OM 519 - Leadership in Transition and Instructional Supervision

Aspiring principals examine the sources of difficulty that our public schools are experiencing in providing even a semblance of adequate education to many of the children they serve. Using authentic qualitative and quantitative data and artifacts drawn from the Scenario School, the aspiring principals tease out staff and student attitudes, perspectives, and belief systems regarding race, ethnicity, gender, language, religion, and financial status that often determine whether children will experience a welcoming environment inthe school. These factors often become the defining characteristics of a school’s culture and have been shown to contribute powerfully to the achievement gap by causing mis-readings of student aptitudes, intentions, and abilities or subtle rejection. Students In this course analyze the ways in which they have learned to see through their own cultural lenses. They explore ways to value and make use in the classroom of the language and culture children bring from home. They also study the evolving science of productive persistence or mindset psychology as a transformative intervention for Improved academic outcomes and life chances.

(Cr: 3