I LEAD Act of 2007

Improving the Leadership and Effectiveness of Administrators for Districts Act of 2007 or the I LEAD Act of 2007 - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (the Act) to direct the Secretary of Education to establish a national competitive grant program awarding grants to partnerships, each composed of a state and a consortium of high-need local educational agencies (LEAs), to: (1) contract with experienced external agencies for research-based evaluations of the effectiveness of state school leader certification or licensure requirements in recruiting, training, and retaining effective school leaders who improve student achievement at schools receiving improvement funds under part A of title I of the Act; (2) use such evaluations, if the certification or licensure requirements are shown to be ineffective, to develop plans to improve such requirements and the training, incentives, and support offered current and prospective school leaders; and (3) if they were required to develop a plan, create model school leadership zones by implementing such plans in an urban and a rural high-need LEA participating in their partnerships.

Requires the Secretary to: (1) contract with an experienced external agency to evaluate the effectiveness of school leadership zones in recruiting, training, and retraining school leaders and improving student achievement; and (2) award an additional grant to partnership grantees that successfully create model school leadership zones so that they can revise school leader certification or licensure requirements in order to replicate the practices of such zones in other LEAs within their states.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov