and Curriculum,
University of Nevada, Reno
- B.S. History/English/Secondary Education,
University of Nevada, Reno
