This required session introduces newly enrolled students in the MA in Educational Leadership program to the policies, procedures, and expectations of the program. Commonly asked questions are addressed including an overview of the preferred sequencing of courses, action research project overview, and exit procedures. A writing assessment is also administered.

In this course students develop academic written and oral skills, interpersonal communication skills, and technology skills for presentations and organizational communication are developed. An examination of the relationship between communication and organizational culture are addressed.

This course focuses on leadership principles designed to create and sustain educational organizations/programs through the creation and implementation of vision, mission, and reflective practices. Leadership styles coupled with personal, cultural, and ethical awareness are evaluated.

This course focuses on team building and collaboration skills needed to advance an organization. Creating and evaluating effective educational teams and learning communities, garnering community involvement and political support, and conflict managing are explored.

This course examines management strategies for supporting organizational systems and infrastructure within an educational organization. Management styles and models, technology assisted budgetary decision-making, project management, and crises management are addressed.

This course examines methods of supervision, evaluation, and mentoring of personnel. Skills for hiring, evaluating, and developing personnel to enhance performance and growth of the educational organization with sensitivity to diversity are the main focus.

This course focuses on designing and evaluating curriculum and instructional strategies to create programs that meet the needs of all learners including adults. Curriculum design models, instructional methodologies, methods for authentic assessment of learning, and learning styles are explored.

This course focuses on recognizing, designing, and conducting valid, reliable, and ethical educational research for improving teaching and learning. Published studies are critiqued by identifying strengths and limitations of the methodology and evaluating potential impact on educational practice. Action research design, evaluation of literature and published studies, decision analysis, and methods for communicating and implementing results are practiced through several experiences.

This course provides methods to gather and interpret data for institutional, programmatic, and employee/learner improvement. Assessment methodologies, technologies, risk analysis, and decision analysis are addressed.

This course surveys ethical principles and legal issues that impact leadership in an educational setting. Legal trends, state and federal laws, case studies, and ethical dilemmas as they apply to personal and professional ethics are addressed.

In this summative course students apply research skills relevant to professional settings. The action research project results in a written paper which includes an introduction, a review of current literature, research questions, a description of the methodology and means of evaluation, the findings and interpretation of results, and possible questions for further study.

• EL630 Educational Research

This course is designed to study and apply learning theories that engage diverse adult learners in professional and personal development. The main focus is developing coaching and team building skills, creating a learning organization through the use of adult learning theory, establishing staff development and comparing androgogy and pedagogy.

This course surveys concepts and strategies related to the creation and implementation of visionary change. Theories surrounding systemic change based on the examination and implementation of internal systems within an educational organization are examined.

This course focuses on becoming a culturally-aware leader able to integrate diversity for educational and organizational growth. An investigation of what is meant by diversity and ways to strengthen organizations through promoting and integrating personal and organizational cultural awareness is explored.

Students present, using visual technology, their summary paper including the literature review and action research to a panel of program members including paper advisor, reader, and department representative.

This course is designed for Saint Mary’s University students enrolled in education-related graduate programs. Topics covered include structured, efficient research strategies; print and electronic information sources; information and source evaluation; and intellectual freedom, copyright, and plagiarism.

This course examines educational assessment concepts and students develop skills essential to assessment literacy. Students learn how to interpret and use the results of standardized and classroom assessments to make curricular and instructional decisions. Methods to communicate assessment results are explored.

This survey course examines the history and development of extra-curricular activities in our schools. Special emphasis is given to legal issues, policies, and funding for extra-curricular programs.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the nature of learning in adulthood. The main focus includes the adult learning process, learning development in adulthood, adult learning styles, and develop effective strategies for teaching adult learners.

This course traces the emergence of the student affairs profession and current issues and trends. It examines the multiple roles in student affairs and applies theory to transformational leadership practices in this field.

This survey course examines the history, philosophy, growth, and legal issues surrounding charter schools. Topics include leadership, governance, sponsorship, policies, structure, funding, and public accountability.

The history and theory of creativity are examined in this course. Topics include types and degrees of creativity. Identifying and serving highly creative students, developing strategies for all students, developing strategies and classroom management plans to respond to diverse needs of their students.

The role of emotional intelligence in the teaching and learning process is explored in this course. Participants design instructional activities to enhance the emotional intelligence of students.

This course gives students the opportunity to learn and practice higher level thinking skills such as curiosity and imagination, divergent thinking, idea generation, creative problem solving, evaluation, synthesis, critical thinking and analysis. Students develop strategies to search for challenges, identify problems, produce creative ideas, research solutions, design innovative applications, and build a case for the solution.

This course facilitates learning and applying the principles and tools of successful project management in organizations. It examines how a successful project manager controls company resources within the limits of time, cost, and performance.

This course focuses on statistical analysis of data for professional applications or research with an emphasis on quantitative methodologies. The course covers populations, sample selection, and descriptive and inferential statistics. Significance, Chi Square, correlations, analysis of variance and simple regression, and concepts of reliability, validity and levels of measurement are addressed.

This course emphasizes a practical and comprehensive application of key marketing concepts as they apply to businesses and organizations. Major marketing principles and strategies are explored from a managerial perspective as they apply to the marketplace domestically and around the world.

This course provides an overview of planning and managing technology and information flow in organizations. It addresses present and future issues regarding computer systems and their impact on management and operations.

This course examines the tools, techniques and knowledge necessary to create corporate and industrial training programs and professional development seminars and workshops. It considers ways to design, develop and deliver programs efficiently and in a way that maximizes adult learning.

This course considers various philosophies of reward systems. It focuses on how to conduct job analysis and job evaluations and how to design pay levels and pay structures. This course examines pay for performance, compensation of special groups, and the impact of international pay systems on corporate strategies.

This course examines how changes in product and service markets affect the way labor and management relate to each other. The history of collective bargaining and its impact on labor relations, and state and federal employment laws and their impact on labor-management cooperation are explored. Various dispute resolution mechanisms and their impact on due process for all employees are examined.