Ineffective school leadership has increasingly become the focus of educators and school leadership preparation programs with the emphasis on schools making adequate yearly progress as defined by the No Child Left behind legislation. Because ineffective school leadership has become synonymous with ineffective schools, this study addressed the preparation of school leaders. The purpose of this non-experimental study was to investigate the perceptions of leadership preparation by school leaders who were participants and non-participants of Georgia's Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI). The study utilized a survey research design. Purposive sampling was used to sample a population of approximately 1100 school leaders in Georgia. The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale was used as the data collection instrument in this study. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize all data collected, and a series of analyses of covariance computations were used to test the study's hypotheses. The hypotheses considered the differences between the 50 mean subscale scores of the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale by gender and participation in GLISI, controlling for years of experience as the covariate. The results of the study indicated no significant differences among the variables after controlling for years of experience. Difference by gender on the Protect Instructional Time subscale was statistically significant. Administrative leadership programs focused on school improvement inform strategies for developing new generations of effective educational leaders required to create and maintain successful schools. This research is significant to the field of educational leadership and adds to social change by contributing direct empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of leadership programs, such as GLISI. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]