Leadership for Educational Equity

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Program of Study

The professional knowledge base for leadership preparation is vast. A three-year program, such as the Berkeley LEEP, cannot possibly cover the entire territory. In the well-known trade-off between coverage and concentration, we opt for the latter. Intellectual depth and critical thinking are facilitated when students have the opportunity to focus their energy on a number of themes that they pursue with rigor. The themes we selected reflect our current best thinking on how urban school reform might become successful under present conditions of inequity.

The five themes are:

• Achieving Educational Equity and Excellence (EE)
• Thoughtful Systemic Reform (SR)
• Focus on Instruction (I)
• Resource Management in the Service of Students (RM)
• Decision-making Based on Evidence and Ethical Principles (DM)

Each theme (except the “instruction” theme) is organized in a sequence of two courses and one theory-practice residence. Within each theme, the courses further a good understanding of problems; examine remedies or improvement strategies; and help students to become skillful actors at the district level or a similar administrative level in other types of educational organizations.  The "third course" in each theme, organized as a summer residency, follows the two campus-based courses or takes place concurrent with them. 

Equity and Excellence

Courses in this theme give students the opportunity to explore what economic, political, and cultural mechanisms produce educational inequities and how these mechanisms might be counteracted by deliberate and strategic actions on the part of teachers, principals, and district administrators.

Central questions:

• What are our chances to overcome inequitable conditions and outcomes through education, given the broader context of U.S. society?
• What educational approaches have shown promise in furthering student academic achievement, engagement, and civic capacity?
• How can schools be influenced by the central administration to advance these approaches? 

EE-1 

Topics: Symptoms and causal mechanisms of inequity; economic and political counterforces.

EE-2

Topics: Definitions of school quality; school effectiveness and cultural relevance; programs and approaches that work and those that don’t.

EE-3 (Study of theory and practice/ summer residency)

District management of approaches and programs that further equity in schools.

Systemic Reform

At present, systemic reform, including standards-based school improvement, is the most sweeping mechanism with which central administrations try to influence schools. Courses in this theme give students the opportunity to explore what problems systemic reform approaches intend to address; how they “work” and are implemented in schools; and how districts shape the direction of systemic reform, produce or perhaps reduce unintended consequences.

Central questions:

• How may systemic reform impact teacher performance and student academic achievement and engagement as well as the wider society’s intellectual and democratic culture?
• What mix of top-down and bottom-up initiatives, central control and decentralized autonomy, will move urban schools forward?
• Why is it so hard for districts to focus on instruction?
• How can central administrations, such as districts, marshal systemic synergies in a thoughtful way?  

SR-1

Topics: Uncertain technology and fragmented governance in education; the role of tests, sanctions, and capacity building; external and internal accountability; systemic reform and instructional improvement.

SR-2

Topics: The role of districts in systemic school reform; district organization and instructional focus. Intended results and unintended consequences.

SR-3 (Study of theory and practice/ summer residency)

District management: Counteracting fragmentation; providing educational guidance to schools without stifling school initiative.  

Focus on Instruction

Educational interventions ought to be based on sound assumptions about how children with varied psychological and cultural  characteristics learn. Courses in this theme give students the opportunity to revisit, or learn anew, fundamental concepts and findings from research on student learning and child and youth development. This knowledge is applied to decisions about professional development, curricular programs, and uses of assessments and is helpful in crafting strategies for instructional leadership in organizational and teacher development.

Central question:

• How can we translate insights from research on the cognitive and cultural development of children and youth into strategies for school improvement and district-initiated capacity building?

I-1

Topic: Literacy instruction and system development

I-2

Topic: English Language Learners and system development

I-3

Topic: Mathematics and system development

Decision-Making based on Evidence and Ethical Principles

Senior-level administrators are decision makers whose decisions can affect large numbers of people and have far-reaching consequences. Courses in this theme give students the opportunity to explore how decisions at the level of central administration are made; how motives, interests, and knowledge shape decisions; how availability of data, information flows, and power differentials within the governance and administrative structure of districts shape decision-making processes.

Central questions:

• What is the appropriate role for data, experience, values, and political interests in central administration decision-making?
• How can district administrators facilitate decisions based on evidence of educational outcomes?
• Why is the connection between decisions at senior levels and actions at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy often so tenuous?

DM-1

Topics: Data and instruments that make the connection between district decision making, school performance, and educational outcomes; assessments; performance indicators; central goal setting and monitoring; evaluation.

DM-2

Topics: Bounded rationality, hyperrationality and irrationality in district decision making; models of decision-making; measurable and non-measurable goals;  political and value conflicts, enduring and non-negotiable ethical principles.

DM-3 (Study of theory and practice / summer residency)

Topics: Decision-making as negotiation at the district level

Resource Management

The purpose of the resource management courses is to develop decision-making and problem-solving tools needed to successfully manage a multi-million dollar school district. The courses will present strategies from both business and educational perspectives, and will examine financial and personnel management practices in California school systems by utilizing in-depth case studies. Some of these cases are school districts in distress. 

Central questions:

• How does a district ensure that its operations are solidly financed?  
• How can a district align allocations of human and financial resources with its educational goals?
• What oversight can and do states, county offices of education, school boards and other stakeholders exert over financial and personnel affairs?

RM-1

Topics: Financial statement analysis; budgeting procedures and budget control reports; management information systems; cost analysis and controls; labor law and collective bargaining.

RM-2
Topics: Charter schools; site-based management of resources; financial communication and public relations skills; how to increase school district resources in California.

RM-3 (Study of theory and practice / summer residency)

Topics: District finance and personnel management field work.

Research Methods

Courses in research methods serve two purposes: they help students become knowledgeable consumers of research studies; and they prepare students to conduct independent research for their dissertation study. The methods courses give students the opportunity to explore various research epistemologies and methodological approaches.

Method-1: Qualitative Methods

Method-2: Quantitative Methods


The Milestone Sequence

The purpose of this sequence of courses is to assist students in the development of their dissertation study and to pass milestones along the way that demonstrate their intellectual growth.   

Mile-1 

Topics: Introduction to doctoral research: problem solving and systematic research; exploring topics and projects for dissertation research.

Mile-2

Topics: Framing and defining topics and projects for the dissertation; theoretical conceptualization or models; reviewing research literature and professional sources.

Resulting in: End of First-Year Review

Mile-3

Topics: Refining theoretical models and research questions.

Mile-4

The dissertation prospectus: research questions, design and methods.


Resulting in: Pre-qualifying Exam and Study Prospectus

Dissertation Colloquium

This course accompanies students through their third year when they carry out their research and complete their write-up.

Capstone Course

This course, organized as a short residency, concludes the program. Students study cabinet level decision-making and prepare deliverables and presentations of dissertation findings for district decision makers.