Should you have any questions regarding your role as a reviewer, guidelines are available here. 

Email us at uceaconvention@gmail.com for further questions. 

Reviews are due June 3rd

Thank you to all who signed up to review proposals!

Email us at uceaconvention@gmail.com for further questions.

UCEA is pleased to announce a new award focused on exemplary educational leadership preparation programs.  

Purpose of the Recognition Program

Quality leaders are influenced by the quality of their leadership preparation and development. A growing body of research demonstrates that how candidates are prepared directly influences their leadership career, practices and school improvement efforts. Further research shows that exemplary programs have outstanding, relevant content, learning experiences and field experiences. To celebrate exemplary programs and encourage their development, UCEA has established an Award for Exemplary Educational Leadership Preparation (note: this name is a placeholder).  This award, which is supported by a grant from the Wallace Foundation,  compliments UCEA’s core mission to advance the preparation and practice of educational leaders for the benefit of all children and schools.

Leadership educators are invited to nominate their programs for recognition at the 2013 UCEA Conference. The program or programs (up to three) judged as most worthy of recognition will receive a significant cash award. In addition, the award winning program(s) will be recognized at a session during the 2013 UCEA Convention, on the UCEA website, and through a case-study publication, Exemplary Programs in Educational Leadership.

This award will be made to programs within colleges and department of education. For example, university-based programs preparing leaders to lead in elementary, middle or high schools, or programs focusing on the development of district level leadership are eligible for recognition. More than one program within a department, school or college of education may apply.

Award Criteria

Contributions will be judged on the extent to which the program: 1) reflects current research on the features, content, and experiences associated with effective leadership preparation, and 2) has demonstrated evidence of program effectiveness.  A UCEA Committee appointed by the UCEA Executive Director will review and evaluate the nominees.  Selection committee members will be individuals with strong expertise in educational leadership preparation.

The Application

Applications are welcome from any university-based program that prepares leaders to lead in elementary, middle or high schools, or programs focusing on the development of district level leadership. More than one program within a department, school or college of education may apply.  Applications will be submitted electronically, and must include the following information:

1.  School, College or Department of Education of which the Program is a Part

2.  Program Name and Mission 

3.  Program Description

The program description should be no more than 25 pages, and must include information addressing the following key program issues and questions:

a.     Program Focus: What kind of leader does the program claim to prepare and how is that type of leadership reflected in the various dimensions of the program (e.g., recruitment, curriculum, practical experiences, and assessment)?

b.     Recruitment: What strategies are used to recruit candidates? What perspectives, priorities and data inform the development of recruitment materials? Who participates in the recruitment process and why?

c.     Selection:  What strategies, information and criteria are used to select candidates for participation in the preparation program? How is the selection criteria and process integral to the program’s goals and approach?  Who participants in candidate selection and how? Does the student body reflect the diversity of the area served by the program?   

d.     Learning Experiences: What is the point of view about learning in the program?  How does teaching reflect this perspective? What kinds of learning experiences are integrated into the program?

e.     Knowledge and Skills: Is the program anchored to a set of nationally recognized leadership standards? How does the program integrate research and professional knowledge with leadership practice? In what ways are issues related to leading diverse and/or low-income student populations dealt with?

f.       Internship: How does the internship support leadership development? How is it supervised and by whom? What does it involve and how is it funded?

g.     Supportive Structures:  What program structures (e.g., cohorts, mentoring, coaching) are provided to support communities of practice?

h.     Partnerships: What kinds of partnerships inform the program? How have district personnel influenced and/or informed the program?

i.       Candidate Assessment: How do you know that candidates’ are gaining the intended knowledge, skills and dispositions? How are candidate assessments used by to support candidate growth?

j.       Program Improvement: How are candidate and program assessments used to promote program improvement?

k.     Faculty: How many faculty teach in this program?  Do program faculty represent expertise from the research and practice communities? How does the program ensure that its faculty have the capabilities to prepare effective educational leaders? How do faculty members work together to design, improve and deliver the program? 

4. Course Content

Please provide syllabi for core courses in the program.

5. Field Work

Please provide a field work guide describing field work requirements, documentation and assessments.

6.  Program Effectiveness

Evidence of program effectiveness can include one or more of the following sources of information; however, please do not exceed 10 pages of evidence:

·      Key findings from follow-up studies of graduates

·      Summary of NCATE/TEAC evaluations/reviews

·      Other evidence

7. Faculty Vitae

Please provide a curriculum vitae for each faculty member who participates in the delivery of the program.

Submitting Your Application

Please submit your application electronically, via email, to ucea@virginia.edu including the phrase “Exemplary Educational Leadership Preparation Award” in the subject line.  Applications must be received by June 17, 2013 to be eligible for consideration.  

The application should have the support of the program head, department chair and dean as appropriate.  The cash awards will go to support the programs being recognized. 

I’m attending the annual SREB Leadership Forum in Atlanta today and tomorrow, and two speakers this morning (Kenna Barger and Elanor Dougherty) focused on the CCSS.  Here are some examples they shared during their presentation:

• Literacy assignment before CCSS: “Choose one of the following stems to write a three paragraph essay.”
• After CCSS: “After reading and discussing the excerpt from funeral oration and the Gettysburg address, write an essay that compares the speeches and argues which leader (Pericles or Lincoln) delivers the most rhetorically compelling argument about democracy. Be able to support your position with examples.”
• Math assignment before CCSS: “solve the following problem: 1/3 divided by 4/5”
• After CCSS: “draw a picture of what 1/3 of a pie would look like if divided by 4/5. How much of the pie would you have to eat?”

The two sets of assignments are parallel, but in the second post-CCSS assignment students are asked to engage with the material in a much more concrete level.  The students engaged in the post-CCSS assignment aren’t merely covering an essential element, they are engaging in an intellectual experience.

Have you considered the implications of the new standards and the changes in practice they should foster for your leadership preparation programs?  If not, you should. We all know how important leadership is, and what a difference quality leadership preparation makes.  If schools are going to successfully make this shift in teaching and learning, then leaders must be prepared to foster and support the shift. 

The implications for leadership preparation are broad.  They involve more than supervision and human capital development.  Those are certainly important areas, but there are also implications for how time is used in schools, schedules for classes, teacher collaboration and planning.  There are also implications for resources, writing labs, library resources, learning spaces, allocation of teachers and support staff.  Finally, just as we need to be familiar with the new CCSS in order to do our work, we need to ensure that leaders are familiar with the new CCSS in order to do their work and to facilitate the understanding of CCSS among school staff.

As you and your colleagues consider the changes needed in your programs, UCEA’s “Designing Purposeful and Coherent Leadership Preparation Curriculum: A Curriculum Mapping Guide,” will prove very useful.  The guide, which can be downloaded from the UCEA Website (www.ucea.org), is designed to facilitate curriculum mapping or curriculum auditing for program development, review, and continuous improvement. It outlines both a process and set of tools to aid program faculty in articulating and aligning leadership expectations and their program content and fostering program coherence.

Please refer to the 2013 Call for Proposals for guidelines on submission and proposal requirements. 

Good luck everyone!

In the past several years, the Atlanta Public School District has come under intense scrutiny for accusations of cheating. The accusations have been so widespread and powerful that several local and national media outlets have carried the stories. Most recently several teachers, principals, test coordinators and the former superintendent have been charged with various crimes, associated with the cheating scandal, including racketeering.  These leaders have turned themselves in to law enforcement officials to be officially charged for their alleged participation in these crimes. Education is under intense pressure and scrutiny in today's context of accountability. Given the (geographical and professional) proximity of these events to my students, we discussed the accusations of cheating in my School Building Leadership class. The questions I posed to my class in the wake of these recent events have to do with leadership ethics. Broadly, we have become familiar with several leadership scholars whose work informs discussions of leadership ethics. These scholars include: Burns' work on on Transformational Leadership which suggests that the leader inspires leaders and followers to a higher level of moral conduct; Greenleaf's work on Servant Leadership, which suggests that the leader's primary responsibility is to focus on the needs of his or her followers and to ensure equity and social justice for and amongst all; and Heifitz' work which focuses on values and effectively addressing conflict.

Specifically, with these theoretical understandings as our backdrop, we engaged in discussion regarding the responsibility of leadership in the current political and professional context of accountability and particularly with regard to the accusations of cheating within Atlanta Public Schools. The discussion was fruitful and lively, given that most of my students are Assistant Principals being groomed for the principalship. The standard against which many of the Atlanta Public School leaders were accused was that they "knew or should have known" that cheating was happening. Our discussion of this standard led to several other related questions, including: how is it possible for a leader to know what it is happening in their schools and with their faculty and students at all times (and is this a fair expectation); and what is the role of culture (at the school and district level) in applying this standard? Several leadership lessons in ethics emerged from our discussion:

• Ethical behavior is intricately connected to the culture that the leader establishes
• The leader ultimately IS responsible for what happens under his/her watch--which makes establishing an ethical culture extremely important
• Conduct AND character are important leadership characteristics with respect to ethics
• Establishing a culture of moral courage is important when things are happening that are against policy and legal expectations. People should be empowered (and feel obligated) to speak up when necessary for the benefit of the organization 

The job of the leader is an enormous responsibility. It is imperative that leaders create and reify an appropriate culture in which students and faculty can thrive. Such work must be supported at all levels: locally and nationally.  There is much to critique in the case of this cheating scandal, including a stormy educational landscape that appears to place more emphasis on scores than teaching and learning, and expend more resources on arresting and jailing educators than educating students and supporting educators. Finally, there is as much to learn as there is to critique. Ultimately, as a class we determined that the 4 C's: culture, conduct, character, and courage are critical to establishing and maintaining the proper context for ethical leadership.

Each of these three events focus on building the next generation of educational scholars in educational leadership, politics and policy, and none of them would be possible without the incredible support of faculty volunteers.  

On behalf of UCEA, the graduate student scholars and field that has benefited from your support, thank you all.  A special thank you to William Kyle Ingle, Tamara Young, Maria Luisa Gonzalez, Melissa Martinez, Cossette Grant Overton, Tim Salazar, Tricia Bowne-Ferrigno, Laura Cohen-Vogel, Amy Reynolds, Carmen Foster, Erin Anderson and Lieve Pitts for their work to make each of these three events a success. 

I think most people would agree that testing can inform teaching and can be used to identify individuals or groups of individuals who need more intensive intervention but these are educational purposes that serve children. Using tests to identify academic failure, retain children and dismiss teachers reflects a simplistic and symptomatic response to education and not a deep understanding of what teaching and learning is all about. 

During the coming weeks, teachers and administrators will be admonishing, cajoling and cheering students to do their best during another testing season, hopefully with strong results. The stakes are high for all the participants now that teachers and administrators as well as students are being held accountable for the results. But, is it worth the tears, upset stomachs, anxiety, sense of failure, and tension? My heart goes out to educators everywhere who must pretend that it is.

See related article in Education Week:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/leadership_360/2013/04/leading_through_the_testing_minefield.html

All proposals must be submitted by May 10th, so submit yours soon!

Get an early start - reserve your hotel room now for the Annual Convention in Indianapolis.

Last but not least, registration for the Convention will open on July 1st.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at AERA!