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1 November 2, 2014 Greetings, We are writing to provide an update on a number of issues related to your Leadership Academy experience, including the upcoming weekend residence. A copy of this letter will be posted on the LA 2014 website at: First, we want to thank you for all of your thoughtful and dedicated contributions to date. Believe it or not, you are almost 50% through the program. Second, thank you for uploading your needs assessment and administrative field work proposals into the digitation space. We are asking that these artifacts be uploaded by November 9nth. Contact your supervisor if issues arise. Supervisors will be providing narrative feedback in a couple of weeks. More detail is provided later in this memo. Third, the November residency is quickly approaching. The schedule is as follows: Friday, November 21: 6:00 9:00pm Saturday, November 22: 8:00am 6:00pm Sunday, November 23: 8:00am 12:00noon We will be meeting in the Fiegenbaum Center for Science and Innovation. Our agenda is full with seminars on school finance and full service community schools. We also anticipate a guest speaker (or two) who will continue to provide thoughtful and engaging perspectives. There will be time to discuss the digication space and general programmatic questions. During the residency weekend we will also launch your next course, ADMN 656: Building School and Community Partnerships. This course will be included as part of the spring semester course load given it begins November 23 and ends in mid-february Dana Rapp and Olivia Williams will be team-teaching the course and they are working to structure it along the lines of Patrick and Rodney s course. In the next few days you will have access to the School Community Partnerships course syllabus in Canvas. Two books will be required for the on-line course and you are welcome to purchase them and read ahead: Aurerback, S. (2011). "School Leadership for Authentic Family and Community Partnerships: Research Perspectives for Transforming Practice." New York: Routledge. McKnight, J. (1996). "A Careless Society: Community and its Counterfeits." New York: Basic. Students must arrange housing and meals on their own. We do expect to provide light refreshments during morning breaks.

2 Superintendent/Assistant Superintendent (SDL): Many students will seek the additional Superintendent/Assistant Superintendent (SDL) license as an extension of the core program that licenses for Principal/Assistant Principal (SBL). Students who seek the additional Superintendent/Assistant Superintendent (SDL) license will complete an additional course (CAGS 806) in summer 2015 and then a 300-hour internship (ADMN 712) in the fall That said, some students may be in the unique position to have full (or close to full) release time that enables the completion of the required 500 hours, plus this additional 300 hours in the current school year. For those interested in this accelerated route, we ask that you please reach out to your College Supervisor who will review and endorse your request. We will need to know by the November residency that this is an option that will be exercised in the coming school year. For those who will complete this option next summer and fall, specific direction about how to access this route will be shared at the November residency. CAGS: We encourage students to participate in the optional nine credit Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS), which will be held from July 10 19, This immediately follows the 4-day Leadership Conference scheduled for July 7-10, DOCTORAL: We are pleased to announce that we have a working agreement with Texas A&M, the result of the good work of Professor Patrick Slattery. Bottom line. the 9 CAGS credits will transfer directly into the Texas A&M Ed.D. or Ph.D. programs. Patrick has provided a condensed overview with detail, attached to the end of this memo. We will also discuss further at the Nov. residency. Fieldwork: As students complete the Introductory Internship (ADMN 770) they should continue to use the LA Handbook as a source of information and additional detail. Highlighted tasks related to fieldwork are outlined below: Log of activities As outlined in the LA Handbook, students should continue to maintain a log of hours of field experiences. A sample is provided in the LA Handbook (p. 36). Students are welcome to use this format or develop their own tracking system remembering that the log should include date, time, category, and description. It s also wise to indicate standard and indicator, recognizing you will later be required to document this in Field Work Proposal As the culminating requirement for the Introductory Internship (ADMN 770), students will complete a Field Work Proposal, due November 9, The full syllabus for ADMN 770 is provided in the LA Handbook, (pp ). The Field Work Proposal consists of three elements as follows: 1. Needs Assessment: Having observed, collected, and reviewed standards, practices and programs at the school level - write an analysis of your school that critically describes strengths,

3 gaps, and opportunities drawn from your first 150 hours of field work. This analysis should draw from and reference data collected using the ESE tools. This will result in the identification of particular areas of focus for the Administrative Project (ADMN 771) and Capstone Experience (ADMN 772). 2. Administrative Project: Write a plan for ADMN 771: Administrative Project. This project should be a focused topic in which students conduct research, develop a plan, and begin to implement. Examples include developing a student attendance policy, creating a mentoring program, or developing an observational protocol for classroom visits. Please refer to the ADMN 771 syllabus in your Handbook (pp ) for more detail. It s expected the project will draw from coursework, pre-practicum experiences, the Introductory Internship including observations and the district and/or school inventory, and areas of personal interest. This plan should include: a. Project overview - What you intend to do? b. Research needed Site based data & external literature. c. Rationale for project Why this is important? d. Timeline. e. Strategy for engaging stakeholders. f. Method of collecting data (evaluating impact of project). Please note that the culminating project for the School Partnerships course will be a School Community Action Plan whereby you outline a plan to work with various partners to redress a situation in which a certain population of students is not experiencing success. We reference this course project so that you can avoid extensive overlap with the Admin Project Proposal that you are currently considering. 3. Completed PSI matrix (see page 41). Proposed Activities. In advance of the Capstone Experience (ADMN 772), students should map out how they will spend the remaining 250 Field hours. We have provided a blank template in the LA Handbook (pp ). For the Field Work proposal, students should complete the Proposed Activity column under each standard and indicator. This is the student s best guess (at this point) as to how time will be spent in the field. Students are welcome to type into the form or hand write and scan. This can then be uploaded into Digication. Keep in mind that these are full responsibility experiences/hours and must provide a range of diverse experiences that allow all standards and indicators to be accessed and practiced. This is your chance to practice and gain access to hands-on experiences that will develop and refine your administrative knowledge and skills. Later, students will complete the Actual Activities column that is supported by accompanying evidence (artifacts, logs, etc.). To restate, students will only populate the Proposed Activities column at this time: Of note: many Proposed Activities will cover more than one standard/indicator. This process should involve your site supervisor and college supervisor who will ultimately support these experiences and activities. Note 1: Please don t be shy about reaching out to your College Supervisor if you have questions or need some advice. Note 2: We are often asked about the kinds of experiences students might participate in. We ll refer you to paragraph 2, page 25 of your LA Handbook for a short sample list. There are spaces in Digication for each of the three Field Work Proposal elements. You can upload as word documents, pdfs, or scanned documents. Again, the deadline for submitting the Field Work Proposal (the three elements) and uploading is November 9, This will afford your College Supervisors time to review your materials prior to the November residency. Digication As mentioned in the last update, you should have started to upload evidence into digication.

4 Ideally, we d like evidence under each standard and indicator from both a course and a field experience. This will constitute your final portfolio, due by the summer 2015 residency. We will spend more time at the November residency discussing and reinforcing how and when to do this Digication work under the four standard areas. Massachusetts Candidates Only For those of you seeking a Massachusetts license (don t worry about this if you are only seeking an NY license), a new performance assessment process is currently underway. When we met after the LA last summer I mentioned that MASS would be refining a pilot assessment system that is not test-based, but task-based. Jake and I tried to design our program around the 4 tasks and I believe we were mostly successful. Anyone applying for a license after May 1, 2015 (which all of you are) should submit all 4 tasks by late May 1 if you want to be part of the non-graded pilot project. Anything submitted after May 1 will be considered part of the official licensing process and will be graded. In the mean time, please go to this web site and enroll: Fish around to see what some of the tasks entail and what you will need to submit. The School Partnership Course which begins in November has a project that is geared toward task 4. Dana will meet with you as a group at the November residency to discuss the process more. Again, we hope your course work and field work is going well. If you have any questions, please start with your site and college supervisors. That said, don t hesitate to contact us if you need any additional information or clarifications. We look forward to seeing you all in a few weeks. Best, Dana and Jake

5 Dear LA Graduates and Current Students, I am pleased to report that I am in the final stages of negotiating an articulation between my department at Texas AM University and MCLA for a transition to an online EdD or a traditional PhD for Leadership Academy students who have completed the 9 hours CAGS credit by the end of the summer, The 9 hours of CAGS credit will transfer into the doctoral programs at Texas A&M. The online EdD program can be found at In the drop down boxes in the middle of the page look for the program description at the following: Degree Level "Graduate Programs" Delivery "Online" Type of Degree "Doctor of Education" The Online Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) prepares leaders in PK 12 public and private education to be accomplished in providing direction in curriculum, instruction and instructional assessment. The program requires a minimum of 64 semester credit hours beyond the master's degree, all of which will be presented through a Web-based delivery system in a cohort structure. Estimated completion time in four years. If you are interested in applying for this program, please read more about it online. Applications open March 1, I will be sending detailed information in February, The PhD program is designed for those students who want to move to a career in higher education as a professor and researcher. The PhD requires a dissertation, extensive research, conference participation, grant writing, and publications. At the end of the PhD program students will apply for positions as tenure track faculty at prestigious universities. I will serve as the mentor and advisor for MCLA students who choose the traditional PhD program. If you plan to continue your career in PK-12 schools, then do not apply for the PhD. Rather, apply for the EdD program. The traditional PhD program can be found at In the drop down boxes the middle of the page look for the program description at the following: Degree Level "Graduate Programs" Delivery "Traditional" Type of Degree "Doctor of Philosophy" Program "Culture and Curriculum" The applications for the PhD are due before December 1, Therefore, potential PhD students must get in touch with Patrick Slattery ASAP. Please write to me at patslat@aol.com orpslattery@tamu.edu if you are considering the traditional PhD program. I will answer a few more questions now so that I do not have to repeat this information to everyone individually. The EdD program is delivered entirely online. The PhD program will include online courses every fall and spring (starting in September, 2015) and 9 hours of summer residency courses in the summers of 2016 and I am currently negotiating with TAMU and MCLA to see if these summer courses can be offered on the MCLA campus. If this does not work out, then the

6 PhD students will have to come to College Station for 6 weeks in two summers. Course work will take approximately 2 years to complete for the PhD, and then the research and dissertation can be done in your home community over the following two years. You can work full time in your current position while taking either the PhD or the EdD program. The only exception is that the PhD students will need to be free to study full time in the summers of 2016 and 2017 The 9 hours of CAGS credit will count for either the PhD or the EdD. I am currently negotiating with Texas A&M to also count an additional three (3) hour LA course toward the PhD for a total of 12 hours. This is in negotiation at the moment for the PhD only. What is the tuition rate and can I get the in-state Texas tuition rate? You will probably have to pay out of state tuition rates. You will find a tuition calculator on the TAMU web page. As you calculate your tuition, remember that you will receive 9 hours of transfer credit at no expense (and perhaps 12 hours for the PhD.) Be sure to deduct this amount from the total. However, there are several scholarships valued at $1,000 each per year that qualify students for in-state tuition rates! These scholarships are based on need, and a financial aid form will be required. These $1,000 scholarships are good for one year at a time, and not every student will qualify. Please note that out of state tuition in Texas is competitive with New York and Massachusetts. Compare the TAMU cost with other options, especially since all EdD and some PhD courses will be offered online. My estimate is that these scholarships will be available for, perhaps, ten MCLA students per year. It is possible that the scholarships can rotate among students from year to year. This is not a guarantee. This is my best guess. Are MCLA students guaranteed admission? No. Admission is competitive. You must have a strong application. Look at the requirements on the web page. The requirements for the EdD program are different from the PhD program. The most important difference is that EdD students want to continue their career working in schools to improve curriculum leadership and instructional practices. The PhD students must be committed to research and publications directed to a shift in career to the university professoriate. What do I do next? Read the web page. Talk to your family and colleagues. Compare the Texas A&M program with other programs. Look at your finances. Consider the time commitment. Select the EdD or PhD option. If you are interested in the EdD, there is nothing to do at this time. More information will be sent in February. If you are seriously interested in the PhD, write to Patrick Slattery as soon as possible at patslat@aol.com or pslattery@tamu.edu. I will probably have a phone conference next week with those interested in the PhD since the deadline is December 1. That's all for now folks! Patrick