Course Syllabus
Contact Information
Course Details
For a list of course activities, scroll to the bottom of this page.
Course Delivery
This is a multi-modal course. Much of your learning will take place online and asynchronously within Canvas. You will also have synchronous learning opportunities with the instructor and your peers during the weekly Live Sessions via Zoom.
Course Materials
- City, E. A., Elmore, R. F., Fiarman, S. E., & Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional rounds in education. Harvard Education Press.
- Mintrop, R. (2016). Design-based school improvement: A practical guide for education leaders. Harvard Education Press.
- Additional required readings and videos will be posted via Canvas. See the "Resources" page in each module for the necessary materials.
Program Learning Outcomes (PLO)
- Graduates will demonstrate a firm understanding of core educational leadership theories, models, and concepts. They will be able to analyze and apply these theories to on-the-ground challenges in schools.
- Graduates will be equipped with the skills to make informed and effective decisions in complex educational settings. This involves the ability to identify problems, gather relevant information, and develop strategic solutions. Graduates should be capable of developing and implementing strategic plans that drive positive change and innovation in educational organizations.
- Students will apply principles of effective organizational management and leadership to educational institutions. This includes understanding human resources management, financial management, and organizational behavior.
- Graduates will develop research skills, enabling them to design and conduct rigorous educational research, including qualitative and quantitative design, analysis, and appraisal.
- Graduates will be grounded in ethical standards in educational leadership, demonstrating integrity, fairness, and professionalism in their interactions and decisions. The program will equip graduates with the skills to navigate diverse educational environments and promote cultural competence, understanding cultural differences, safeguarding civil rights, and equal educational opportunity for all students.
- Graduates will be able to engage in reflective practice, assessing their own leadership work and continuously seeking opportunities for growth.
Course Learning Outcomes (CLO) Alignment
| CLO | Description | PLO |
|---|---|---|
| A | Describe key principles of teaching for culturally sustaining deeper learning | 1, 2, 3, 5 |
| B |
Understand instructional improvement as a multi-level systems design challenge |
1, 2, 3, 5 |
| C | Explain the role of district and school leaders in fostering instructional improvement | 1, 2, 3, 5 |
| D | Apply key design principles for enabling instructional change in complex educational systems | 1, 2, 3, 5 |
| E | Plan a collaborative effort to develop a shared instructional improvement plan | 1, 2, 3, 5 |
| F | Collect and interpret diverse data to identify organizational strengths and needs | 4 |
| G | Apply theory, evidence, and inquiry to define, frame, and diagnose a local problem of practice | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
Grades
Breakdown
| Activity | Description | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Live Session Participation | Thoughtful participation in our weekly Live Sessions | 5% |
| Reading Responses (x3) | A word summary of approximately 200 words, including a quote, and application of the readings during weeks 1, 3, and 5 of the course | 10% |
| Quantitative Needs Assessment Data Collection | Submit two types of data about your work organization: profile data, and performance data; this data will inform your Local Needs Assessment Memo | 10% |
| Local Needs Assessment Memo | Collect quantitative data about your work organization and analyze it together with your empathy interview data to assess organizational strengths and improvement needs. | 25% |
| Case Analysis Group Project | As a group, read a hypothetical district case and analyze it using concepts from this course. Present your analysis in a ~20 minute presentation. Presentations should be submitted as a video by the last day of class. | 20% |
| Dissertation Assignment 1: Empathy Interviews | Conduct and reflect on 3 empathy interviews (include one decision-maker); this data will also inform your Local Needs Assessment Memo | 10% |
| Dissertation Assignment 2: Initial Fishbone Diagram | Integrate insights from your initial literature search and empathy interviews to identify 4-6 root causes of the problem of practice, displayed in a fishbone diagram. | 10% |
| Dissertation Assignment 3: Refine Introductory Chapter Draft | Integrating new learning from this course and feedback from previous courses, continue to build out your PoP statement in a draft introductory chapter of your dissertation. | 10% |
| Total | 100% |
Scale
| Percentage | Letter Grade |
|---|---|
| 90–100% | A |
| 80–89% | B |
| 70–79% | C |
| 60–69% | D |
| Below 60% | F |
Course Components
Reading Responses
During Weeks 1, 3, and 5, you will write a response of approximately 200 words to prompts about the assigned readings for that week. Reading responses serve two purposes: for students to engage deeply and process your thinking, and for students to feel ‘good pressure’ to complete readings. In this class, reading responses are not considered academic writing. You do not need to include citations. Clear expression is important, but I do not expect flawless grammar or mechanics.
Live Session Participation
Students should attend a Live Session during most weeks of the course. Live Sessions serve as a venue for interactive discussion to deepen understanding of the previous week’s material, prepare for the learning for the upcoming coming week, and deliver final group presentations. Live Sessions will be video recorded and posted on Canvas within 24 hours. Students who are unable to attend are required to watch the video and post a reflection on the Live Session by the end of that week (by Sunday 11:59 pm Central). See the weekly Live Session pages in each module for more details.
Quantitative Needs Assessment Data Collection
This assignment builds towards the Local Needs Assessment Memo paper through a first round of local needs assessment data to collect. You will need to access and collect TWO types of quantitative data about your work organization: Organizational profile data (describing who/what/where is the organization) and organizational performance data (about how well the organization is performing). Ideally, the data will be accessed from publicly available sources; if necessary, you will collect original data. On the due date, submit your data (e.g., graphs/charts/tables; spreadsheet). During our live session following the due date, we will review and analyze your data.
Local Needs Assessment Memo
For this assignment, you will demonstrate what you have learned about assessing needs for improvement in organizations. To do so, you will first need to access and collect data from and about your work organization (see the Quantitative Needs Assessment Data Collection Assignment and the Dissertation Assignment: Empathy Interviews). You will then analyze qualitative data together with your empathy interview data to assess organizational strengths and improvement needs. Please protect confidentiality and use pseudonyms for all organizations and individuals for all data types.
Case Analysis Group Project
For this project you will work with a group of classmates to apply key concepts from the course readings to analyze a hypothetical school or district case provided to during the course. As a group, you will use key concepts from the course about a systems approach to instructional improvement to analyze this case.
Dissertation Assignments
You will complete three dissertation components throughout this course:
- Empathy Interviews
- An empathy interview is a technique researchers use for phenomenological research – a qualitative research design. In this assignment, you will conduct three empathy interviews (including one decision-maker) to understand a problem of practice from an interviewee’s perspective and prepare a summary report of your findings.
- Initial Fishbone Diagram
- A fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram is a visual tool used to identify the underlying or root causes of a problem, with the view to proffering solutions. In this assignment, you will identify a problem and the causes of the problem, explain its major and subcategories, and prepare a fishbone diagram depicting the identified areas. You will integrate insights from your initial literature search and empathy interviews to identify 4 to 6 root causes of the problem of practice, displayed in a fishbone diagram.
- A fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram is a visual tool used to identify the underlying or root causes of a problem, with the view to proffering solutions. In this assignment, you will identify a problem and the causes of the problem, explain its major and subcategories, and prepare a fishbone diagram depicting the identified areas. You will integrate insights from your initial literature search and empathy interviews to identify 4 to 6 root causes of the problem of practice, displayed in a fishbone diagram.
- Refine Introductory Chapter Draft
- Integrating new learning from this course and feedback from previous courses, continue to build out your PoP statement in a draft introductory chapter of your dissertation.
Course Policies
Communication
If you have any general questions about assignments, class logistics, due dates, etc., please post a question in the Course Help Board in the Start Here Module. You can post questions about the course to the Course Help Board throughout the semester. Your classmates may be able to answer your questions.
For any other questions, students should use their OU e-mail or Canvas to communicate with the instructor. They can expect a response usually within 24 hours Monday-Friday. Professional communication is an expectation.
Feedback
I will do my best to enter grades and provide feedback in Canvas within a week of the assignment’s submission date.
Late Policy
Students are expected to adhere to all assignment deadlines as outlined in the course syllabus and are encouraged to proactively manage their time and workload to minimize the likelihood of missed deadlines. In the event of unforeseen circumstances that may prevent meeting a deadline, students should promptly communicate with me as soon as possible, providing a clear explanation of the situation. Early communication allows for a potential extension to be discussed and arranged.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the most common form of academic misconduct at OU. There is no college-level assignment that can be satisfactorily completed by copying. OU's basic assumption about writing is that all written assignments show the student's own understanding in the student's own words. That means all writing assignments, in class or out, are assumed to be composed entirely of words generated (not simply found) by the student, except where words written by someone else are specifically marked as such with proper citation. Including other people's words in your paper is helpful when you do it honestly and correctly. When you don't, it's plagiarism.
For more information about plagiarism, watch this video and then take this short course offered by University Libraries.
Policy for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage
We learn best when we are actively engaged in the process of completing all aspects of an assignment. Even the brainstorming and initial draft phase is a time of discovery that is an integral part of your learning. For the assignments in this course, you may not use generative AI for any primary content generation of your writing. The use of AI for any course assignments are restricted to the following purposes:
- After generating your own content and thinking, you may choose to use “AI-assisted copy editing" as a tool for improving your writing. “AI-assisted copy editing" refers to AI-assisted improvements to human-generated texts for the purposes of improving coherence, clarity, conciseness, tone, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. You may not use AI to produce the content of your assignments. In all cases, you are accountable for the final text and therefore must review any AI-assisted edits to ensure they reflect your intentions.
- You must disclose all usage of generative AI tools for any assignments for any purpose. Disclosure involves doing all of the following:
(a) citing the specific AI used (e.g., ChatGPT, CoPilot, ClaudeAI, Bard, Grammarly AI);
(b) explaining the purpose for which the AI was used (i.e., AI-assisted copyediting)
(c) attaching an appendix to the assignment with the output from the AI showing the prompts you used and the responses of the AI.
Failure to follow all of these steps to disclose any AI usage for assignments will be considered a violation of the academic integrity policy for this course.
University Academic Policies and Student Support
Access the University Academic Policies Document.
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|