Syllabus

Master of Science in Education

EDU 706: School-Community Relations & Communications – Spring B 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

Week 1

Students will:

• demonstrate their foundational knowledge through discussion board conversations about internship activities and e-portfolio design.  (1-6)
• Describe their leadership projects as well discuss how they will use technology to display the results of their project.  (1-6)

Week 2

Students will:

• Acquire an understanding of self by reflecting on the skills and attributes that they have as an instructional leader. (1 – 6)
• Explain the function of collecting and analyzing data and information pertinent to the educational environment. (2 & 6)
• Synthesize their skills set and attributes that define “leadership.” They will discuss the importance how data can support and guide student learning in the educational environment. (1-6)

Week 3

Students will:

• Reflect on internship experience and be an active and contributing member of an instructional leadership community. (1 &4)
• Create a draft e-portfolio that demonstrates their ability to implement effective leadership skills as an educational administrative leader and promote technology in their school environment.  (2)
• Describe how an education leader promotes the success of every student by collaborating with faculty and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources. (4 & 6)

Week 4

Students will:

• Demonstrate an understanding of how an effective leader promotes promote understanding, appreciation, and use of the community’s diverse cultural, social, and intellectual resources (1 & 6)
• Interpret  resources of systems, organization and individuals as well as promote an understanding of how resources work together. (1 , 4 & 6)
• Create ways to build and sustain productive relationships with community partners, families and caregivers. (1-4)
• Define how to build positive relationships with various stakeholders.  (1-4)
• Reflect on their internship experiences and their growth through an analysis of their projects. (1-6)

Week 5

Students will:

• Demonstrate their knowledge of problem-solving and decision-making through their analysis of leadership field experiences.  (1-6)
• Explain how they have achieved areas of growth in leadership skills and activities. (1-6)

Week 6

Students will:

• Create ways to build and sustain productive relationships with community partners, families and caregivers. (1-4)
• Define how to build positive relationships with various stakeholders.  (1-4)
• Reflect on their internship experiences and their growth through an analysis of their projects. (1-6)

Week 7

Students will:

• Summarize and explain new learning that were gained during their internship to complete their e-portfolio and reflect on their experiences. (1-6)

• Conclude how they used  metrics, collected and analyzed data, interpret results, through the sharing of how they collaborated with stakeholders to improve staff performance and student learning as well as  to build relationships. (3)

Week 8

Students will:

• Describe their foundational knowledge through discussion board conversations about internship activities and e-portfolio design. (1-6)

• Justify leadership projects as they related to educational environment and conversations (through technology) (1-6)

Assignments

Journal Entries: Each week you should post a 1­2 paragraph summary of the name and description of your internship 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 Experience Log: As part of the internship, interns must document all field experiences. For each field experience that is conducted during the 8 ­week internship, the intern will use the “Internship Experience Log” document. The Internship Log will be submitted to the UNE Mentor two times during the internship 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:  PowerpPoint, Prezi, Glogster, Video, etc.

Grading Policy

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

Grade Breakdown

Assignments	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