Course Overview
This course is the internship experience for candidates in the following programs:
- MEd in Education Leadership and Administration
- MEd in Education Leadership and Administration: Principal and Administrator Licensure
The supervised internship in this course provides substantive opportunities for candidates to synthesize and apply knowledge in the field related to Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards and state performance-based standards for education leaders.
The course project, Professional Portfolio: Implementing Standards Based Practices, enables candidates to document field experience activities, and to prepare for assuming the role of a licensed school or school district administrator by providing the opportunity to put theory into practice in the field.
The course contains two key assessments designed to demonstrate mastery of the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) professional standards:
- The first key assessment, Professional Portfolio: Implementing Standards Based Practices, is the course project in which each JIU candidate, through a required internship experience (220 hours), synthesizes and applies knowledge and practice.
- The second key assessment, The Effective Leader: Supporting Student Learning and Development, is a graduation requirement for the program and takes the form of an employer evaluation of student achievement of ELCC standards and JIU program learning outcomes.
This course includes field-based activities that take place in a K - 12 school/district setting. Specifically, candidates must complete 220 hours onsite (27.5 hours per week for 8 weeks) in an approved K-12 school-based clinical practice placement.
Course Learning Objectives
- Foster an environment that encourages and develops responsibility, ethics, and citizenship in self and others, and set the direction for a school community committed to and focused on learning.
- Identify and address in planning the internal and external factors affecting the school and the learning process.
- Develop and implement educational plans with unifying statements of purpose that incorporate elements of planning, instructional objectives, student standards, technology, resource allocation, and methods of evaluation.
- Facilitate the ongoing development of a schoolwide improvement plan that incorporates state and district content standards, effective systems of support, and methods of assessment.
- Demonstrate instructional leadership that supports diverse and exceptional student needs, closing the achievement gap, and ensuring each student meets or exceeds state standards.
- Demonstrate knowledge about how to appraise instructors as related to student learning and state content standards.
- Incorporate national, state, and local district personnel policies into supervision activities.
- Foster a positive learning environment focused on student achievement and characterized by appropriate and acceptable standards of student conduct, and effective behavior management strategies.
- Demonstrate knowledge in fiscal management of schools or school districts, ethical business management, and use of strategies to attract external funds and resources.
- Utilize knowledge of how to ensure a safe learning environment in a secure, well-maintained facility.
- Engage with families and the community concerning issues and potential changes in the environment through effective communication.
- Employ effective decision-making, problem-solving, and conflict resolution strategies when working with families on issues.
- Synthesize and apply relevant leadership theory as well as research knowledge and skills to standards-based work in real settings, planned and guided cooperatively by the institution and school district personnel.
