Syllabus for EDL-520

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Potential educational leaders need to understand the importance of how student achievement is related to curriculum development and issues influencing curriculum change. Included are such influences as national and state standards established to guide local curricular planning and development to meet the changing needs of students and other stakeholders in a diverse community. Also examined are personal and organizational vision statements, instructional and program evaluation, and curriculum change and implementation. Various research approaches and data-based decision making serve as essential components of the course. (ISLLC 1, 2, 4, 5; NJDOE 1, 2, 4, 5).

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COURSE OBJECTIVES

On successful completion of the course, you should be able to:

• Appraise the importance of personal attitudes toward ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic diversity and explain how the attitudes and values of an instructional leader (principal and teacher) may affect student learning.



• Assess the distinctions between a standards-based curriculum and one emerging from alternative approaches to curriculum, and analyze the roles of school leaders arising from different models.



• Propose a personal philosophy of leadership and explain how you would develop an agenda to include key stakeholders in curriculum and instructional activities in a school setting that seeks to maximize student achievement.



• Design an organizational structure for a school that involves staff, parents, students, and community participants and that reflects legitimate participation and meets the elements of responsible leadership.



• Compare and contrast the strategies and techniques for creating school cultures and climates conducive to learning and assess the school leader’s role in achieving the desired climate.



• Contrast the basic components of a school system in which external standards shape the core outcome of student learning, curriculum implementation supports student achievement, and student performance data cycles back to help improve student learning.



• Analyze the barriers to instructional improvement and devise ways to overcome those problems.



• Design a process to evaluate and supervise instructional faculty and staff, planning for and implementing short- and long-term school improvement goals, and designing professional development programs that ensure high academic performance among all students.



• Create a process that enables the school to evaluate its instructional progress on a regular basis, thus allowing it to accept input from stakeholders and maintain its currency in a climate of change.



• Employ successfully a variety of research approaches that encourages critical thinking, a consideration of the local community, and an understanding of student needs and interests.

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COURSE MATERIALS

The following materials are required to do the work of the course. The required textbooks and eFolio registration code are available from the College's textbook supplier, MBS Direct.

Required Textbooks

Oliva, P. F. (2009). Developing the curriculum (7th ed.). Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

Ubben, G. C., Hughes, L. W., & Norris, C. J. (2007). The principal: Creative leadership for excellence in schools (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Allyn & Bacon.

eFolio Registration
As a capstone experience in the Educational Leadership program, you will prepare an electronic portfolio (e-folio) that demonstrates your incremental achievement of the program standards. Each course in the program helps you to identify artifacts to place in your portfolio on completion of the course. To this end, you are required to purchase an eFolio registration code that you will renew annually as you continue to develop your electronic portfolio. You can purchase this code through the College's textbook supplier, MBS Direct. Basic directions for using eFolio are posted within the Resources area of the Thomas Edison State College Heavin School of Arts and Sciences eFolio Web site (after logging in, click Open My eFolio > Resources > Resources).

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COURSE STRUCTURE

The Cycle of Instructional Leadership: Standards-Based Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment is a three-credit, graduate course, consisting of ten lessons:

Each lesson, in turn, comprises learning objectives, a study assignment, an online discussion on the class Discussion Board, and a writing assignment. You are also required to complete a curriculum audit and a final paper or project.

For the course's ten lessons, go to the Lessons area of the course Web site. For information about the curriculum audit and final paper or project, see the discussion below or go to the Projects area of the course Web site. (See also the course Calendar.)

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ONLINE DISCUSSIONS

Each lesson in the course has an online class discussion forum. All discussion forums take place asynchronously on the class Discussion Board.

Online discussions provide an opportunity for you to interact with your classmates. During this aspect of the course, you respond to prompts that assist you in developing your ideas, you share those ideas with your classmates, and you comment on their posts. Discussion board interactions promote development of a community of learners, critical thinking, and exploratory learning.

Please participate in online discussions as you would in constructive face-to-face discussions. You are expected to post well-reasoned and thoughtful reflections for each item, making reference, as appropriate, to your readings. You are also expected to reply to your classmates' posts in a respectful, professional, and courteous manner. You may, of course, post questions asking for clarification or further elucidation on a topic.

Click link for an evaluation rubric.

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WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Each lesson in the course concludes with a short writing assignment of about 500 words. The writing assignments require you to write well-reasoned and thoughtful papers on questions derived from the lesson objectives, making reference, as appropriate, to the readings and other sources of information. You are required to use APA fifth edition format for your work and for all references. Writing assignment 7, in lesson 7, requires a short PowerPoint presentation.

Click link for an evaluation rubric.

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CURRICULUM AUDIT

The curriculum audit is a process that allows you to gather information and develop an understanding of the status of the curriculum and its leadership in your own program or subject area, school, or district. The audit will constitute a principal artifact for your portfolio. It may focus on a particular subject area (e.g., math, science, or reading), grade level (e.g., elementary), or reform program. Your curriculum audit report should:

• Identify the curriculum you are auditing and thoroughly describe its current status and philosophical basis, including who developed it (or led the change) and when.



• Analyze how curriculum changes in your area—including who initiates and leads change—and how effective that change has been.



• Discuss the role played in your curriculum by national and state testing, standards, or mandates like No Child Left Behind.



• Assess how well the current curriculum meets the needs of the students.



• Recommend specific actions or interventions you would take concerning both the current curriculum and future curriculum.

Click link for an evaluation rubric.

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FINAL PAPER OR PROJECT

The final paper or project constitutes another principal artifact for your portfolio and counts 30 percent toward your grade. Choose one of the following options:

1. Paper option—The paper option takes the form of a traditional research paper on the subject of curriculum or curriculum leadership. In such a paper, you should follow accepted research approaches, citations (APA), and discussion processes. The product would be a well-organized report of 10–12 pages (2500–3000 words).


Click link for an evaluation rubric.


2. Project option—An alternative to the research paper would be a practical project, for example, a revision of a program, participation in a curriculum design effort, or a curriculum alignment effort. Involved in this process would be an overall description of your role, an example of the work you developed or wrote, and other artifacts of your participation.


Click link for an evaluation rubric.

Please note that by the end of lesson 6 you should have come to an agreement with your mentor about the topic of your paper or the subject of the project. You are required to use APA fifth edition format in organizing your paper and for any citations.

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PORTFOLIO ARTIFACTS AND REFLECTIVE NARRATIVE

The principal artifacts for this course are the curriculum audit and final project or paper. Accompanying the artifact is a reflective narrative that describes the process and how the artifact meets specific standards and prepares you for school leadership.

Place your artifacts in the Artifacts area of your e-folio. You can also link your artifacts (designated as "Work") to ISLLC standards listed in the Resources area of the e-folio. Keep your work in "draft" or "ready for feedback" status for now.

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GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or higher on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., writing assignments, discussion postings, curriculum audit, final paper or project, etc.). You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. (Note: Graduate students must maintain a B average to remain in good academic standing.)

Letter grades and their numerical equivalents are as follows:

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ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Thomas Edison State College expects all of its students to approach their education with academic integrity—the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception. All mentors and administrative staff members at the College insist on strict standards of academic honesty in all courses. Academic dishonesty undermines this objective. Academic dishonesty takes the following forms:

• Cheating
• Plagiarizing (including copying and pasting from the Internet without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources)
• Fabricating information or citations
• Facilitating acts of dishonesty by others
• Unauthorized access to examinations or the use of unauthorized materials during exam administration
• Submitting the work of another person or work previously used without informing the mentor
• Tampering with the academic work of other students

Academic dishonesty will result in disciplinary action and possible dismissal from the College. Students who submit papers that are found to be plagiarized will receive an F on the plagiarized assignment, may receive a grade of F for the course, and may face dismissal from the College.

A student who is charged with academic dishonesty will be given oral or written notice of the charge. If a mentor or College official believes the infraction is serious enough to warrant referral of the case to the academic dean, or if the mentor awards a final grade of F in the course because of the infraction, the student and the mentor will be afforded formal due process.

If a student is found cheating or using unauthorized materials on an examination, he or she will automatically receive a grade of F on that examination. Students who believe they have been falsely accused of academic dishonesty should seek redress through informal discussions with the mentor, through the office of the dean, or through an executive officer of Thomas Edison State College.

Plagiarism
Using someone else's work as your own is plagiarism. Although it may seem like simple dishonesty, plagiarism is against the law. Thomas Edison State College takes a strong stance against plagiarism, and students found to be plagiarizing will be severely penalized. If you copy phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or whole documents word-for-word—or if you paraphrase by changing a word here and there—without identifying the author, then you are plagiarizing. Please keep in mind that this type of identification applies to Internet sources as well as to print-based sources. Copying and pasting from the Internet, without using quotation marks and without acknowledging sources, constitutes plagiarism. (For information about how to cite Internet sources, see Graduate Online Student Handbook > Academic Standards > "Citing Sources.")

Accidentally copying the words and ideas of another writer does not excuse the charge of plagiarism. It is easy to jot down notes and ideas from many sources and then write your own paper without knowing which words are your own and which are someone else's. It is more difficult to keep track of each and every source. However, the conscientious writer who wishes to avoid plagiarizing never fails to keep careful track of sources.

Always be aware that if you write without acknowledging the sources of your ideas, you run the risk of being charged with plagiarism.

Clearly, plagiarism, no matter the degree of intent to deceive, defeats the purpose of education. If you plagiarize deliberately, you are not educating yourself, and you are wasting your time on courses meant to improve your skills. If you plagiarize through carelessness, you are deceiving yourself.

For examples of unintentional plagiarism and advice on when to quote and when to paraphrase, click the links provided below.

Examples of Unintentional Plagiarism

When to Quote and When to Paraphrase

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