UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

7. Course Purpose/Catalog Description: Purpose and scope of administration, schools of thought in administration, processes of administration, and functions of administration.

8. Teachers Academy Conceptual Framework Mission Statement: The mission of professional education at UNCG is to prepare and support the professional development of caring, collaborative, and competent educators who work in diverse settings. This mission is carried out in an environment that nurtures the active engagement of all participants, values individual as well as cultural diversity and recognizes the importance of reflection and integration of theory and practice. UNCG's professional education programs are guided by shared commitments to: (a) equity and excellence in teaching, research, and service; (b) professional integrity and ethical deliberation in dealing with students and colleagues (university-based, school-based, and community-based); (c) the construction of a professional knowledge base through collaboration and collegiality; and (d) the dissemination of professional knowledge, skills and dispositions through the preparation and continuing professional development of teachers, principals and other school personnel.

9. Course Goals and/or Objectives/Student Learning Outcomes: Instructor's statement of learning outcomes OR goals/objectives from state or national professional standards (please identify the organization, e.g. DPI, CEC, etc.)

Schools are one of the most common and enduring types of formal organization in American public life. To work effectively in and with schools, especially in the role of administrator, it is important to be able to see deeply into how and why schools are organized as they are and how they could be different. Thus, in this course, we will think carefully and critically about schools as organizations. We will use key analytical and theoretical perspectives to address practical issues and problems in the organization and administration of public schooling. We will focus especially closely on the experiences that persons from diverse backgrounds have in schools and how schools could be organized more effectively for these persons.

The primary goal for this course is to help students become more interested in and adept at observing, interpreting, and managing organizational and administrative problems in schools, in order to help schools meet the needs of the students who learn in them, the teachers who work in them, and the broader society that relies on them. By developing fuller understandings of present conditions in schools, and by imagining possible futures for schools, students will be invited to create their own approach to administrative practice.

10. Teaching Strategies: lecture, class discussion, group work, conferences, student presentations, electronic chat room, etc.

11. Evaluation Methods and Guidelines for Assignments:

Course grades will be determined as follows: organizational analysis of a school case -- 50%; diversity case analysis – 30%; class participation -- 20%. Your course grade, and the overall success of the course, will depend upon a high level of group and individual participation in the following activities.

Readings and Related Class Activities

A significant component of our work together is our collective encounter with the assigned readings. The readings are an important class resource, and they deserve your careful attention. Students should be prepared to read the journal articles and book chapters prior to the sessions for which they are listed, to develop questions and commentary on the readings, to reflect on experiences in their own backgrounds which relate to the readings, and to be actively engaged in class discussions and activities pertaining to the readings.

Part of your grade will be based on your class participation. For this I am looking for steady attendance, evidence that you have indeed read the assignments, and your contributions to class discussions and other activities.

School Organizational Analysis

In this course, you will have the opportunity to explore organizational dynamics in schools through the study of cases. We will have multiple opportunities in class to read brief case studies of schools, to analyze them, and to consider implications for administrative practice.

Each student will also write an original, extended organizational analysis of a school case. For this assignment, you will choose a school with which you are familiar and present a thorough description and analysis of how it works as an organization and how it could be improved. Although you should use true information from a real school, the case write-up should be anonymous, so that the identities of the school and its personnel cannot be determined by a typical reader.

The case description and analysis should include at least the following components (total length should be about 20-30 pages):

§ A very general introductory description of the school – type of school, location, brief history, number of students and staff, other descriptive information

§ A general description of the school’s performance and a general assessment of the school’s strengths and weaknesses (or successes and problems), using ABC data, school attendance and dropout figures, your own impressions of the school, parent or student comments, and so on

§ A description and analysis of the goals and purposes of the school

§ A description and analysis of the structural dimensions of the school

§ A description and analysis of the human resource dimensions of the school

§ A description and analysis of the political dimensions of the school

§ A description and analysis of the cultural dimensions of the school

§ A description and analysis of the school’s relationships to its external environment(s)

§ A summary discussion of suggestions for improving the school, including an action plan that might guide the work of the school’s administrator

The case will be written in stages. You will write each section after the topic has been discussed in class, and you will have the opportunity to receive feedback on your drafts from the instructor and/or other students.

It is important for you to remember that you should provide evidence and justification for all of the comments and analyses you include in your case. Available data and written records from your school, interviews with school personnel, and observations you make can be used as sources of information. It would be helpful if you included various formal documents in your report, for example summary tables of ABC test scores for the school. (These documents will not count towards the suggested page length of the report, however.) Impressionistic opinions generally do not offer sufficient warrant for the depth of analysis you will need to provide in your case.

This assignment is intended to articulate with assignments in other courses in the MSA core sequence, to help you integrate what you learn in separate courses. If you are enrolled in Dr. Williamson’s course on the principalship, you may use the school culture analysis which he assigns as part of your case analysis (provided, of course, that you are writing about the same school). If you enroll in ELC 694 (Organization and Governance of Public Education) next term with Dr. Riehl, you will be able to combine this term’s organizational analysis with the governance/policy analysis for that course, to produce a comprehensive school case analysis.

Each component of the organizational analysis, and the overall assignment, will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

Evaluative Criteria for School Organizational Analysis

Criterion	High Quality Work	Low Quality Work
Choice of case	There is much evidence that you have thought carefully about how this school could help you examine and understand organizational dynamics	It appears that you are writing about this school merely because you have some familiarity with it
Range and depth of observations made in description and analysis	In each section of the report, you have covered all of the most significant aspects of the topic and have made many relevant and insightful observations about the school	You have provided just one or two examples for each section of the case analysis
Reliance upon strong evidence and logical justification	You have used empirical data (reports, observations, interviews, etc.) as a firm basis for your comments and analysis, and have built an argument about the school using clear and reasonable logic.	You have provided scant evidence to justify your comments and analysis, and have written only a sketchy, impressionistic account of the school.
Connection of your own reflections on the school with the concepts and issues talked about in class	You use terms, concepts, and frameworks gleaned from class readings and discussions, in ways that show you have thought deeply about them. There is evidence of an ongoing interaction or conversation in your own mind between what you are doing in class and what you are observing in your school.	Your use of terms, concepts, and frameworks from class is limited, perfunctory, and not very thoughtful.
Creativity and integrity of the final analysis and suggestions for change	You have gone beyond merely reporting on what you see and what you read; you have truly integrated the two and added your own creative and thoughtful insights to your analysis	Your analysis and suggestions for change are limited in scope and not very inventive or exciting.
Quality of the writing	You have made proper use of spelling and grammar, and proper use of the APA format for reference citations. Your case study is clearly organized and persuasive; you have a logical flow of sentences and paragraphs, and evidence of attention to the musicality of the language	Your paper has spelling or grammar errors, shows a lack of organization, doesn’t flow smoothly from one idea or section to the next. You have not cited your references properly.
Overall quality of the case study	Your case study gives a general impression that you know what you’re talking about and have expressed it well	Your paper just doesn’t seem to shine.

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

College of Education

ELC 691: Principles of Administration

Professor Carolyn Riehl

Evaluation Form for School Organizational Analysis

Student: _______________________________________

Criteria

Poor

Avg.

Very Good

Choice of a rich and appropriate case

Range and depth of observations made in description and analysis

Reliance upon strong evidence and logical justification

Connection of your own reflections on the school with the concepts and issues talked about in class

Creativity and integrity of the final analysis and suggestions for change

Quality of the writing

Overall grade for the case study

Comments:

Diversity Case Analysis

Each student will also prepare a shorter analysis (about 8-10 pages) of their school that specifically addresses the issue of diversity. This analysis will focus on the experiences of a particular individual or group within the school, how the school organization contributes to those experiences, and how the organizational dynamics could be altered so that the educational experiences of the individual or group might be improved.

For this assignment, you will choose a particular person or group to study, preferably one who is different in important ways from you. (Ideally, the person or group will be situated in the same school you used for your organizational case analysis.) You will describe that person/group’s experiences in school, drawing primarily on their own perspective but adding some of your own. To do this, you will need to talk with them, their teachers, their parents, and any others who can help you gain an “insider” perspective on their experiences. It might also be helpful for you to hang out with them for a while, to observe their life in school and try to see it from their vantage point. You will also report on your own perspective, based on your observations and impressions, and on any “objective” information you may have such as test scores or grades. In this section, you may include discussion of topics such as:

· Who is this person (or group)? What are they like? How do they see themselves?

· How does the school see this student/group, and their particular qualities?

· How is the student’s home culture related to the school?

· What learning resources does the student have access to – special teachers, special curriculum, etc.? What learning tasks does the student get to do?

· How well is this student doing in school? How aware is the school of the student’s progress? How does the school assess this student’s performance?

· What is the quality of the student’s relationships and experiences with teachers, other students like and unlike herself, other school staff, etc.?

· Does the student have friends?

· Does the student participate in extra-curricular activities?

· How does the student experience the authority system of the school; is the student frequently punished, etc.?

· How does the student “fit in” to the school, and why?

Then, with this information in mind, you will do an organizational analysis of the school. How do the school’s purposes and goals, structural features, human resource dimension, political dynamics, and culture influence what happens to this student? You will conclude with suggestions for change. How could the school organization be altered to help provide a more effective education for the student?

It is very important that you write this diversity case analysis anonymously, protecting the identity of the individual and/or group of students you discuss.

This assignment will be graded according to criteria similar to the larger case analysis, using the following rating sheet.

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

College of Education

ELC 691: Principles of Administration

Professor Carolyn Riehl

Evaluation Form for Diversity Case Analysis

Student:_______________________________________

Criteria

Poor

Avg.

Very Good

Choice of an appropriate and significant group/person to study

Range and depth of observations about the student/group and their experiences in the school

Range and depth of observations about the organizational dynamics of the school and how they affect the student/group

Reliance upon strong evidence and logical justification

Connection of your own reflections on the school with the concepts and issues talked about in class

Creativity and integrity of the final analysis and suggestions for change

Quality of the writing

Overall grade for the diversity case study

Comments:

12. Required Text(s)/Readings/References: Use full citations

There is a coursepack of readings, available at Copy Postal One (801 W. Lee Street, in the mini-mall just east of Tate Street). Their telephone number is 273-0644. There are also two required books, available at the University Bookstore or from an online vendor:

Darling-Hammond, Linda. (1995). The right to learn: A blueprint for creating schools that work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Earle, Jason, and Kruse, Sharon. (1999). Organizational literacy for educators. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

13. Topical Outline: This might also be your calendar. The course outline should contain sufficient detail to permit assessment of agreement between actual content and stated objectives and catalog description.

Weekly Schedule

Week 1 (August 22): Course Introduction and Overview

Key Questions:

§ What are some important questions regarding how schools are organized and administered and how they could be changed?

§ When you look at a school, what do you “see”?

§ How does skill in organizational analysis fit into the North Carolina school administrator competencies?

Recommended Readings:

Schlechty, Phillip C., & Joslin, Anne Walker. (1984). Images of schools. Teachers College Record, 86(1), 156-170.

Morgan, Gareth. (1997). Images of organization (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage Publications.

Grant, David, & Oswick, Cliff. (Eds.) (1996). Metaphor and organizations.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Week 2 (August 29): The School's Foundation: Purpose and Task

Key Questions:

What starting point would you use for designing and administering an exemplary school? Why?

Can you articulate your foundational ideas and ideals to others?