Full Course Description List:

EDSP Courses

5 credits

This course begins by building candidates understanding of the philosophy, requirements, and community of Walden University, The Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership, and the program. Candidates complete a pre-assessment, and develop an individual learning plan.Following this essential introductory work, candidates begin their study of school leadership by focusing on the structures of school organizations and leadership styles.

5 credits

Effective educational leaders influence the quality of teaching by understanding how to recognize outstanding teaching and facilitate improvement by communicating how and why learner-centered teaching enhances the learning outcomes of every student. This course introduces candidates to the latest research on education, teaching, and learning, and fosters the development of an understanding of how effective approaches to instruction are informed by research.

5 credits

Effective educational leaders work to foster shared understanding of and commitment to making sure that every student learns and succeeds; this requires the ability to communicate and the capacity to create conditions and processes that foster collaborative problem solving and decision making. Education professionals in this course explore the characteristics of effective leaders. They learn how to model open and responsive communication as well as how to create time and use tools to ensure that such interactions are common within the school and throughout the school community. They also explore the role of schools in communicating with and drawing upon community resources of various types, including public agencies and organizations that serve youth and families. Through this course, education professionals work toward establishing the personal, ethical, and moral platforms to become effective leaders who model and promote ethical and productive civic behavior.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7200 (may be concurrent)

5 credits

Education professionals in this course explore and analyze the issues, complexities, responsibilities, and opportunities associated with leading schools with diverse student populations. By acknowledging differences among learners, as well as biases, discrimination, prejudices, and stereotypes, school leaders can identify diversity as a dynamic contributing factor to a rich learning environment in which individual differences are honored and respected. A focus of the course is also on one of the most challenging tasks facing schools today: to substantially increase the achievement of students placed at risk because of limited facility with English, and physical, mental, and emotional disability. Candidates will study diverse and inclusive approaches that have proven most effective in supporting all language learners and students with special needs to reach high standards of performance.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7200 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7201 (may be concurrent)

5 credits

This course includes a study of selected general legal principles, case and statute law, and law-making agencies that impact leaders and their educational institutions. Key content areas include but are not limited to the legal status of the local school district; the role of federal, state, and local governments that may apply; governance of schools; and policies, rules, and regulations. Educators in the course will also cover the legal rights, responsibilities, and obligations of administrators, teachers, students, parents, and school boards, community education, civil rights, collective bargaining, torts and contracts, and legal research, as well as the development of policy to meet regulations and other provisions.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7801 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7202 (may be concurrent)

5 credits

Education leaders must use data extensively to guide them in defining needs, setting and prioritizing goals, monitoring and evaluating progress, and identifying effective strategies for improvement. The continuing analysis of the gaps between student performance and student learning goals defines the actions of effective school leaders. Decision-makers must understand the array of data that are needed for school improvement. They must know the principles and techniques of measurement, evaluation, and data analysis. They must use a multitude of strategies to analyze data to propel teaching and learning and school improvement. They should use technology to support the collection and use of data. They need to engage the school community (teachers, parents, and students) in understanding and supporting data to guide the analysis of strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities in the ongoing pursuit of school improvement.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7801 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7202 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7802 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7203 (may be concurrent)

5 credits

Research on effective schools provides guidance on the most productive ways to organize time, people, money, technology, and other resources. To use these resources most effectively, leaders need to have a strategy that defines the most important priorities, the overall educational design, and the organizational structures that best match the necessary goals for improvement. Effective leaders need to be able to (1) link whole-school strategic plans to effective instructional practices and improved use of time and money; (2) ensure individualized attention where needed in subject areas; (3) evaluate alternative paths to school improvement; (4) invest wisely in improving teaching quality; and (5) organize staff and use other resources in new ways that allow focused investment in teaching and learning.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7204 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7803 (may be concurrent)

5 credits

Effective educational leaders develop capabilities to foster cultures for learning based on mutual respect among students, teachers, staff, parents, and the larger community. Strategies for fairly and effectively administering discipline and resolving conflict are addressed. This course is intended to help leaders understand and treat individual and group differences and potential conflict as opportunities for developing the dispositions, knowledge, and skills that result in social competencies essential to civic participation and interpersonal effectiveness in school and beyond. Candidates also study issues related to safety and violence in schools, considering both methods of prevention and ways to respond to unsafe and violent situations.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7204 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7803 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7205 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7804 (may be concurrent)

5 credits

To be effective, school leaders must understand the foundational principles of teaching¿curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Education professionals in this course also focus on the considerations with which they need to engage as they plan for the adoption and implementation of a new or substantially revised program to enhance student learning in a content domain. Literacy and math are two content areas that are problematic in many schools, especially those serving diverse students and students who are underperforming. Thus, while the lessons are applicable to other subjects, the focus here is on how to ensure that content standards, curriculum materials, assessment, instruction, professional development, and parental and community involvement, among other initiatives, are aligned in ways that foster student achievement in literacy and math.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7805 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7206 (may be concurrent)

5 credits

Candidates study human resources policies and practices for recruiting, selecting, hiring, inducting, developing, evaluating, and retaining or dismissing school personnel. Identifying teachers¿ needs for professional growth is important, but leaders must also ensure that teachers have the opportunity and motivation to use their professional expertise and to participate in ongoing professional development focused on enhancing the learning of every student. As well, school leaders must be able to identify characteristics of productive teacher evaluation processes and programs; distinguish between supervising teaching and supervising learning; and utilize a process and structure for evaluating school personnel that is productive and supportive, motivates improvement, results in retention of highly competent staff members, embodies standards of due process, and takes into account the provisions of the contractual agreements for staff

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7206 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7805 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7207 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7806 (may be concurrent)

1 credit

Field experiences provide education professionals with authentic opportunities to apply learning as well as to expand understanding and ability. Building knowledge, skills, and dispositions for field experiences, education professionals also participate in two residencies in which they have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with faculty members to learn and hone skills, develop dispositions, and discuss ways to ensure productive and successful field experiences and meet the demands of the profession they are studying. The program requires a minimum of 320 hours or 40 eight-hour days (across 12 consecutive months) in elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school settings as an administrative aide to a licensed and practicing school principal. Field experience must include at least 40 hours or 1 week at each level that is not a part of education professionals' primary teaching experience.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7200 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7201 (may be concurrent)

1 credit

Field experiences provide education professionals with authentic opportunities to apply learning as well as to expand understanding and ability. Building knowledge, skills, and dispositions for field experiences, education professionals also participate in two residencies in which they have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with faculty members to learn and hone skills, develop dispositions, and discuss ways to ensure productive and successful field experiences and meet the demands of the profession they are studying. The program requires a minimum of 320 hours or 40 eight-hour days (across 12 consecutive months) in elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school settings as an administrative aide to a licensed and practicing school principal. Field experience must include at least 40 hours or 1 week at each level that is not a part of education professionals' primary teaching experience.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7801 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7202 (may be concurrent)

1 credit

Field experiences provide education professionals with authentic opportunities to apply learning as well as to expand understanding and ability. Building knowledge, skills, and dispositions for field experiences, education professionals also participate in two residencies in which they have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with faculty members to learn and hone skills, develop dispositions, and discuss ways to ensure productive and successful field experiences and meet the demands of the profession they are studying. The program requires a minimum of 320 hours or 40 eight-hour days (across 12 consecutive months) in elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school settings as an administrative aide to a licensed and practicing school principal. Field experience must include at least 40 hours or 1 week at each level that is not a part of education professionals' primary teaching experience.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7801 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7202 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7802 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7203 (may be concurrent)

1 credit

Field experiences provide education professionals with authentic opportunities to apply learning as well as to expand understanding and ability. Building knowledge, skills, and dispositions for field experiences, education professionals also participate in two residencies in which they have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with faculty members to learn and hone skills, develop dispositions, and discuss ways to ensure productive and successful field experiences and meet the demands of the profession they are studying. The program requires a minimum of 320 hours or 40 eight-hour days (across 12 consecutive months) in elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school settings as an administrative aide to a licensed and practicing school principal. Field experience must include at least 40 hours or 1 week at each level that is not a part of education professionals' primary teaching experience.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7204 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7803 (may be concurrent)

1 credit

Field experiences provide education professionals with authentic opportunities to apply learning as well as to expand understanding and ability. Building knowledge, skills, and dispositions for field experiences, education professionals also participate in two residencies in which they have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with faculty members to learn and hone skills, develop dispositions, and discuss ways to ensure productive and successful field experiences and meet the demands of the profession they are studying. The program requires a minimum of 320 hours or 40 eight-hour days (across 12 consecutive months) in elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school settings as an administrative aide to a licensed and practicing school principal. Field experience must include at least 40 hours or 1 week at each level that is not a part of education professionals' primary teaching experience.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7204 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7803 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7205 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7804 (may be concurrent)

1 credit

Field experiences provide education professionals with authentic opportunities to apply learning as well as to expand understanding and ability. Building knowledge, skills, and dispositions for field experiences, education professionals also participate in two residencies in which they have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with faculty members to learn and hone skills, develop dispositions, and discuss ways to ensure productive and successful field experiences and meet the demands of the profession they are studying. The program requires a minimum of 320 hours or 40 eight-hour days (across 12 consecutive months) in elementary school, middle or junior high school, and high school settings as an administrative aide to a licensed and practicing school principal. Field experience must include at least 40 hours or 1 week at each level that is not a part of education professionals' primary teaching experience.

Prerequisites

• EDSP 7206 (may be concurrent)
• EDSP 7805 (may be concurrent)