Syllabus

Master of Science in Education

EDU 706: School-Community Relations & Communications – Fall A 2016

Credits - 3

Description

An effective educational leader promotes the success of all students by communicating the learning community’s vision, policies, and successes to staff, students, parents, community, decision makers, legislators and media. The leader understands, responds to, and influences the systems that support the educational process. Developing and maintaining partnerships and forging relationships with multiple constituent groups, understanding emerging issues and educational trends and communicating them effectively to stakeholders are all essential leadership competencies. The effective leader plans public relations and communications strategies that build broad support and public ownership for the educational mission that is articulated. This course provides opportunity for self-assessment in developing a communications plan and an understanding of skills and strategies necessary for communicating in ways that positively impact the education of students. This is a field study course.

Materials

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

This course is aligned with Standard 8 of the Professional Standards for Education Leaders 2015. Students will:

• Integrate the concepts and skills from various prior learning experiences and focus them to meet Standard 8 of the Professional Standards for Education Leaders 2015.
• Apply the knowledge and skills acquired through coursework and previous experience to authentic school leadership settings and situations.
• Plan, organize, coordinate, direct, and evaluate how schools engage families and the community in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial ways to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.
• Plan and implement solutions to educational issues related to family and community engagement.
• Communicate and work with various education stakeholders in order to promote the academic success and well-being of all students.
• Explain the importance of understanding, appreciation, and use of the community’s diverse cultural, social, and intellectual resources as a way of leading successful schools.
• Use the tools of technology, research and data, and community resources to showcase how to effectively engage families and the community in meaningful, reciprocal, and mutually beneficial ways to promote each student’s academic success and well-being.

Assignments

Journal Entries: Each week you should post a 1­ – 2 paragraph summary of the name and description of your field experience activity for the week as well as any reflections and insights about the week’s activities. This information should be typed into the “Internship Field Experience Journal Reflection” document.

Internship Field Experience Log: As part of the field experience, interns must document all activity. For each activity that is completed during the 8 ­week field experience, the intern will use the “Internship Field Experience Log” document. The log will be submitted to the UNE Mentor two times during the field experience as well as a third time as part of the cumulative e­-portfolio document.

Discussion Forum: Your instructor will post discussion questions each week that will provide an opportunity to think about broader issues related to your internship experience and share your ideas/insights with the other students in your course section.

E­-Portfolio: The cumulative e-­portfolio, which is submitted near the end of the course, is a product where you can share and shine! As you go through the course you have the opportunity to collect some of the artifacts and submit them for review by your UNE Mentor. Your choices of delivery are limitless but some are:  PowerPoint, Prezi, Glogster, Video, etc.

Grading Policy

Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:

Grade Breakdown

Assignmentsn	Points
Journal Entry (4 @ 5 points each)	20
Discussion Boards (6 @ 4 points each)	24
E-portfolio	56
Total Points	100

Grade Scale

Grade	Points Grade	Point Average (GPA)
A	94 – 100%	4.00
A-	90 – 93%	3.75
B+	87 – 89%	3.50
B	84 – 86%	3.00
B-	80 – 83%	2.75
C+	77 – 79%	2.50
C	74 – 76%	2.00
C-	70 – 73%	1.75
D	64 – 69%	1.00
F	00 – 63%	0.00