AED 599.501 Synthesis in Educational Leadership

This is a Web-based course taught by Dr. Julia Ballenger.

Instructor Contact Information

Dr. Julia Ballenger email: jnballengerr@sfasu.edu (936) 468-1849

Course Description
This is a Synthesis in Educational Leadership course designed to provide candidates opportunities to expand the depth of their understanding of what principals need to know and be able to do as set forth in the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) and the NCATE-approved Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards. Internship activities are required, and preparation for the (Texas Examinations of Educator Standards (TExES) certification exam will be provided. To align our program with NCATE-approved ELCC Standard 7.0, the principal preparation program internship experience hours are in transition. We are in transition to a full internship course to meet NCATE Internship requirements. To this end, we will begin by extending the internship experiences to 63 hours in this course. For each of the nine competencies/ six ELCC standards, students will complete a minimum of 13 hours of internship experiences per week. Due to the additional time for internship experiences, this web-enhanced class has been designed to begin the transition from where we are now to the full NCATE Internship experiences requirement.

This synthesis course is necessary to prepare candidates for the mandated TExES Certification exam and to meet the NCATE-approved ELCC standards. This course also functions as the capstone, synthesizing all previous course work through discussion, participation in field-based intern activities, and portfolio development and presentation.

The class content relates to the three Texas SBEC Domains, the nine Texas SBEC competencies, and the seven ELCC standards using the following correlation chart.

ELCC 1	Campus Vision	SBEC 1
ELCC 2	Positive School Culture	SBEC 4, 5
ELCC 3	Managing the Organization, Operations, & Resources	SBEC 8, 9
ELCC 4	Collaborating with Families and Community members	SBEC 2
ELCC 5 ELCC 6 ELCC 7	Integrity, Fair, & Ethical Understanding and influencing the larger political, social, economic, legl, and cultural context Internship	SBEC 3 SBEC 1-9   Integrated Field Experiences

Textbook Requirements
The following textbooks are required for this course. Please purchase the most recent edition.

Passing the Principal TExES Exam: Keys to Certification & School Leadership by ELaine L. Wilmore. Corwin Press, Inc. A Sage Publications Company, Thousand Oaks, California, ISBN 0-7619-3986-5 (p)

The Essentials of School Leadership edited by Brent Davies. Paul Chapman Publishing and Corwin Press.ISBN 1 4129 0289

Standards-Based Leadership: A Case Study Book for the Prinicpalship by Sandra Harris and Sandra Lowery. Scarecrow Education, Lanham, Maryland

Course Prerequisites
Students in the 36 hour Principal Preparation Program must have completed 8 of the 12 required courses. Students in the Principal Certification Only Program must have completed 4 of the 6 required courses.

Course Format and Participation Requirements
The format for this course includes scheduled assignments and deadlines, offline reading assignments and projects, online readings and participation using web pages, email, discussion boards, and chat. The course includes scheduled online quizzes and exams. The course also requires some scheduled face-to-face meetings as indicated below. In addition, students are required to complete fieldbased internship hours. All exams are online except for the TExES Release Exam for which students will be required to come to campus.  To be successful in this course, the typical student should plan to spend at least 12-15 hours per week working on this course. In addition, students will complete a minimum of 13 hours of internship experiences per week.

On-campus or Face-to-Face Meeting Requirements
On-campus requirements include three face-to-face meetings.The three face-to-face meetings are scheduled for January 26, 2008, from 8:30 a.m. until 12:00 noon, March 1, 2008, from 8:30 a.m. until 12 noon., and May 3, 2008, from 8:30 a.m. until 12 noon.

Course Assessment
Class Grading Procedures

Assessment: 1 Nine Internship Activities (63 hours) and portfolio 40 points Participation and class activities 14 points

Assessment: 2 Synthesis Paper on The Essentials of School Leadership and PowerPoint Presentation (Chapter) 40 points

Assessment: 3 TExES Sample Test 1 point

Assessment 4: Diagnostic Exam - A 2.5 points

Assessment 5: TExES Release Exam 2.5 points

Grading Scale: 100-90 = A; 89-80 = B; 79-70 = C; 69-60 = D; 59 and below = F

Effort Expected
This is a 3-credit-hour course.  To be successful in this course you should expect to spend about 10 hours a week on readings, assignments, discussions, and other activities. In addition, students will complete a minimum of 13 hours of internship experiences per week.

Technical Requirements for the Course
Other than the minimum technical requirements for any course, students will need access to a CD-ROM drive, VCR, printer, and PowerPoint software

Before the Course Begins

Complete the Getting Started area of sfaonline.

Register and pay for the course just as you would any other SFA course.

As soon as you are registered, please send an email message to the instructor.

Carefully read and complete all steps of Getting a myCourses Username and PIN.

F-1 Visa Holders
There are important federal regulations pertaining to distance education activity for F-1 Visa holders. All students with an F-1 Visa should follow the instructions at the following link to make sure they are in compliance.
http://www.oit.sfasu.edu/disted/facsup/f1visa.html

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