EDL Courses
Courses that align with Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL), formerly known as ISLLC standards, are noted below. PSEL standards are overseen by the The National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA). Complete details are on the NPBEA website.
EDL 501 Educational Leadership Theory I
This is the first introductory course for the Educational Leadership Program. This
course encompasses a study of some of the theories, methods, and applications dealing
with educational leadership. Working individually and collaboratively, you will expand
your knowledge of the principles of effective schools and effective school leadership
in order to act with cultural competence and responsiveness. This will require that
you caneffectively develop and demonstrate the skills needed to work in collaboration
with members of the school and the community and using relevant data, develop and
promote a vision for the school on the successful learning and development of each
child and on instructional and organizational practices that promote such success.
Experiences will be drawn largely from the behavioral and applied sciences, and
applied to the practice of educational administration at all levels and in all settings
in order to effectively institute, manage, and monitor operations and administrative
systems that promote the mission and vision of the school, taking into account school
culture as well as leadership theory and practice. This course will also help you
develop the dispositions to be effectively approachable, accessible, and welcoming
to families and members of the community.
(PSEL Standards 1b, 3b, 3g, 9a, and 8a)
EDL 502 Educational Leadership Theory II
The focus of this course will be on instructional leadership, communication, decision-making,
conflict, and change. Working individually and collaboratively, you will learn how
to foster continuous improvement of individual and collective instructional capacity
to achieve culturally responsive outcomes envisioned for each student. This will include
being able to effectively use assessment data appropriately and within technical limitations
to monitor student progress and improve instruction. To augment these topics you will
learn how to effectively develop and maintain data and communication systems to deliver
actionable information for classroom and school improvement. Adopting a systems perspective
will help you effectively manage uncertainty, risk, competing initiatives, and politics
of change with courage and perseverance, providing support and encouragement, and
openly communicating the need for, process for, and outcomes of improvement efforts.
(PSEL Standards 3a, 4a, 4g, 6d, 9g, 10h, and 10i)
EDL 503 Educational Leadership Practice
This course helps to articulate the interrelationship between theory and practice
and promotes the philosophy that future school leaders should be life-long learners
and pro-active about using data for innovation and change. This course effectively
ensures instructional practice is intellectually challenging, culturally responsive,
authentic to student experiences, recognizes student strengths, and is differentiated
and personalized. This will occur when you can effectively assess and develop the
capacity of staff to assess the value and applicability of emerging educational trends
and the findings of research for the school and its improvement. Fundamentally, this
course will teach you how to effectivelyempower and entrust teachers and staff with
collective responsibility for meeting the academic, social, emotional, and physical
needs of each student, pursuant to the mission, vision, and core values of the school.
This course also deals with administrative decision-making in the context of the school,
district, and community. Participants will be confronted with problems in instructional
leadership using data driven decision-making to create a climate for change by effectively
reviewing the school’s mission and vision and adjusting them to changing expectations
and opportunities for the school and changing needs and situations of students.
(PSEL Standards 1e, 3f, 3h, 4d, 7b, and 10f)
EDL 515 School District Leadership
This course is an examination of theories and practices related to school district
administration, supervision and evaluation. The course will teach you how to effectively
align and focus systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment within and across
grade levels to promote student academic success, love of learning, the identities
and habits of learners, and healthy sense of self. This will be accomplished by learning
how to effectivelypromote adult-student, student-peer, and school-community relationships
that value and support academic learning and positive social and emotional development.
This will be followed by learning how to effectively foster continuous improvement
of individual and collective instructional capacity to achieve outcomes envisioned
for each student. This will be supported by learning how toengage in regular and open
two-way communication with families and the community about the school, students,
needs, problems, and accomplishments. Finally the course will explore how to effectively
engage others in an ongoing process of evidence-based inquiry, learning, strategic
goal setting, planning, implementation, and evaluation for continuous school and classroom
improvement, while acting with cultural competence and responsiveness in their interactions,
decision making, and practice.
(PSEL Standards 3g, 4b, 5d, 6d, 8c, and 10d)
EDL 528 School Law
This course is a study of the legal framework within which public education operates,
beginning with an analysis of how to safeguard and promote the values of democracy,
individual freedom and responsibility, equity, cultural responsiveness, social justice,
community, and diversity. This analysis will then explain how toconfront and alter
institutional biases of student marginalization, deficit-based schooling, and low
expectations associated with race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual
orientation, and disability or special status. Besides addressing specific topics,
such as, church-state relations, state agencies, local school boards, financing education,
tort liability, teacher-personnel administration, the Taylor Law, tenure, desegregation,
and the constitutional rights and freedoms of students, you will learn how to effectivelyknow,
comply with, and help the school community understand local, state, and federal laws,
rights, policies, and regulations so as to promote student success. Finally, the
course will show how you can effectivelymanage governance processes and internal and
external politics toward achieving the school’s mission and vision.
(PSEL Standards 2d, 3e, 3h, 9h, and 9l)
EDL 541 School Building Leadership
The design of this course will be focused around the concept of Leadership for Change.
Providing leadership, through what can be a massive potential for school restructuring,
will be the challenge of tomorrow's school principals. You will be shown how to implement
coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment that promote the mission,
vision, and core values of the school, embody high expectations for student learning,
align with academic standards, and are culturally responsive. Followed by providing
coherent systems of academic and social supports, services, extracurricular activities,
and accommodations to meet the range of learning needs of each student, ensuring that
each student has equitable access to effective teachers, learning opportunities, academic
and social support, and other resources necessary for success. The course will focus
attention on the needs of the school community by demonstrating the importance to
empower and motivate teachers and staff to the highest levels of professional practice
and to continuous learning and improvement, which will lead to the collective responsibility
for meeting the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of each student, pursuant
to the mission, vision, and core values of the school. This will culminate with showing
you how to create the means for the school community to partner with families to support
student learning in and out of school, all the while using methods of continuous improvement
to achieve the vision, fulfill the mission, and promote the core values of the school.
(PSEL Standards 3c, 3g, 4a, 5c, 6f, 7b, 8e, and 10b)
EDL 555 Supervision of Instruction
This course covers the basic aspects of the supervisory process including an overview
of supervision, theory and research, organization and function, roles of various personnel
in the supervisory process, factors influencing change, improving instruction through
individuals and groups, curriculum development, effective use of learning resources,
and evaluating supervisory programs to address matters of equity and cultural responsiveness.
At the core of this course is Standard #6: Professional Capacity of School Personnel,
which begins with developing teachers’ and staff members’ professional knowledge,
skills, and practice through differentiated opportunities for learning and growth,
guided by understanding of professional and adult learning and development, moving
to fostering continuous improvement of individual and collective instructional capacity,
being able to deliver actionable feedback about instruction and other professional
practice through valid, research-anchored systems of supervision and evaluation, which
ultimately will empower and motivate teachers and staff, with the goal of developing
the capacity, opportunities, and support for teacher leadership. This course will
also examine the issues of change within the school classroom that face supervisors
today, enabling them to effectivelymanage uncertainty, risk, competing initiatives,
and politics of change with courage and perseverance, providing support and encouragement,
and openly communicating the need for, process for, and outcomes of improvement efforts,
in order to promote the preparation of students to live productively in and contribute
to the diverse cultural contexts of a global society.
(PSEL Standards 3f, 3h, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, and 10i)
EDL 571 School Business Administration
This course presents an examination of the duties and responsibilities of the school
business administrator including an understanding of the role in relation to other
members of the administrative team. Also examined during the course are other aspects
of the business administrator's work such as office management, budget procedures,
financial management, accounting and auditing, purchasing and supply management, insurance
programs, capital outlay and debt service, school plant operation and maintenance,
food service, and transportation. At the core of this administrative role is that
you can effectively act ethically and professionally in personal conduct, relationships
with others, decision- making, stewardship of the school’s resources, and all aspects
of school leadership, while being able to effectivelyestablish and sustain a professional
culture of engagement and commitment to shared vision, goals, and objectives pertaining
to the education of the whole child; high expectations for professional work; ethical
and equitable practice; trust and open communication; collaboration, collective efficacy,
and continuous individual and organizational learning and improvement; while confronting
institutional biases of student marginalization, deficit-based schooling, and low
expectations associated with race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual
orientation, and disability or special status. The major goal of this role is for
you to be an effective,responsible, ethical, and accountable steward of the school’s
monetary and non- monetary resources, engaging in effective budgeting and accounting
practices.
(PSEL Standards 2a, 3e, 3g, 7c, and 9d)
EDL 572 School Personnel Management
This course examines the nature, scope, and organization of the personnel function
and will look at the planning process, collective bargaining (negotiations and contract
administration), personnel recruitment (selection, induction, and development), and
effective work performance (appraisal, compensation, and job security, issues). An
examination of the federal and state laws and regulations that govern district personnel
operations will be included. To accomplish these tasks it will require that you can
effectively ensure that each student has equitable access to effective teachers, learning
opportunities, academic and social support, and other resources necessary for success,
while establishing and sustaining a professional culture of engagement and commitment
to shared vision, goals, and objectives pertaining to the education of the whole child;
high expectations for professional work; ethical and equitable practice; trust and
open communication; collaboration, collective efficacy, and continuous individual
and organizational learning and improvement. At the heart of this position is for
you to effectively recruit, hire, support, develop, and retain effective and caring
teachers and other professional staff and form them into an educationally effective
faculty, that will act with cultural competence and responsiveness in their interactions,
decision making, and practice.
(PSEL Standards 3c, 3g, 6a, and 7c)
EDL 585 Internship in School District/School Building Leadership (co-requisite EDL
586)
EDL 585 is the field experience component of the corresponding and co-requisite EDL
586.
EDL 586 Seminar in School District/School Building Leadership (co-requisite EDL 585)
The Educational Leadership Internship is defined as the process and product that result from the application in a workplace
environment of the strategic, instructional, organizational and contextual leadership
program standards. It is strategically designed to immerse candidates in educational
experiences that support and rely upon the information and skills attained from courses
taken in the program. The internship includes a variety of substantial concurrent
or capstone experiences in diverse settings planned and guided cooperatively by university
and school district personnel and conducted in schools and school districts over an
extended period of time. The experiences need to provide interns with substantial
responsibilities, which involve direct interaction and involvement with students,
staff, parents, community leaders, and social service organizations involved with
inter-agency activities affecting schools. Through guided and specific tasks, projects
and responsibilities you work be expected to work in all ten (10) PSEL standards and
will be required to evaluate your growth in each standard at the end of the internship.
As highlighted in the Internship Informational Booklet, you will also be required
to become proficient in 16 specific PSEL Sub Standards, and demonstrate that you can
address matters of equity and cultural responsiveness in all aspects of leadership.
(PSEL Standard 3h)
EDL 595 Educational Leadership Research Project Seminar (prerequisite: 24 EDL program
credits)
Project Seminar is an advanced graduate course designed to teach students to understand
and conduct graduate level research for the purpose of effectivelyassessing and developing
the capacity of staff to assess the value and applicability of emerging educational
trends and the findings of research for the school and its improvement, which will
help in developing an educational mission for the school to promote the academic success
and well-being of each student. This course presents a study of the concepts, theories,
methods, and findings dealing with how to acquire the extensive knowledge of learning,
creative thinking, teaching, assessment, and the principles of effective schools.
Supporting this acquisition is for you to effectively act with cultural competence
and responsiveness in interactions, decision making, and practice.
(PSEL Standard 1a, 3g, and 10f)
Note: This course will be GRADED (A, B, C, F). Successful completion requires a grade
of "B" or better; otherwise, the course must be repeated in order to graduate. No
transfer credit or substitutions permitted.