Educational Leadership 6309

Summer I, 2002/Dr. Kathleen (Kathy) Staudt

Professor of Political Science/Director, Center for Civic Engagement

747-7975; kstaudt@utep.edu

 In this concentrated summer session, we will examine educational leadership in different institutional contexts.  What is leadership?  How does it operate to structure teaching, learning, and performance at different levels, at national to state and local, from teachers to principals, superintendents, administrators, and elected officials, whether trustees or representatives?  What strategies, styles, and tools do leaders use to change policies, programs, and everyday life in schools?  We will engage in conversations with leaders, read about educational leadership and change, and formulate leadership strategies for follow-up to El Paso’s Educational Summitof 2000.  This community-based connection makes this a “community partnerships” course.

Seminar participants should visit the El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence website (www.epcae.org) as soon as possible to familiarize themselves with the Education Summit process, agenda, and results.  We will examine the three broad goals around which there was near consensus at this extraordinary event (to paraphrase/condense):  (1) college preparatory curriculum for ALL students, including bilingual fluency, (2) sufficient and high quality teacher workforce, and (3) regional campaign with education as a high priority.  Leadership for the regional campaign was to come from broad-based constituencies, rather than educators alone:  elected officials, business, parents, and community-based organizations (CBOs) and members.  Various leaders will come to our class, for they will assist us in assessing the extent to which the goals have been achieved, what yet needs to be accomplished to connect the Summit’s vision to reality, and strategies to achieve those realities with collaboration among business, parents, students, teachers and administrators (K-16+), and elected officials. 

Two books are available for purchase at the bookstore: Building Civic Capacity: The Politics of Reforming Urban Schools (Clarence Stone, et.al) and Educational Leadership, Michael Fullan.  Parts I and II of the International Handbook of Educational Change (IHEC) are available on reserve at the library, along with other required and/or recommended readings.  Check out some recommended readings for each session.  We will also examine many web sites and interact with one another via email.  Please sign up for the Weekly News Blast from http://www.PublicEducation.org/news/signup.htm for national trends, comparative trends, and grant opportunities.  Check local business web sites for content on education: www.elpaso.org (greater chamber) and the Leadership & Research Council <www.eplrc.org>. 

Participants should be prepared to write in this class.  They will send kstaudt email summaries of readings, by noon before each session, evaluating and comparing readings their relevance for policy and program change in our region (25% of grade). Besides these summaries, participants will be responsible for two more written analyses: (1) a review of journal articles (see appendix) (25% of grade) and (2) leadership strategy memos addressed to two audiences of the following levels: the state, district, and/or campus (25% of grade).  The strategies will address follow up to the Educational Summit.  Seminar participation (presence is essential!) will add up to the remaining 25% of the grade.

Orientation

June 3:

Building relationships among us (leaders)! (social capital; civic capacity)

Conceptions of Leadership

June 5
Stone, et.al, Introduction and Ch 1
In Ed Leadership, Part One, on organizational behavior.
Select four from the five articles/excerpts by John Gardner,
Peter Senge, William Glasser, Ogawa & Bossert, Bolman & Deal)
Speaker: Danny Vickers, business leader and co-chair, Education Summit
 
Recommended:  Robert Coles, The Call of Service

History and Context

June 10

 

          

 
Stone, Chs 2-3.  Compare with El Paso’s context.
Mexican American Education Study (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights)
Volumes 1-6; scan (in library documents) 1971-4
A Nation at Risk
John Sharp, Bordering the Future (Texas State Comptroller’s site) 1998,
(Chs 1-5: Intro, Economy, Public Ed, Higher Ed, Workforce Development)
Visit www.census.gov for data on ‘your’ district/campus: Report in class
Speaker: Joanne Bogart, El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence       
 
Recommended:  Jeannie Oakes, Keeping Track, 1985
                         K. Staudt, Free Trade? Informal Economies at the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1998
                         (esp. Chs 3-4: historical political economy of region; informal income generation)
                         Ben Saenz, “Exile: El Paso,” in Flowers for the Broken

National Strategies for Change:

June 12

 
In Ed Leadership, Parts Three (select 1, Banks or Shakeshaft, et.al) and
Four (Thomas Sergiovanni and either Evans or Ryan and Bohlin)
Speaker: Alicia Parra, Deputy Director, EPCAE
 
Selections in IHEC: Ann Lieberman and MareenGrolnick, “Educational
Reform Networks;” Henry Levin, “Accelerated Schools;” and/or Edward Joyner,
“Large-Scale Change: The Comer Perspective”
 
Recommended:  John Goodlad, A Place Called School (1984) and
                                                 Educational Renewal, (1993)
                         RosabethKanter, Men and Women of the Corporation, 1993 (2nd ed)

Texas and the Region: Toward Accountability, Obsessions, and Backlash

June 17

 
Stone, Civic Mobilization in Eleven Cities.  Compare El Paso
Dennis Shirley, Community Organizing and Urban School Reform, 1997
Ch 2
TEA website: Report on ‘your’ schools and district (identify ‘Screaming
Silences,’ on school-community connections, parental engagement, etc.)
Visit www.texastesting.org
Asset Mapping: El Paso’s civic capacity?
Speaker: Renee Barrios, EPISO/Texas Industrial Areas Foundation
 
Recommended:  K.Staudt and J.Bristol, “UTEP” in Making a Place in the
                         Faculty Rewards System for Work with K-12, AAHE 1999
                         Douglas Henton, Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How
                         Civic Entrepreneurs are Building Prosperous Communities, 1997

Lingering Issues:Tracking, Standardization, Parental Partnerships in ‘Education for What?’

June 19     
In Ed Leadership, Part Two (Read Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium and apply to two ‘leaders!’; Select five from Susan Johnson, Jerome Murphy, David March, Roland Barth, Michael Fullan, Bolman & Deal, Phillip Schlechty, Terrence Deal and Kent Peterson)
 
In IHEC: Jeannie Oakes, et.al “Norms and Politics of Equity-Minded Change…”
“Listening and Learning from the Field: Tales of Policy Implementation and
Situated Practice,” MilbreyMcClaughlin
Randy Schutt, Inciting Democracy, Chs 3-4 Obstacles to Change; Overcoming Obstacles, www.vernalproject.org
Speaker: Gene Finke, Trustee, EPISD Board                    
Speaker: Pilar Herrera, Parent Engagement Network
 
Recommended:  Deborah Meier, The Power of their Ideas
                          Harriet Romo and Toni Falbo, LatinoHigh School Graduation
                          1996 (research in Austin, TX: applications here?)
                          M.Warren, Dry Bones Rattling…, Ch 8

Opening and Using Democratic Spaces

June 24
Stone,  Ch 5-6
In Ed Leadership, Part Five (Select 3 from Margaret Wheatley,
Ann Lieberman, et.al, Carol Weiss & Joseph Cambone, Judith Little)
Speaker: Richard Gutierrez, former President, Texas Classroom
Teachers Association
 
Recommended:  Deborah Stone, Policy Paradox: The Art of Political
                          Decision Making, esp. Part II on problem definition,
                          symbols and numeric metaphors, and causality in
                          policy analysis.
                          K.Staudt, “Democracy Education for More than the Few,”
                          In Developing Democratic Character in the Young, 2001
                          Michael Fullan, “The Meaning of Educational Change:
                          A Quarter of a Century of Learning,” IHEC
                          Kellogg Foundation, Leadership Reconsidered
                          Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice

Toward (Temporary) Closure and Follow Up

June 26
Stone Ch 7
Emma Goldman, “Was my Life Worth Living?” (Harper’s, 1934, reprinted 2000)
Policy Memos Due
Speaker: Lupe Morales, El Paso representative on the Texas PTA Board

July 1
Presentations
Review of Journals due

Appendix

Review of Journals
Scan five of the following journals over the last five years.  Write a short essay that reviews research topics and methods and their change over time.  Illustrate your essay with a summary and evaluation of three articles.
 
Anthropology of Education
Educational Administration Quarterly
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
Educational Research
Equity and Excellence in Education
Harvard Education Review
Journal of Applied Psychology
Journal of Experiential Education
Journal of Higher Education
Leadership and Organizational Development
National Civic Review
Nonprofit Management
Peabody Journal of Education
Public Administration Review
Public Manager
Review of Higher Education
Review of Education Research
Sociology of Education
Teachers College Record
Urban Education

Also consult several non-research magazines that may have useful ideas with policy implications from the following:  Change, Chronicle of Higher Education, Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, Principal Leadership.  Briefly add in comment from several articles from these selections.