ECE 9250:Teacher Leaders and School Reform

3 Class Hours 0 Laboratory Hours 3 Credit Hours
Prerequisite: Admission to the Ed.D. program.
This course is designed for teachers to examine formal and informal teacher leadership roles and assesses the effects of these roles on teachers and on student achievement. It analyzes the barriers to teacher leadership created by the structure of schools and the culture of teaching. The goal of this course is to provide an understanding of both the difficulties and the opportunities inherent in teacher leadership and to help build skills that will be useful as teacher leaders who will serve in distributed leadership roles for improvement of conditions of practice and teaching.

Note This course will examine multiple ways to use organization as a tool to enhance instruction in grades K-5th classrooms. Comparison of the effect of organizational strategies and developmental stages on student learning and examination of roadblocks to establishment of effective organizational structures will be studied. Through the use of collaboration and communications, ways to minimize the effects of the real life roadblocks will be developed. Candidates will incorporate ways to celebrate diversity in a dynamic classroom. Attention is given to historical, philosophical and theoretical perspectives, including current national standards, programmatic design and organization and the use of personnel, materials, and equipment.