Principal Preparation Program: Course Descriptions

EDAD 5010 Leadership for Curriculum Development (3 credits). The main learning outcome is curriculum development with topics including educational and cultural foundations, curricular outcomes, K-12 alignment, standards and community values, developing, managing, and evaluating curriculum, multicultural education, equal access (special education, gifted and talented, ESL, poverty, sex ed., character ed., etc.), academic freedom, and censorship. Prerequisite: graduate standing.

EDAD 5020 Leadership for School Organization (3 credits). Focus is on school organization with topic areas including school culture, community building, models for strategic planning, school governance/operations, site-based management, ethics and morality, budgeting and resource allocation, scheduling, school buildings and facilities, student rights, religious expression, and equal access. Prerequisite: graduate standing.

EDAD 5030 Leadership for Communication and Personnel Development (3 credits). Focus is on communication and personnel development. Topics include recruitment, selection, induction, supervision, and evaluation of staff, models of supervision, staff development and models of professional development, conflict management, politics, power and policy, public relations and communication, and employment law related to teachers and classified staff. Prerequisite: graduate standing.

EDAD 5040 Leadership for Instruction (3 credits). Focus is on teaching and learning with topic areas including mission, vision, and goal development, improvement of instruction, school improvement, research in school improvement, assessment and testing, models of instruction, integrating technology in the classroom, and privacy and confidentiality issues. Prerequisite: graduate standing.

EDAD 5580 Supervised Internship in Educational Administration (1-6 credits; maximum 12 credits). This course is designed to expand student knowledge by providing an intensive clinical experience in educational administration along with other activities that involve practical, field-based methods and experiences. Prerequisites: 8 hours of education administration courses, 15 hours of education, consent of department, and graduate standing.

EDAD 5050 Leadership for Democratic Schools (3 credits). This course aims to combine the notions of the importance of moral grounding with an understanding of the importance of continuous system change and the belief in the efficacy of partnerships as a strategy for ongoing renewal. The objective is to foster knowledge, awareness, application and critical thinking skills in educational leaders so that they can implement the four objectives of The National Network for Educational Renewal’s Agenda for Education in a Democracy:

1. Foster in the nation’s young the skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary for effective participation in a social and political democracy.

2. Ensure that the young have access to those understandings and skills required for leading satisfying and responsible lives.

3. Develop educators who nurture the learning and well-being of every student.

4. Ensure educators’ competence and commitment to serving as stewards of schools. This course is designed to increase awareness of future school leaders of the principles of equity and excellence in education focused on the learning and well-being of each individual within the school environment. It concentrates on the ways in which democratic school leaders serve as stewards of schools to foster the skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary for effective participation in a social and political democracy within and outside the school community. Students inquire into research pertinent to educational practices, the renewal of public schools and the education of educators in urban, suburban, and rural communities, and ethnically and socio-economically diverse settings.

EDAD 5060 Capstone for Educational Leadership. This course is designed to assist the student in the creation of their final program project, which will be used as the written demonstration of mastery of the course outcomes as well as meeting the ELCC standards. In addition to assisting students in designing the project, students will learn about best practices and/or different methods of data collection, including interviewing, and analysis. Prerequisites: All core (EDAD) courses in the program must be completed, with the exception of the Internship.

EDAD 5150 Assessment, Accountability, and Student Learning. The course focus is the knowledge and skills necessary to lead schools in the alignment of standards, assessment, and instruction. Topics include analysis and interpretation of assessment results and educational data, recent history and current context of educational accountability in Wyoming, role of assessment and accountability in improving student learning.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or permission from instructor.

EDRE 5530 Introduction to Research (3 credits). Offered every semester including online. Purpose is to develop graduate students into intelligently critical consumers of research through their understanding of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies employed in educational research and analysis of existing research of both types. Prerequisites: 15 hours of education courses and consent of instructor.

Principal Preparation Program: Course Descriptions

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