500

This course provides each candidate with frameworks, models, and educational leadership strategies and dispositions that influence change and continuous improvement in schools. The course focuses on change theory, collaborative long-range planning, and decision-making processes that emphasize effective practices.

This course examines the contexts of schools and school communities. Through course readings and activities, leadership candidates will have opportunities to develop a critical perspective toward diversity, meeting the needs of all students. Emphasis will be placed on developing leadership skills and dispositions that result in candidates' capacity to promote effective practices. In particular, candidates will understand how their actions impact perceptions related to meeting the needs of all students.

This course equips leadership candidates with skills to mobilize community efforts and resources for effective student learning. Emphasis is on identifying outreach opportunities, building strategic partnerships, and fostering relationships that support success. Candidates will analyze community contexts with a variety of data and develop plans for improvement. Topics include advocacy, policy reform, planning and evaluating school-community initiatives, networking, and communication. The course prepares leaders to advocate for effective policies and build partnerships between schools, families, and organizations.

This course provides an opportunity for candidates to explore what it means to lead student-centered schools, with a particular focus on pedagogical principles, and to support student-centered initiatives. Student-centered schools are characterized by a climate of access for all students, empowered learning, personal accountability, self-discipline, and safety. This course will look at the school leader's role and dispositions as well as the need for self-awareness and reflection by integrating building management and program supervision skills with knowledge of best practices in student-centered classrooms, child and adolescent development, student motivation and discipline strategies, environmental safety, and relationship building. Issues of safety will be addressed, including disaster planning, bullying, and cyber-bullying.

School and district leaders must have a working knowledge of relevant legal issues as part of their leadership roles. This working knowledge is important for several reasons. First, a leader should have knowledge to recognize a potential legal issue and seek necessary counsel. Second, legal knowledge should be at a level where the leader can confidently act in an ethical and professional manner regarding day-to-day operational activities. Third, the leader should be familiar with the law and policy-making systems to a degree that enables effective advocacy for all students and families, and involvement in those systems. Finally, the leader must be able to quickly assess emergency situations and respond in a reasonable and prudent manner to maintain fairness, safety, and avoid liabilities. This course enables leadership candidates to understand the fundamentals of school law, and special education law, to ensure that laws are upheld and applied fairly with the goal of enhancing school climate. Particular attention will be given to the application of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support and student learning in the least restrictive environments.

This course equips candidates with the decision-making and problem-solving skills needed to lead schools with a shared vision to promote the academic success and well-being of all students. Grounded in systems theory and critical analysis of educational policy, candidates will examine organizational dynamics using leadership frameworks, network analysis, and decision-making theories. Candidates will develop the capacity to empower leadership teams, foster teacher decision-making, and center a variety of voices in school transformation efforts. Emphasizing the role of policy in shaping educational change, candidates will explore how effective leadership fosters positive school climate and drives meaningful, school improvement that meets the needs of all students. Alternative models of school organization will be examined through the lens of community impact, preparing candidates to lead schools that effectively respond to student, family, and community needs.

This course prompts leadership candidates to develop plans and strategies for using educational resources to promote student achievement. Students will examine theories of effective resource allocation as well as case studies presenting decisions and tradeoffs involving the key resources such as budgets, staff, time, and technology. They will create a major resource re-allocation project, making leadership choices about resources while providing decision rationales, aligning resources with school improvement plans, and resolving resource conflicts. Course topics also include resource adequacy, efficiency, reliability, as well as quality staff recruitment, selection, support, and retention.

Leadership candidates will explore a variety of curriculum development strategies that prioritize a differentiated and coherent curriculum. Emphasizing curriculum integration, differentiation, and monitoring, candidates will learn the leadership skills required to design and implement an effective curriculum that advances student achievement. This course will focus on supporting all students, including English language learners, gifted students, students with disabilities, and all other students. Candidates will examine Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) using it as a systematic model for addressing both academic and behavioral challenges while promoting inclusive practices. Leadership for instructional technology will also be explored, with a focus on leveraging digital tools to create effective learning environments that reflect the diverse needs and identities of all students.

Candidates will develop competencies in data interpretation, data-informed decision-making, and data presentation to improve student achievement. They will also examine and compare tools for analyzing student performance data and for collaborating with teachers on creating data-driven approaches to improve instruction and student achievement. Formative and summative assessment will be studied from a leadership and administrative perspective, as well as strategies for conducting program evaluations.

As instructional leaders, candidates will promote teacher efficacy and implement comprehensive professional growth plans for all staff focused on student learning. State-specific models of teacher evaluation will be explored, as well as current conceptions of adult learning and professional development. Specific attention will be given to understanding the change process applied to individuals and organizations, supervision models and evaluation strategies, as well as collaborative models of interpreting and improving instruction. Course goals and topics are aligned with Florida state requirements.

This is the first course for candidates for the M.Ed. or Ed.S. in Educational Leadership. Candidates are introduced to the program expectations, state and other academic standards, certification requirements, professional decorum, NLU technology platforms, and professional writing expectations. It also requires students to develop an internship plan.

This course enables leadership candidates to demonstrate competency in case study analysis, to implement competency-based strategies in presenting their leadership identity, to receive feedback regarding progress in leadership development, and to demonstrate use of feedback for performance improvement. Candidates gain skills in competency-based interviewing and written communication.

This course is the final forum for leadership competency demonstrations and final assessment of leadership candidates in the M.Ed. or Ed.S. in the Educational Leadership Program. In it, candidates demonstrate leadership knowledge, skills, and dispositions through a formal interview and capstone case analyses drawing upon all previous courses, as well as applicable national and state leadership standards. Candidates are assessed for their presentation skills, as well as their understanding of all program curriculum, through a formal interview and a video case analysis.

Candidates for the M.Ed. in Educational Leadership complete an educational leadership project that demonstrates competencies and knowledge in building-level leadership. The course provides an opportunity to identify an area of research interest used to develop a Master's level project demonstrating the application of content knowledge focused on a school or district issue. Candidates work with faculty to develop a product such as a grant application, school improvement plan, technology or curriculum initiative, public-relations plan, or another project having practical application. Program faculty help candidates to complete standards-based projects supporting their career aspirations as school leaders.

The Administration and Supervision Internship requires candidates to engage in authentic leadership at the school building level. The internship requires candidates to apply theoretical and empirical knowledge to solve practical administrative problems and to transform learning environments. In consultation with the faculty supervisor and a site principal mentor, the candidate will engage in an extensive internship that involves practice and competency in the 36 competencies demonstrated by effective principals as research by the Southern Regional Board of Education (SREB), the National Educational Leadership Standards (NELP) and the Florida Educational Leadership Standards (FELS).