51 - Education

This course emphasizes the instructional components of teaching and learning by focusing on strategies, techniques and theories pertaining to the teaching/learning situation. Attention to learning theories, learning styles and teaching styles is included.

Special emphasis will be on candidate development as a teacher leader professional and/or candidate’s implementation of professional development and analysis for teachers.

This course provides an introduction to the historical, political, social and cultural issues that affect culturally and linguistically diverse students in schools. Local, state and federal policies regarding entitlement and appropriate services for English language learners are studied. Current theories regarding second language acquisition and specific program models are examined for their impact on student achievement.

Candidates will engage in the implementation of integrating technology in the classroom. A variety of teaching strategies and pedagogical practices for learning will be explored. The candidate will design and implement lessons to meet curricular objectives with a focus on equality and equity. The candidate will also design and implement professional development plans with the goal of assisting teachers in the use of technology across the curriculum in equitable ways.

The dimensions of language acquisition especially as it relates to first and second language acquisition are introduced. Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and communicative competence and their implications for ESL and bilingual teachers are addressed.

The selection, administration, and interpretation of measurement instruments for bilingual and English language learners is the focus of this course. Language proficiency, academic achievement, mandated norm and/or criterion referenced assessments and their appropriate uses are considered. Fairness and equity in test selection, administration, and interpretation are addressed. State and national standards for content and language proficiency and the assessment of those standards at the state and classroom levels are examined.

This course provides an overview of the identification, assessment and instructional needs of English Language Learners at the elementary and secondary levels. The importance of culture in addressing the educational and social needs of immigrant students is explored. Candidates will investigate strategies to assess and teach English language skills to limited English proficient students. Accommodations for content area lessons and assessments to foster the success of all students in a multi-language, multi-ethnic learning community are also included.

This course is based on the idea that teachers are critical partners in transforming schooling. It redefines traditional leadership in education and elevates the perception, status, and role of classroom teachers. This course will review, in detail, what teacher leadership means, how it can be implemented, and what support it takes from the school system to be effective.

This course examines the roles of educational leaders as they express and impact the values of the communities of learners served by the school systems. The core of the course is the social contract between the school and the public, in particular the expectations of society that the school will be a proactive institution in helping its clients pursue the good life promised by the American Dream.

This course prepares teachers in the methodology to teach content and language to English Language Learners. Historical and current program models and the pedagogy of teaching ELL’s are examined. Candidates will prepare units based on these models, applying state and national standards and using appropriate assessment strategies.

This course prepares teachers to use native language instruction (L1) to teach P-12 academic content to English language learners. Historical and current program models in the use of native language instruction as well as sheltered English strategies for teaching academic content are examined. Candidates will prepare units to meet the needs of a variety of English language levels while addressing state and national content standards in mathematics, science and social studies. This course is open to teachers who speak another language in addition to English and is part of the required sequence for the Bilingual Endorsement by ISBE.

This course covers the legal foundations of educational institutions in America. Particular emphasis is placed on the evolving roles, responsibilities and relationships of school administrators and agencies. Lighthouse cases and legislation are examined in detail, from "Old Deluder Satan" to current school finance and special education suits. Emphasis is placed on the balance of local, state and federal roles in educational matters.

An examination of the ways judicial interpretation of the law and federal and state statutes shape the ways in which school policy impacts upon curriculum and teaching. Candidates will review several statutes and cases in connection with current issues within their schools. Special emphasis will be placed on issues of differences within school communities.

The exploration and examination of schools and school communities as complex and diverse sociocultural entities will serve as the foundation of this course. Candidates will integrate theoretical and practical implications of schools and school communities with fieldwork to better understand their role as educational leaders.

The impact of culture on society and the educational system, and the importance of culture in addressing the educational and social needs of immigrant students and English language learners (ELLs) are examined. The dual processes of acculturation and cultural conflict are explored, as they relate to learning styles, academic and behavioral expectations. Participants will develop strategies for designing culturally relevant learning opportunities to foster the academic success of diverse groups in a multi-language, multi-ethnic learning community.

This course covers the development in educational institutions in America from colonial times to the present. Emphasis is laid on the social and cultural context in which educational institutions arose to meet the needs of society. Trends are examined in the growth of systems of organization, curriculum, methodology and legal and financial supports.

This course presents the organizational and administrative structures of public and private educational institutions in America. Particular emphasis is placed on structure and function of public schools in Illinois.

This course explores methodologies for the design and implementation of classroom practices that meet the needs of diverse learners and lead to an improved educational environment. Candidates study a variety of instructional strategies and various methods of assessing student performance. Candidates will also learn how to evaluate classroom practices, curriculum and assessment tools as they relate to learning standards.

This course is designed to be a comprehensive study of the process of curriculum development that leads to effective classroom instruction. It is intended to be a basic introduction into the nature of curriculum planning and its relationship to classroom implementation. This course is comprehensive in its treatment, presenting models of the process of planning, analyzing, evaluating and implementing, while at the same time emphasizing curricular theories and practices from a historical perspective.

This course deals with the fiscal bases of the public and private school systems in America. The system of local, state and federal taxation is examined as it relates to school funding. State funding formulas are examined in detail, with particular attention to the funding methods of Illinois public school districts.

Candidates will examine equality and equity issues within various curriculum and pedagogical theories. An exploration of contemporary issues in curriculum design and instructional practice with a focus on community will be included.

Theory and practice in curriculum design, assessing learning, and evaluating curriculum and learning for diverse learners with a focus on equity will be the foundation of this course. This school-based course will focus on methods and materials for assisting teachers in developing comprehensive and equitable assessments based on a curriculum that values multiple ways of knowing.

This course provides an overview of principles of research and the history and practice of research in educational settings as a tool for leadership and change. The candidate selects a topic that addresses an issue or concern affecting the learning community or education professional. Through examination, participation, and application, the graduate candidate will develop a research proposal project that will reflect his or her understanding of how research can be applied in school settings for the improvement of educational practices and processes.

This course examines the demographic variables involved in the public/private school as a social system. Emphasis is on research into the correlations between the variables and student achievement, faculty empowerment and administrative effectiveness.

This course focuses on improving instructional effectiveness of the teaching staff. It explores the role of the supervisor as an instructional leader and develops skills in identifying staff needs and appropriate programs to meet those needs. Emphasis is placed on collaborative instructional decision making and empowering teachers in their classrooms. The relationship between supervision and evaluation is discussed.

This course introduces the candidate to the major issues confronting the school administrator. Topics include effective schools and effective teaching, public accountability and measurement-driven instruction, equity and adequacy in the financing of schools, faculty empowerment, site-based management and the host of studies and reports under the rubric, "School Reform".

The creation and administration of systems of support for educational programs that serve unique learners at the local, state and federal levels is reviewed. Emphasis is given to laws, mandates, policies and procedure. In addition, collaboration with general education, professional development, fiscal management and legal implications are considered.

This course is a survey course intended to be of value to candidates wishing to explore practical applications of selected principles and theories from the areas of education, psychology and the behavioral sciences to the field of counseling. The course covers significant aspects of group counseling, rehabilitation counseling, family counseling, counseling over a life span, crisis intervention counseling, cross-cultural counseling, personal counseling and community counseling. Emphasis, however, is given to the counseling processes that are directly related to special education roles.

Through the examination of current research in teaching, learning, and leadership, candidates will apply research-based solutions to current issues within their school, district, and/or school community.

This practicum entails the assignment of the candidate to a mentor working as an administrator in an elementary school, middle school, secondary school or central office level position in a public or private school district. The candidate completes Modules one, two and three that correspond to the first three ELCC and ISLCC standards. The candidate participates in leadership experiences that coincide with the three standard-based modules. The candidate reviews the projects with the University supervisor who monitors the experiences in concert with the site mentor.

This practicum entails the assignment of the candidate to a mentor working as an administrator in an elementary school, middle school, secondary school or central office level position in a public or private school district. The candidate completes Modules four, five and six that correspond to those ELCC and ISLCC standards. The candidate participates in leadership experiences that coincide with these standard-based modules. The candidate reviews the projects with the University supervisor who monitors the experiences in concert with the site mentor.

This course is a study or project done under the direction of a member of the Department of Educational Leadership.

Under the guidance of a faculty advisor and committee, the candidate composes a major research-oriented work on a topic appropriate to the candidate’s career.

All candidates working on a master’s thesis from a previous semester must register for thesis supervision until the thesis is accepted.

This course examines the ethical bases for the development of moral leadership. Classical ethical theories (e.g. Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant) are studied in conjunction with the Lewis Mission, the Illinois State Board of Education Standards for school leaders and the ethics statements of the Illinois Principals Association (IPA) and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).

This course presents methods for central office planning and assessment of educational programs. Emphasis is placed on the role of leadership in providing long-range vision for the district.

This course focuses on the legal foundation of the public and private school systems in America; responsibilities of central office personnel in compliance with applicable local, state and federal statutes; and case law applied to the public school district, especially in the areas of human resource management, student rights, special education and school safety.

This course examines the roles of district policy makers and central office leaders in collective bargaining and employee relations.

This course examines the processes of initiating, enacting and implementing educational policy at the local and state levels, and the role of the central office administrator in these processes. Candidates will examine school-community relations, community resources and dynamics as they impact educational policy and practice.

This course is designed to be a comprehensive study of curriculum planning, implementation, assessment and leadership as it relates to program involvement. The roles and responsibilities of the principal as an instructional leader and facilitator of the curriculum process will be examined. Curriculum development in light of the state standards as well as national curriculum projects will be studied.

This course focuses on research into the central office role in providing curriculum planning and implementation of innovative instructional methods.

This course provides an examination of local, state and federal resources for school districts; budgeting and accounting for school districts in Illinois; and central office responsibilities in planning, implementing and assessing the district budget process.

This course examines strategies for collection and analysis of data using current technologies. Best practices in the area of student assessment and evaluation are considered. Emphasis is placed on preparing candidates to be consumers and producers of educational research. This course provides the background for the completion of the required research component of the Certificate of Advanced Study programs.

This course examines the organization and management of the central office of a school district in Illinois; the structural and climate-based variables of the superintendent’s role; and the management of the district for school improvement and enhanced student learning.

This course provides for the assignment of the applicant to a mentor superintendent in a local district for the development of specific skills in planning, organizing, evaluating and leading a district. Mentorship includes seminars with the district mentor and University faculty.

One of Simon Blackburn’s (1999) three arguments for why philosophy is important is that the act of reflection or its absence impacts human action. This certainly applies to a wide variety of vocational spaces within the field of education. This course pursues the reflection – practice connection through a study of classical (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Dewey) and contemporary (e.g., Nel Noddings, Maxine Greene, Jane Roland Martin, Richard Rorty) readings in philosophy of education.

This course will establish a critical theoretical orientation to leadership and develop an understanding of the politicized nature of leadership. An activist stance toward leadership will be examined by exploring human rights as a way of life and how leaders come to demonstrate their social, moral and political agency as they resist the status quo and promote equity and social justice.

The aim of this course it to familiarize students with the major theoretical traditions in social science and to develop an appreciation of the diverse forms of knowledge included within social science. The course will introduce students to the major epistemological stances and theoretical perspectives that shape current social research as well as the philosophical origins of these schools of inquiry.

Following Bernard Williams’ (1985) distinction between ethics and morality in Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, this course examines the social aspects of leadership in moral terms using major writers in the tradition of political philosophy. Students will examine the philosophical texts that argue for and question social justice as an orientation in education leadership. This course aims to ground a critical approach to educational leadership in philosophical texts.

Building on, yet going beyond typical discourses in diversity and education, this course examines a variety of theoretical schools of thought for the purpose of deepening understandings of cultural difference. These understandings will then be applied to the educative process in an effort to address marginalization and oppression.

This course is designed to assist students in formulating, reformulating, and pursuing their own theoretically informed research. Students will explore relevant bodies of literature that will inform their research, begin to navigate the process of crafting their inquiry, and clearly articulate ways in which their proposed research will serve social justice.

This course explores the research base on learning and learners. This course will emphasize how successful school reform must not only uphold standards and expectations, but must also apply what we know about learning to make our schools more personalized and effective for all learners.

This course is built on the belief that both pedagogy and assessment should be used as tools of liberation. Following Peter McLaren, Joe Kincheloe, and Paulo Freire (among others), it uncovers ways in which both pedagogy and assessment are complicit in the oppression of some groups and individuals and then examines approaches for teaching and learning that enables students to both navigate and challenge social realities.

This course is designed to build a theoretical underpinning for critical qualitative research, which will include examining what is meant by critical epistemology. As this theoretical base is built, students will also begin to examine and put into practice the tasks of critical qualitative research.

Curriculum Theory examines social and philosophical foundations of curriculum. It takes the position that curriculum as what students learn, and the decisions made to determine it, are never neutral and thus must be considered from the values and beliefs that make curricular programs rational. This course assumes a strong knowledge of the historical aspects of curriculum but seeks to understand the function of curriculum theoretically.

In this course, students will deepen their understanding of current school laws and legal issues. Critical legal theory will also be explored which asserts the law is a collection of beliefs and prejudices that legitimize the injustices of society.

This course attempts to critically examine globalization and its confluence with education from a Lasallian perspective. It considers the connection between globalization and education at a general level to begin with, then move to particular considerations within this confluence including popular culture, technology, postcolonialism, language, and "marketization" (Apple, 2005).

Program Evaluation is fundamentally a search for, and claim about, quality and can not be a value-neutral process. This course will approach program evaluation as a tool for social change where the values of social justice, equity, and emancipation are promoted. Students will study democratic, participatory, and critical theories of evaluation and explore the ethical dimensions of this work.

For more than three decades, the field of educational leadership has focused a great deal of attention on the problem of educational change, why teachers resist change, and why it is difficult to diffuse innovations and "scale up" reforms beyond pilot projects. This course will take a different approach where students will examine current educational reforms in relation to the crisis of American democracy, develop a critical perspective on educational leadership and educational transformation, and discuss what it takes to change the persistent patterns of differences in success among students grouped by race, ethnicity, culture, neighborhood, income of parents, or home language.

In this course students examine schools as institutions from an organizational perspective. It surveys the field of organizational theory that has largely developed in business in order to better understand how schools function the way they do by turning to studies in business about organizational structure and culture. Students will develop the tools to look at organizational behavior from a variety of perspectives, which will provide a basis for understanding the status quo of any organization and the dynamics for change.

This course will introduce students to philosophical foundations of social science, critical perspectives on educational leadership, and scholarly writing and research.

The aim of this course is two-fold: on the one hand, it is to help candidates develop a solid draft of a case study proposal by the completion of the course, and, on the other hand, in so doing, it invites them to think through issues not only in design and logistics, but also in the ethical relations entailed in conducting research, and the question of the researcher’s value stance.

This course aims to make students familiar with the issues in policy studies and the literature that has developed to address those issues. In so doing, this course also aims to provide students with analytical tools for critically evaluating policy. Specifically, we will examine the ways in which schools intersect with the state and how interest groups and politics affect that intersection.

In this course, students survey the field of economics education literature and use microeconomic economic concepts for approaching educational issues in economic ways. Whereas economics has become largely descriptive, this course will include normative considerations as outlined by Amartaya Sen in Ethics and Economics. Thus, this course aims both to provide students with an understanding of educational economics literature and to provide a critical orientation towards educational issues using an economic perspective.

This course traces the development of schooling in the U.S. from the Common School movement and its antecedents to the present. It focuses diachronically on the dominant discourse that has provided the structure of thought for conceiving education, as well as for historically and socially locating those at the margins of that discourse. Major movements and trends in education will therefore be considered in their social, economic, and cultural contexts as a way to understand their "history."

This course examines a variety of quantitative research designs and data collection and statistical analysis procedures appropriate to each.

This course will support students in preparing, writing, and defending their dissertation proposal.

Students will be supported by their Dissertation Director and committee during the year they are working on their dissertation. Course to be repeated for a total of six hours.

Students will be supported by their Dissertation Director and committee if their dissertation is not completed one year after the completion of their coursework.