EDL - Educational Leadership

The primary focus of this course is instructional leadership as a collaborative practice of systemic improvement: the work of continuous inquiry, action and reflection enacted by distributed leadership trams, with the goal of improvement in the interdependent systems that support students’ academic success. Students will create instructional plans, explore professional development methods, generate a focus on student and professional learning in the school, identify faculty instructional proficiency needs, including standards-based content, research-based pedagogy, data analysis for instructional planning and improvement, and the use of instructional technology. Students will implement professional learning that enables faculty to deliver differentiated instruction and learn to engage faculty in effective individual and collaborative professional learning.

This course will prepare students for the role they will hold as a school or district leader in making sound decisions in managing the learning environment. Activities presented in the course will help students learn how to reflect on their practice of instructional leadership while also preparing them for obstacles they may face when dealing with organizational change. Students will learn the various leadership models to help them with rationale decision-making strategies while also realizing the proactive efforts to ensure a safe and secure learning environment.

Students will internalize the implications of the authority and total responsibility placed on school administrators. Emphasis will be placed on the students’ ability to recognize recruiting and selecting high performing teaching applicants and how to nurture and retain effective personnel through development and mentoring. In addition, students will demonstrate their ability to understand adult learning strategies to connect to professional growth plans. Further, students will display a thorough understanding of how to empower others to achieve personal, professional and organizational goals and how to set high expectations and standards to ensure that all students are engaged in active learning.

This course will provide an understanding of how curriculum is developed and implemented based on research and informed through current educational reform and policies. Students will explore strategies to align curriculum, instruction, and monitoring student progress for diverse populations in inclusive, democratic and global environments. Students will also explore strategies to monitor student progress and promote continuous improvement to meet the cultural and developmental issues related to student achievement gaps. Students will analyze various conceptions of curriculum standards, reform movements in education, principles of curriculum planning, past and present curriculum trends, and the interaction of curriculum with instruction generalized across educational settings. The correlation between curriculum and student achievement will be explored to understand the relationship between school leadership, pedagogy, diversity, and student performance.

The primary focus of this course is on managing the learning environment through the development of school and district budgets and budget forecasting, with consideration of the impact of local, state, and federal funding laws on budget development processes. Students will 1) examine the cyclical nature of budget development and how school budgets are collaboratively constructed; 2) compare and contrast expenditures of like districts; 3) analyze a budget; 4) review various models for implementing a budget and project how the budget should be implemented and coordinated to align with the educational vision; and 5) forecast future fiscal needs based on variables such as enrollment trends, population projections, state reimbursements for student attendances and housing pattern changes.

The Educational Leadership Internship presents an opportunity for students to become immersed in the field of leadership practice and to appreciate the importance of instructional leadership in the creation of a positive and safe learning environment. The internship combines opportunities to study effective leadership firsthand, develop and practice instructional leadership skills and be mentored for a career as a school principal. The entire internship experience requires approximately 480 hours (12-15 hours per week over a full year) of supervised fieldwork in a public school. The combined internships are worth 3 credit hours and are earned 1 credit hour per semester (fall, spring and summer semesters). The internship is accompanied by hybrid/blended (50% face-to-face, 50% online) seminars which are designed to meet on campus and online asynchronously throughout the internship experience. Seminars reinforce the ten Florida Principal Leadership standards. Permission from the participating school administrator is required.

This course will examine ethical leadership and case law as related to schools, including impact and practice. Educational leaders will study how the legal process deals with controversial issues and the importance of making ethical choices/decisions related to schooling that play a central role in our culture. Students will critically assess the impact and interactions of federal and state constitutions, statutes and regulations on the operation of schools. They will learn about procedural due process considerations and the constitutional rights of personnel and students balanced against the duties of the school. This course will also comprehensively examine the internal and external elements of school and community relations by exploring the knowledge, dispositions, and skills needed by educational leaders in order to understand and respond to diverse community systems, interests and needs. School and community relations include effective management of the learning environment, ethical decision making, effective collaboration with families and community members, working with diverse populations, utilizing community resources to benefit students and families, and establishing solid partnerships with key school and community stakeholders.

This course provides an introduction to theoretical and practical applications of data-driven decision making and planning for educational leaders. Beginning with a truncated review of purposes and applications of various statistical methods utilized in academic, legislative and district-level research, the course then acquaints candidates with various ways of framing data-based questions, interpreting data and designing action research studies. A focus is on the cyclical nature of data-driven leadership in planning, student learning, accountability, and assessment in the P-12 educational environment.

This course offers a theoretical, conceptual and operational analysis of information systems used for decision making, communication and problem solving in learning organizations. An integral part of the course involves developing the technical and analytical skills necessary to manage school-based technologies and information systems, with an emphasis on those systems that are designed to make it possible for organizations to transform curricula delivery as well as knowledge-based systems. Emphasis is also placed on understanding the human dimensions of communication within information systems in which the organization exists. This course also offers effective methods of communication in order to engage stakeholders in order to build meaningful community partnerships.

This course will provide an understanding of how visionary leadership collaboratively involves the school community in creating and sustaining shared school values, vision, mission and goals. Students will explore strategies, case studies and experiential activities focused on problem solving and visionary leadership.