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SF State Ed.D. in Educational Leadership
New Leaders Newsletter
September 2011, Vol 2:1
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Preparing California's Next Generation of Educational Leaders
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Welcoming our Fifth Cohort of Students
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The SF State Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership program began in September 2007. Last month we welcomed our fifth cohort of students-18 working professionals in the Bay Area who are administrators in K-12 and higher education; community college faculty; and elementary, middle and high school teachers. The cohort also includes people who have professional roles connecting the community and the schools. Roughly forty percent are from higher education and sixty percent are working in or with public schools. Approximately 25% hold administrative positions while 75% teach or play a different instructional role, which indicates a trend towards admitting increasing numbers of practitioners from the classroom rather than from the ranks of administration. This is the second year the program sponsored a two-day retreat for our incoming students prior to the beginning of classes. From the feedback we received, the time was well spent. Students got to know each other and learned about program specifics, including academic and support services.
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Students' Assessment of the Ed.D. Program
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There are approximately 60 students currently enrolled in our program and a growing number of graduates (21) from student cohorts 2007 and 2008. The program continually takes their pulse. Two new reports are now available about student perceptions of the program. We asked Dr. Rose Asera, formerly with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, to conduct an assessment of students who completed one year ago. Her report is now available: https://diva.sfsu.edu/users/eddsfsu/courses/reports. Dr. Asera worked with two of our graduates, Drs. Stacey Shears and William Watson, to develop an interview protocol focusing on three questions that was used to conduct extended interviews with each of the nine graduates:
- How did participation in the SFSU education leadership doctorate affect the students?
- What do they bring in terms of knowledge and skills to their campuses, their offices, and their leadership practices as a result of participating in the program?
- How have they able to affect changes in their organizations as a result of their participation?
Dr. Asera's report found that the program made a significant personal and professional difference for these graduates, and they are eager to continue to develop their skills as both practitioners and researcher/scholars. A positive view of themselves as practitioner/scholars is a key outcome not only for this cohort but also for the program and its faculty. Our former students do not want to leave us, the report says, and we have to create programs that will keep our graduates connected. The program has begun to investigate how we might establish a permanent post-graduate network that would not only link the graduates to each other but also to the program and its faculty and students. This idea will be developed in future issues of the newsletter.
The second report-Results of Annual Doctoral Student Survey-compiles student responses to a comprehensive annual student survey distributed in May 2011 to three cohorts: 2008, 2009 and 2010 (https://diva.sfsu.edu/users/eddsfsu/courses/reports). The high rate of response, 83%, provides a roadmap for the program - what is working and what needs more work. The program gets high marks for its impact upon students' practice in the workplace, the cohort model, support from faculty and staff and the manageability of the workload. However, students called for more discussions about equity, improving the advising system, and more coursework or modules on practical leadership topics.
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Research Symposium: Addressing Equity Issues in Uncertain Times
|  The Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership program will sponsor our first doctoral research symposium on the key equity issues facing schools and community colleges today. On October 29, graduates from the program, along with current students, faculty, and practitioners from schools and community colleges throughout the region, will spend a morning in conversation about promoting equitable outcomes in a time in which every school and college is facing difficult choices as a result of reduced resources. We will examine equity in four sessions, each with a different framework for the discussion: institutional effectiveness; leadership; pedagogy and professional learning; and student perspectives on their educational experiences. Researcher-practitioners from schools and colleges in the Bay Area will discuss their findings with the symposium participants to identify cost-effective actions that support an equity agenda. The symposium "Addressing Equity Issues in Uncertain Times" will be held on Saturday, October 29 from 9 am to 1 pm in the Seven Hills Conference Center at San Francisco State University. The symposium is free. For more information about the symposium, and to register, please go to the following link: http://www.sfsu.edu/~edd/sympsched.html If you have any problems registering or questions about the conference, contact Tonesha Russell (tmr@sfsu.edu). |
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Carnegie Project on the Educational Doctorate
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The SFSU Ed.D. program has joined the Carnegie Project for the Educational Doctoral, a network of 50 doctoral programs throughout the nation aimed at strengthening the educational doctorate. During the past four years, the consortium has developed two documents titled Working Principles for the Professional Practice Doctorate in Education and Characteristics of Professional Practice Doctorate Graduates. These results, as well as other outcomes of the first phase of the project, will focus a research and development agenda to test, refine, and validate principles for the professional doctorate in education during Phase II of the initiative. In the next three years, the CPED consortium has committed itself to a research agenda that will test and refine findings around program development and practitioner outcomes. Macheo Payne, a member of the 2010 cohort, is a member of the national steering committee of CPED. We expect that Macheo will provide us with regular updates about the work of CPED. See the CPED website at the following URL: http://cpedinitiative.org/.
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ProQuest Agreement with Ed.D. Program
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We have just completed an agreement with Pro-Quest to enable students to archive their completed dissertations in the national Pro-Quest repository. Contact Tonesha Russell (tmr@sfsu.edu) for more information. In addition, dissertations will also be available online through our home page (see Archive of Student Work link) and through a CSU-system archive https://diva.sfsu.edu/users/eddsfsu/courses/dissertations .
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We welcome your feedback and your ideas for what should be covered in this newsletter. Please send your thoughts to our newsletter editor, Tonesha Russell {tmr@sfsu.edu}.
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Robert Gabriner
Director, SFSU Ed.D.in Educational Leadership
gabriner@sfsu.edu
Norena Norton Badway
Graduate Coordinator
nbadway@sfsu.edu
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