Progressive Leadership Program – MSEd, EdM

Students will examine the developmental periods of young, middle, and later years in the human life cycle, with a broad multicultural approach to learning and development. Studies and research are reviewed. Emphasis is given to developmental characteristics that have implications for professional growth and development.

This course focuses on the roles and functions of the school leader in the spheres of curriculum and instruction. It covers the principles and processes that inform curriculum development and their impact on student learning. By explicitly addressing the relationship between curriculum and instruction to critical theory and pedagogy, students will connect positionality to their professional noticing. At the same time, students will unpack educational equity to become discerning consumers and negotiators of curriculum. In this course, students will envision and conceptualize ways to ensure that all students experience a liberating curriculum by focusing intensively on the knowledge and tools needed to recognize and dismantle dehumanizing spaces that are emblematic of historic and contemporary systems and structures. Finally, the course explores critical issues in leadership in curriculum and instruction and is designed to connect theory to practice as a means of inspiring, guiding, and effecting school change.

Education policy is examined in the context of historical, philosophical, economic, sociocultural, political, and legal perspectives. Leadership theory and practices that create learning environments responsive to the multicultural constituencies of schools, as well as the laws that sustain them, are analyzed.

This course examines theory, research, and practice related to organizational development. It covers a wide range of issues related to capacity-building, school vision and culture, and problem solving, and focuses on the relationship between school management and instructional leadership. Students have opportunities to integrate theory and research with administrative practice through readings, small-group work, simulation experiences, observations, interviews, protocols, and case studies.

Current school reform efforts emphasize vision, shared decision making, professional autonomy, positive school structure, and restructuring. How are these concepts being realized in current practice? What choices and constraints accompany the processes of change and staff empowerment? In this course students examine the concepts which face principals in enhancing the effectiveness of schools, as well as the competencies of planning, joint decision making, problem solving, and negotiation. Course work complements and is tailored to the Principals Institute internship experience.

Designed for students who are preparing for supervisory roles or who are actively engaged in such roles, this course focuses on the objectives, functions, and evaluation of the supervisory experience within multicultural educational institutions. Organizational, cultural, and human variables that may facilitate or impede effective supervision are identified, and strategies to maximize or minimize their impact are generated. Supervisory attitudes and skills aimed at increasing professional growth in individual and group supervision are synthesized from a variety of supervisory models, with particular attention given to the clinical supervision model.

This course is designed to enable leaders, teachers, special educators, and others to be effective consumers of research, as well as to plan and carry out research in response to specific educational questions. Stages of the research process are discussed. Students analyze and evaluate research in the areas of leadership, school effectiveness, administration and supervision, teaching, and curriculum reform, and apply the findings to their everyday roles as educational leaders. It is expected that this course will be valuable for those matriculated students who are initiating projects to satisfy the Independent Study requirement. The format consists of lectures and discussions of the stages of the research process. Class members participate in a project involving research design, data collection, and analysis.

This course is designed to explore school-based budgeting and fiscal management. The course will provide an overview of the various resources that schools receive and the rules that govern their use. There will be examples of how various schools use these resources, and a discussion of some of the considerations that school leaders may need to take into account in order for them to effectively implement the educational goals and objectives for their schools.

This course meets New York State certification requirements for School Building Leadership (SBL) internship experiences. Through close work with a faculty advisor and peers, participants apply their learning from coursework to their field experiences, integrating theory and practice as they reflect on their own professional development. Interns work with a site supervisor and are given substantial school-based responsibilities that involve direct interaction and involvement with staff, students, families, and community leaders. Participants develop the capacity to build and support a positive school culture, build teams, enlist collaboration, and plan and sustain change efforts. Graduate students in advisement participate in small-group sessions with their advisors. At the end of supervised fieldwork, each candidate presents a comprehensive portfolio of internship experiences which meets the program’s Integrative Master’s Project requirement.