EDL Courses 

Courses that align with Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL), formerly known as ISLLC standards, are noted below. PSEL standards are overseen by the The National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA). Complete details are on the NPBEA website.

EDL 501 Educational Leadership Theory I
This is the first introductory course for the Educational Leadership Program. This course encompasses a study of some of the theories, methods, and applications dealing with educational leadership.  Working individually and collaboratively, you will expand your knowledge of the principles of effective schools and effective school leadership in order to act with cultural competence and responsiveness.  This will require that you caneffectively develop and demonstrate the skills needed to work in collaboration with members of the school and the community and using relevant data, develop and promote a vision for the school on the successful learning and development of each child and on instructional and organizational practices that promote such success.   Experiences will be drawn largely from the behavioral and applied sciences, and applied to the practice of educational administration at all levels and in all settings in order to effectively institute, manage, and monitor operations and administrative systems that promote the mission and vision of the school, taking into account school culture as well as leadership theory and practice. This course will also help you develop the dispositions to be effectively approachable, accessible, and welcoming to families and members of the community.
(PSEL Standards 1b, 3b, 3g, 9a, and 8a)

EDL 502 Educational Leadership Theory II
The focus of this course will be on instructional leadership, communication, decision-making, conflict, and change.  Working individually and collaboratively, you will learn how to foster continuous improvement of individual and collective instructional capacity to achieve culturally responsive outcomes envisioned for each student. This will include being able to effectively use assessment data appropriately and within technical limitations to monitor student progress and improve instruction. To augment these topics you will learn how to effectively develop and maintain data and communication systems to deliver actionable information for classroom and school improvement. Adopting a systems perspective will help you effectively manage uncertainty, risk, competing initiatives, and politics of change with courage and perseverance, providing support and encouragement, and openly communicating the need for, process for, and outcomes of improvement efforts.
(PSEL Standards 3a, 4a, 4g, 6d, 9g, 10h, and 10i)

EDL 503 Educational Leadership Practice
This course helps to articulate the interrelationship between theory and practice and promotes the philosophy that future school leaders should be life-long learners and pro-active about using data for innovation and change. This course effectively ensures instructional practice is intellectually challenging, culturally responsive, authentic to student experiences, recognizes student strengths, and is differentiated and personalized. This will occur when you can effectively assess and develop the capacity of staff to assess the value and applicability of emerging educational trends and the findings of research for the school and its improvement.  Fundamentally, this course will teach you how to effectivelyempower and entrust teachers and staff with collective responsibility for meeting the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of each student, pursuant to the mission, vision, and core values of the school. This course also deals with administrative decision-making in the context of the school, district, and community. Participants will be confronted with problems in instructional leadership using data driven decision-making to create a climate for change by effectively reviewing the school’s mission and vision and adjusting them to changing expectations and opportunities for the school and changing needs and situations of students.
(PSEL Standards 1e, 3f, 3h, 4d, 7b, and 10f)  

EDL 515 School District Leadership
This course is an examination of theories and practices related to school district administration, supervision and evaluation. The course will teach you how to effectively align and focus systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment within and across grade levels to promote student academic success, love of learning, the identities and habits of learners, and healthy sense of self.  This will be accomplished by learning how to effectivelypromote adult-student, student-peer, and school-community relationships that value and support academic learning and positive social and emotional development. This will be followed by learning how to effectively foster continuous improvement of individual and collective instructional capacity to achieve outcomes envisioned for each student. This will be supported by learning how toengage in regular and open two-way communication with families and the community about the school, students, needs, problems, and accomplishments.  Finally the course will explore how to effectively engage others in an ongoing process of evidence-based inquiry, learning, strategic goal setting, planning, implementation, and evaluation for continuous school and classroom improvement, while acting with cultural competence and responsiveness in their interactions, decision making, and practice.
(PSEL Standards 3g, 4b, 5d, 6d, 8c, and 10d)

EDL 528 School Law
This course is a study of the legal framework within which public education operates, beginning with an analysis of how to safeguard and promote the values of democracy, individual freedom and responsibility, equity, cultural responsiveness, social justice, community, and diversity. This analysis will then explain how toconfront and alter institutional biases of student marginalization, deficit-based schooling, and low expectations associated with race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual orientation, and disability or special status.  Besides addressing specific topics, such as, church-state relations, state agencies, local school boards, financing education, tort liability, teacher-personnel administration, the Taylor Law, tenure, desegregation, and the constitutional rights and freedoms of students, you will learn how to effectivelyknow, comply with, and help the school community understand local, state, and federal laws, rights, policies, and regulations so as to promote student success.  Finally, the course will show how you can effectivelymanage governance processes and internal and external politics toward achieving the school’s mission and vision.
(PSEL Standards 2d, 3e, 3h, 9h, and 9l)

EDL 541 School Building Leadership
The design of this course will be focused around the concept of Leadership for Change. Providing leadership, through what can be a massive potential for school restructuring, will be the challenge of tomorrow's school principals. You will be shown how to implement coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, and assessment that promote the mission, vision, and core values of the school, embody high expectations for student learning, align with academic standards, and are culturally responsive. Followed by providing coherent systems of academic and social supports, services, extracurricular activities, and accommodations to meet the range of learning needs of each student, ensuring that each student has equitable access to effective teachers, learning opportunities, academic and social support, and other resources necessary for success. The course will focus attention on the needs of the school community by demonstrating the importance to empower and motivate teachers and staff to the highest levels of professional practice and to continuous learning and improvement, which will lead to the collective responsibility for meeting the academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of each student, pursuant to the mission, vision, and core values of the school. This will culminate with showing you how to create the means for the school community to partner with families to support student learning in and out of school, all the while using methods of continuous improvement to achieve the vision, fulfill the mission, and promote the core values of the school.
(PSEL Standards 3c, 3g, 4a, 5c, 6f, 7b, 8e, and 10b)

EDL 555 Supervision of Instruction
This course covers the basic aspects of the supervisory process including an overview of supervision, theory and research, organization and function, roles of various personnel in the supervisory process, factors influencing change, improving instruction through individuals and groups, curriculum development, effective use of learning resources, and evaluating supervisory programs to address matters of equity and cultural responsiveness. At the core of this course is Standard #6: Professional Capacity of School Personnel, which begins with developing teachers’ and staff members’ professional knowledge, skills, and practice through differentiated opportunities for learning and growth, guided by understanding of professional and adult learning and development, moving to fostering continuous improvement of individual and collective instructional capacity, being able to deliver actionable feedback about instruction and other professional practice through valid, research-anchored systems of supervision and evaluation, which ultimately will empower and motivate teachers and staff, with the goal of developing the capacity, opportunities, and support for teacher leadership. This course will also examine the issues of change within the school classroom that face supervisors today, enabling them to effectivelymanage uncertainty, risk, competing initiatives, and politics of change with courage and perseverance, providing support and encouragement, and openly communicating the need for, process for, and outcomes of improvement efforts, in order to promote the preparation of students to live productively in and contribute to the diverse cultural contexts of a global society.
(PSEL Standards 3f, 3h, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, and 10i)

EDL 571 School Business Administration
This course presents an examination of the duties and responsibilities of the school business administrator including an understanding of the role in relation to other members of the administrative team. Also examined during the course are other aspects of the business administrator's work such as office management, budget procedures, financial management, accounting and auditing, purchasing and supply management, insurance programs, capital outlay and debt service, school plant operation and maintenance, food service, and transportation. At the core of this administrative role is that you can effectively act ethically and professionally in personal conduct, relationships with others, decision- making, stewardship of the school’s resources, and all aspects of school leadership, while being able to effectivelyestablish and sustain a professional culture of engagement and commitment to shared vision, goals, and objectives pertaining to the education of the whole child; high expectations for professional work; ethical and equitable practice; trust and open communication; collaboration, collective efficacy, and continuous individual and organizational learning and improvement; while confronting institutional biases of student marginalization, deficit-based schooling, and low expectations associated with race, class, culture and language, gender and sexual orientation, and disability or special status. The major goal of this role is for you to be an effective,responsible, ethical, and accountable steward of the school’s monetary and non- monetary resources, engaging in effective budgeting and accounting practices.
(PSEL Standards 2a, 3e, 3g, 7c, and 9d)

EDL 572 School Personnel Management
This course examines the nature, scope, and organization of the personnel function and will look at the planning process, collective bargaining (negotiations and contract administration), personnel recruitment (selection, induction, and development), and effective work performance (appraisal, compensation, and job security, issues).  An examination of the federal and state laws and regulations that govern district personnel operations will be included. To accomplish these tasks it will require that you can effectively ensure that each student has equitable access to effective teachers, learning opportunities, academic and social support, and other resources necessary for success, while establishing and sustaining a professional culture of engagement and commitment to shared vision, goals, and objectives pertaining to the education of the whole child; high expectations for professional work; ethical and equitable practice; trust and open communication; collaboration, collective efficacy, and continuous individual and organizational learning and improvement. At the heart of this position is for you to effectively recruit, hire, support, develop, and retain effective and caring teachers and other professional staff and form them into an educationally effective faculty, that will act with cultural competence and responsiveness in their interactions, decision making, and practice.
(PSEL Standards 3c, 3g, 6a, and 7c)

EDL 585 Internship in School District/School Building Leadership (co-requisite EDL 586)
EDL 585 is the field experience component of the corresponding and co-requisite EDL 586.

EDL 586 Seminar in School District/School Building Leadership (co-requisite EDL 585)
The Educational Leadership Internship is defined as the process and product that result from the application in a workplace environment of the strategic, instructional, organizational and contextual leadership program standards. It is strategically designed to immerse candidates in educational experiences that support and rely upon the information and skills attained from courses taken in the program. The internship includes a variety of substantial concurrent or capstone experiences in diverse settings planned and guided cooperatively by university and school district personnel and conducted in schools and school districts over an extended period of time. The experiences need to provide interns with substantial responsibilities, which involve direct interaction and involvement with students, staff, parents, community leaders, and social service organizations involved with inter-agency activities affecting schools.  Through guided and specific tasks, projects and responsibilities you work be expected to work in all ten (10) PSEL standards and will be required to evaluate your growth in each standard at the end of the internship. As highlighted in the Internship Informational Booklet, you will also be required to become proficient in 16 specific PSEL Sub Standards, and demonstrate that you can address matters of equity and cultural responsiveness in all aspects of leadership.
(PSEL Standard 3h)

EDL 595 Educational Leadership Research Project Seminar (prerequisite: 24 EDL program credits)
Project Seminar is an advanced graduate course designed to teach students to understand and conduct graduate level research for the purpose of effectivelyassessing and developing the capacity of staff to assess the value and applicability of emerging educational trends and the findings of research for the school and its improvement, which will help in developing an educational mission for the school to promote the academic success and well-being of each student. This course presents a study of the concepts, theories, methods, and findings dealing with how to acquire the extensive knowledge of learning, creative thinking, teaching, assessment, and the principles of effective schools. Supporting this acquisition is for you to effectively act with cultural competence and responsiveness in interactions, decision making, and practice.
(PSEL Standard 1a, 3g, and 10f)
Note: This course will be GRADED (A, B, C, F). Successful completion requires a grade of "B" or better; otherwise, the course must be repeated in order to graduate. No transfer credit or substitutions permitted.