Education Commons^™

A Struggle To Bridge The Gap: Promoting African American Males In Teacher Education, Vance Vaughn

School Leadership Review

After serving 22 years in public education as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent, I am in awe over the small number of African American males as public school teachers. My classroom teacher experience was ephemeral as I was promoted to educational administration after five and one-half years. As the only African American male teacher in a high school with over 3,600 students, hundreds of whom were African American male, I was an anomaly in that environment. African American male role models were drastically needed and sought after mainly because campus data reported African American males ranked first …

Strengthening The Campus Leadership Team Through Effective Principal And Counselor Relationships: Implications For Training, Jane H. Macdonald, Stephen A. Armstrong, Robin K. Henson

School Leadership Review

Campuses with successful leadership teams have a better opportunity to meet the ever-increasing and complex needs of the students they serve (Crowther, Kaagan, Ferguson, & Hann, 2002). These successful campuses are strengthened when they include strong principals and counseling teams with shared mutual trust and understanding that permeates the school climate (DeVoss & Andrews, 2006). A review of the literature revealed a paucity of studies examining the nature of successful principal-counselor relations and the impact of this relationship on student success, effective campus leadership teams, and an effective school climate that promotes learning. Meaningful dialogue and discussion of this critical …

Expectations Of Mentoring: Novice Teachers’ Voices, Rubén Garza, Martha N. Ovando, Alfredo Ramirez Jr.

School Leadership Review

Mentoring, as an avenue to support and retain new teachers, has received a renewed interest. As Trubowitz suggests, “School systems are finding that beginning teachers who have access to intensive mentoring are less likely to leave teaching” (2004, p. 59). While several factors may cause teachers to leave, alienation has been identified as one of the major forces. According to previous research, teachers experience “a combination of feelings of isolation, normlessness, powerlessness, and meaninglessness” (Benham & O’Brien, 2002, p. 20). Such feelings of isolation are compounded by the current accountability demands and the professional pressure teachers’ experience. Thus, it is …

Where Do They Come From And How Can We Find More? Recruiting Teacher Candidates During Lean Times., Bruce Saddler, Kristie Asaro-Saddler, Tammy Ellis-Robinson, Matthew Lafave

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

Teacher preparation programs are facing an alarming drop in enrollments around the country. Our university, The State University of New York at Albany, has not been exempted from decreased enrollments. Low enrollments have led us to initiate direct attempts to recruit quality applicants to our master’s programs. As part of our overall recruiting plan, we created a survey of our applicants to determine how they discovered our programs and why they want to attend our programs so that we can better utilize our limited advertising resources. Survey results and implications for recruiting teacher candidates are discussed.

Expanding Capacity To Serve Multilingual Learners: A University-School District Partnership, Beth Clark-Gareca, Kim Fontana

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

In a time of new teacher certification requirements in New York, school districts are grappling with how to meet the regulatory expectations imposed by Commissioner’s Regulations Part 154. One way that schools are solving staffing challenges is by forging new collaborations with university partners to expand their collective capacities to serve Multilingual learners (MLLs). In this article, we document a partnership between SUNY New Paltz’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program and the Pawling Central School District during the 2017-18 academic year. We describe the partners’ distinct roles in the university-district collaboration, and discuss the logistical considerations …

University Leadership Of Professional Development Schools, Diane W. Gómez Dr., Shelley B. Wepner Dr.

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This study investigated the roles and responsibilities of University-Based Administrators (UBAs) in relation to their oversight of Professional Development Schools PDSs. UBAs refer to college administrators such as department chairs, program coordinators, directors, assistant deans, associate deans, and deans. The participants were 36 UBAs ranging from mid-level administrators to faculty chairpersons. They represented universities of various sizes and Carnegie classifications from across the United States. The UBAs responded through email or by telephone to nine semi-structured interview questions related to their PDS work. The majority of UBAs were tenure-track or clinical faculty, who spent less than 50% of their time …

The Role Of The Clinical Educator In Teacher Preparation: An Exploratory Study Of Perceptions Of Preparedness, Kristen M. Driskill

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

As the demands on P-12 teachers increase, so do the demands on teacher preparation programs. In higher education institutions across the country, coursework is regularly updated to reflect changing academic standards, increasing diversity in classrooms, rigorous certification exams, etc. In addition, accreditation standards have been updated to reflect the need for P-12 partnerships in best preparing teacher candidates. As a result, clinical practice has come under focus. Yet the role of the clinical educator remains unclear. There is a gap in the literature regarding the preparedness and support of clinical educators, particularly addressing their role in developing teacher candidates along …

Letter From The Editors

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Past President

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Using Virtual Exchange To Advance Media Literacy Competencies Through Analysis Of Contemporary Propaganda, Renee Hobbs, Christian Seyferth-Zapf, Silke Grafe

Journal of Media Literacy Education

With the rise of so-called fake news as a global phenomenon, interest in propaganda analysis has advanced along with the recognition of the fundamentally social process of interpretation. In this essay, we explore the use of cross-national dialogue among German and American undergraduate students who are seeking to better understand how media messages are interpreted and how they inform and guide the civic actions of citizens. We describe and analyze five lessons that used a virtual exchange using a variety of digital media platforms, texts and technologies to support the cross-national study of contemporary propaganda. We observed that cross-national dialogue …

The Complexity Of Learning To Teach News Media In Social Studies Education, Mardi Schmeichel, Jim Garrett, Rachel Ranschaert, Joseph Mcanulty, Shannon Thompson, Sonia Janis, Christopher Clark, Stephanie Yagata, Briana Bivens

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This research reports on data generated through an initial teacher certification program for secondary social studies teachers that introduced a specific and program-spanning focus on news media literacy. Growing out of the urgent need for pedagogies that address and promote critical engagement with the kinds of news media sources upon which civic decisions are made, our project follows teacher candidates from their initial certification coursework through the culminating student teaching semester. Our work with teacher candidates over this time was explicitly intended to intervene in and develop teacher candidates’ understandings of news media literacy, its place in social studies education, …

Preparation Issues In Educational Leadership, Wesley D. Hickey, Peggy Gill

School Leadership Review

Educational leaders have chosen to belong to one of the most important and influential professions. Not only do educators have an important impact on others, but there is a need to have a practical understanding of instruction, curriculum, and psychology. Leaders in all disciplines often relate to previous educational relationships in discussions about important moments in their lives. These relationships matter, and they provide foundational experiences for each of us.

Writing With Discipline: A Call For Avoiding Apa Style Guide Errors In Manuscript Preparation, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Julie P. Combs

School Leadership Review

The education community in the United States—as in many countries—is extremely large and diverse. Indeed, as documented by Mosteller, Nave, and Miech (2004),

The United States has more than 3.6 million teachers in elementary and secondary education, more than 100,000 principals, and about 15,000 school districts, each with its own set of district administrators, school board members, and concerned citizens. The parents and family members of the 60 million students in elementary and secondary education represent another constituency, as do the policymakers and legislators in the 50 states (along with the District of Columbia) and at the federal level. Postsecondary …

Building Capacity For Quality Leadership With English Language Learners, John Leonard, Betty Alford, Neill Armstrong

School Leadership Review

Waxman, Téllez, and Walberg (2004) advocated that school leaders must assist staff developers in providing English language learner (ELLs)-related professional development that includes “demonstration of theories of language, sustained coaching, and evaluation programs measuring teacher implementation and impact” (p 2-3). These professional development goals are central to the leader’s purposeful expansion of teachers’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions concerning the unique needs of ELLs and communicating the importance of the effective curricular integration of well-planned and embedded strategies designed to meet the needs of the often marginalized ELL population. School leaders must be willing to provide a systematic program of professional …

The Changing Face Of The Elementary School Principal, Julie P. Combs, Stacey L. Edmonson

School Leadership Review

Principals in today’s schools have more experience, have more education, and are of a more advanced age than ever before (National Association of Elementary School Principals [NAESP], 2006). Women elementary principals in the nation have increased from 41% to 56%. Likewise, the age of principals at all levels has increased, as did the percentage of principals who had more than 20 years of experience before entering the position (NAESP, 2006). In addition, the number of elementary principals has increased by 7,000 over the past 10 years (NAESP, 2004, 2005); this number grew to 61,000 in 2003-2004 from 54,000 in 1993-1994. …

A Scholar–Practitioner Stance: Practices Of Social Justice And Democracy, Patrick M. Jenlink

School Leadership Review

Crossing the threshold into a new millennium has been hallmarked by a series of defining events, which have shaped, irrevocably, society and its educational system. These events include the standards and accountability movement, the federal mandate of No Child Left Behind of 2001, the fifty-year anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and the realization of how far we are from obtaining its promise, and the demographic shifts in population density and racial makeup nationally and particularly in urban centers, to mention a select few of the more profound historical events. Issues of diversity, both inter and intragroup, further illuminate …

Preparing Aspiring Superintendents To Lead School Improvement: Perceptions Of Graduates For Program Development, Pauline M. Sampson, Betty J. Alford, Ralph L. Marshall

School Leadership Review

Changes in the design and delivery of educational leadership preparation programs are advocated in order to meet the needs of leadership for 21st century schools (Byrd, 2001; Cox, 2002; McKerrow, 1998; Smylie & Bennett, 2005). The changing needs of the 21st century, coupled with accountability standards and more diverse populations of students within school districts, create challenges for leaders who are attempting to increase student achievement (Firestone & Shipps, 2005; Schlechty, 2008). Further, student performance demands have increased at the state and national level because of the No Child Left Behind Act (Wong & Nicotera, 2007). These standards have thus …

Rural Principal Leadership Skill Proficiency And Student Achievement, Sue Erwin, Pam Winn, John Erwin, Jim Gentry, Mary Cauble

School Leadership Review

Warren and Peel (2005) found that rural schools can effectively develop focused leadership support and training. However, as indicated by Arnold, et al. (2004), the knowledge and skills most critical to effective rural administration have yet to be identified. Targeting specific leadership skills related to student achievement might focus university principal preparation programs and public school district staff development programs on producing more effective rural leadership. Ultimately, this emphasis may improve student achievement and school performance in rural schools.

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled rural school leaders, this study will endeavor to identify the leadership skills of …

Metacognitive Reading Strategy And Emerging Reading Comprehension In Students With Intellectual Disabilities, Natasha Cox-Magno, Peter Ross, Kathleen Dimino, Andrea Wilson

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This article ventures to address the gap in special education practices by providing a metacognitive reading strategy to support the emerging reading comprehension skills of kindergarten students with intellectual disabilities. Historically, students with intellectual disabilities have low reading comprehension skills that can impede their overall academic success. There is a gap in practice regarding the identification and effective use of evidence-based reading comprehension instructional strategies for students with intellectual disabilities. Guided by Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s constructivist theories, the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a metacognitive reading strategy on the emerging reading comprehension (ERC) skills of …

Woke Pedagogy: A Framework For Teaching And Learning, Altheria Caldera

Diversity, Social Justice, and the Educational Leader

The sociopolitical context of schooling demands that teachers acknowledge the ways their students’ and their own experiences are shaped by the intersections of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other discriminatory factors. This is especially true during times of heightened civil unrest resulting from pervasive and persistent injustice experienced by minoritized populations. To engage students in pedagogy that connects with their lived experiences and that equips them to critically examine inequities, teachers must refute colorblind pedagogy in favor of woke pedagogy. Woke pedagogy, like critical multicultural education, is defined by teaching practices that integrate critiques of contemporary justice-related issues with academic …

Remedying Hermeneutic Injustice One Poem At A Time: A Review Of The Little Orange Book: Learning About Abuse From The Voice Of The Child, Alec J. Grant Phd

The Qualitative Report

This remarkable book tackles child sexual abuse and exploitation, arguing that blame and accountability belong to its perpetrators. It draws on thematic content analysis and autoethnographic principles and is methodologically novel in utilising the poetry of the first author, written in childhood, as primary data. An important international educational and practical resource, it should be on the shelves of university libraries, informing courses in social work, criminology, health and qualitative inquiry. It is also a much needed knowledge resource for abuse survivors and their advocates, remedying what the moral philosopher Miranda Fricker calls “hermeneutic injustice”: abused people lacking the knowledge …

Professional Development Principles For Teachers Of English Language Learners, Beverly J. Irby, Cindy Guerrero, Rafael Lara-Alecio, Fuhui Tong, Linda Rodriguez

School Leadership Review

Since effective professional development is logically embedded in the reality of schools and teachers‘ work, it stands to reason that the principal would consider that reality for teachers of English language learners (ELL). Certainly, in general, professional development would incorporate principles of adult learning as reported by Knowles (1980): (1) adult learners need to be self-directed; (2) they display readiness to learn when they have a perceived need; and (3) they desire immediate application of new skills and knowledge. Based on adult learning theory, then, principals would provide teachers of ELLs professional development that addresses a need for self-direction, that …

Principal Preparation Program Redesign: How Universities May Be Required To Redesign Their Programs, Ralph L. Marshall

School Leadership Review

With the advent of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) there has been a greater emphasis on the quality of those individuals who lead the efforts within each of our school buildings across the country. Even more so than district level leadership, an effort has been made to research the effectiveness and improve the quality of the principals who lead school level reforms that are being promoted by business leaders and mandated by legislatures throughout the country. Legislators at both the national and state levels have encouraged these efforts and have even passed legislation that have increased requirements and promoted a …

Insight For Teacher Preparation Program Administrators: Enhancing Pre-Service Educators' Lntercultural Sensitivity And Deep Proficiency In Culturally Responsive Teaching Through Short-Term Study Abroad, Gloria Gresham, Paula Griffin, Tracy Hasbun, Vikki Boatman

School Leadership Review

Teacher preparation program administrators face the issue of expanding curricula to prepare teacher candidates for the diverse population of students they will encounter {Trent, Kea, Oh, 2008). Globalization demands that teacher candidates grasp how to function in a more integrated and interdependent society (McGrew, 2005). According to Smith-Davis (2004) students from non-English speaking countries compose the fastest growing United States K-12 student population, and those identified as limited English proficient were over 10 million in 2004. The United States Census reported in the "New Census Bureau Report" the number of individuals five and older who speak languages other than English …

Superintendents And Professional Development: Voices From The Field, Juan M. Nino, Mike Boone, Israel Aguilar, Dessynie Edwards

School Leadership Review

The primary task of the educational leader is to assure high quality learning environments for all students. Research (Gordon, 2004; Sparks, 2007) supports the proposition that effective professional development contributes to instructional improvement by building educator capacity. Much of the research on professional development focuses in principal leadership in improving instruction (Blase & Blase, 2004). But district level administrators, especially the superintendent of schools, also have a role to play in school improvement. Standards for the preparation of school leaders specify competencies for superintendents that include the design and implementation of professional development programs based on sound research, best practices, …

Professional Development For Educational Leaders In The Era Of Performance Evaluation Reform, Kelly H. Summers, Todd D. Reeves, David A. Walker, J. Schwartz

School Leadership Review

The word “accountability” has become a mantra in public education. Arguably, this one word, and the movement it has produced, has shaped the direction of our field in the past decade more than any other (Harris, 2011). This movement has led to many positive changes including an examination of gaps in student achievement, the types of assessments used in schools, and the strength of the performance evaluation systems for principals and teachers. Many large urban school districts, as well as entire states, have revamped the way public school principals and teachers are evaluated. In fact many, including the State of …

Pursuing The Principalship: Factors In Assistant Principals’ Decisions, Amy Ellis, Casey Graham Brown

School Leadership Review

School administrators who are hired to lead and guide schools and districts must possess a number of characteristics that allow them to become successful leaders. The presence or absence of a strong educational leader can make all the difference in school climate and student achievement (Kelley, Thornton, & Daugherty, 2005). Educational leaders need to be cognizant of what constitutes an effective leader and which characteristics have the most effective impact on student achievement. Alford et al. (2011) stated, "while principals are engaged in the managerial tasks of the school, securing the building for safety, ensuring bus routes, student schedules, and …

Considering An Overhaul To The New Principal Preparation Program, Vance Vaughn, Yanira Oliveras-Ortiz

School Leadership Review

Levine (2005) argued that university principal preparation programs for educational leaders are failing to provide a suitable curriculum to prepare aspiring principals to demonstrate the skills and competencies necessary to meet the challenges inherent in the increasingly complex demands of their school leadership roles. Teitel (2006) suggested that colleges and universities offer curricula that are neither coherent nor relevant. According to Candidates, Doctoral Cohort; Coleman, J. Craig; and Alford, Betty J. (2007), it is “a grave disservice [that] is done to university program graduates who enter leadership positions woefully unprepared for the awaiting firestorm” (p. 39).

The Augmentation Of Bilingual/Bicultural Courses In Educational Administration Core Requirements, Ava J. Munoz

School Leadership Review

"Cultural competence should be a fundamental aspect of school principals' preparation and practice" (Hernandez & Kose, 2012, p. 513). However, educational leadership programs have been remiss, and somewhat lackadaisical, in exploring and including bilingual/bicultural curricular content in their principal leadership programs (Hernandez & Kose, 2012). Presently, few or minute advances in increasing bilingual/bicultural knowledge in the curricular content of educational leadership course requirements is the norm. Moreover, "when these topics are introduced, they are often special topics courses or seminars that are not part of the core curriculum of leadership preparation" (L6pez, 2003, p. 70).