Accreditation bodies, state departments of education, learned societies, and critics of educational leadership programs have emphasized the need for such programs to recruit and select the candidates who have the greatest potential of becoming effective school leaders. To meet this challenge, most university principal preparation programs have attempted to add more rigor to the selection process through a variety of ways. Unfortunately, many of the procedures have become perfunctory in nature, and have not been good predictors of future success as school leaders. This article discusses the challenges, and possible solutions, for making selection procedures more meaningful and valid.