Masters of Science in Leadership Pre K-12 Education - Curriculum

This course focuses on critical thinking and communication strategies to advance students' reasoning skills to develop well-thought-out, reasoned, clear, and concise oral and written communications and present them using transmedia. Students learn effective, engaging, and strategic use of interactive media; emerging and distributed technologies for storytelling; and how to convey well-articulated and powerful narratives.

The course explores virtual and integrated learning technologies and their applications to learning organizations, learning communities, and educational settings. Future-ready technologies and techniques are applied for experiential, collaborative, social, and distributed learning. Students investigate virtual communication tools, integration of social media, virtual collaboration tools, digital storytelling, and their application to their professional and scholarly interests.

This course introduces the student to the study of ethics as a basis for value clarification, decision making, and responsible leadership in inclusive organizations and communities. Elements of ethical leadership such as cultural proficiency, social justice, power, equity, and privilege are examined. Students investigate applications and practices relevant to their academic and professional interests.

The course focuses on analysis, design, development, implementation, and assessment of learning-based solutions to organizational challenges in a variety of learning organization environments including K–12, higher education, and private and public sectors. It introduces models and methods of learning theory and cognition and learning assessments as a response to identified needs and gaps in intended organizational results. Students will investigate applications and practices of learning design, cognition, and evaluation relevant to their academic and professional interests.

This course introduces students to various methods of applied data analysis with an emphasis on the analysis of quantitative data. Students will learn about modern forms of data gathering including the mining and extraction of big data. Students will also learn to report data using powerful statistical packages and the latest web-based visualization platforms. Last, students will learn the fundamentals of inferential statistical analysis. While basic statistical theory will be covered, the emphasis of the course will be on the development of empirical inquiries and the understanding, presentation, and communication of data in organizational, workplace, and educational contexts.

This course examines the role of the entrepreneurial leader in developing innovative solutions that align with personal and organizational mission, vision, and values. Focus is placed on how a leader shepherds sustainable change from ideation, to fruition, and to evolution without positional power. Students will explore methods and engage in processes to support innovation, adaptation, and learning and promote the endeavor by building coalitions and persuasive broad-based organizational support.

In collaboration with program faculty, students will engage in a culminating undertaking in the form of a scholarly paper, a learning/training program, or a technology-infused product design in which students apply academic, theoretical, and/or practitioner perspectives explored throughout the coursework. All projects must be grounded in literature relevant to students' degree programs and presented using advanced transmedia. The Capstone Integration Experience serves as one of the final program learning outcomes assessments.

This course focuses on the role of instructional leaders in shaping a collaborative culture of teaching and learning in which staff engage in individual and collective professional development that results in their continuous improvement and high performance. Students will examine theoretical frameworks and conceptual models for instructional leadership and professional development as transformative learning. They will analyze the needs of the organization and design a comprehensive professional development plan that addresses these needs. Students will engage in culturally proficient, cognitive coaching to support individuals and organizations in becoming more self-directed, self-managing, self-monitoring, and self-modifying.

This course examines strategic approaches for (1) meaningfully involving all parents and families, including underrepresented communities, in student learning and support programs; (2) establishing community partnerships that promote and support students to meet performance and content expectations and graduate ready for college and career; and (3) leveraging and integrating community resources and services to meet the varied needs of all students. Based on organizational analysis, students will design a school, family, and community partnership plan to address an identified academic goal.

The course focuses on understanding, assessing, and influencing political, social, legal, intercultural, and technological contexts affecting education to improve policies and practices and managing the organization to cultivate a safe and productive learning and working environment.