Evaluation / Assessment

Successful students in this course will:

• 1. Authentically engage in and contribute to the course content

  2. Develop their research skills to answer compelling and important questions about leadership issues

  3. Develop their skills to interpret research data/information from multiple perspectives

  4. Develop abilities to make compelling, clear, and concise arguments.

  5. Further develop their skills and habits of mind to engage in deep, critical reflection upon information, personal experiences as leaders, and class activities.

  6. Develop clear, thoughtful, and effective communication through discussion and writing.

To demonstrate engagement and growth in the skills, knowledge, and abilities developed in this class students will be evaluated on the following assignments:

1. Artifacts (10%) & Social Media Presence (10 %)

• • The quality of the learning experience in this class is largely determined by the engagement of the students. All students are expected to participate in class discussion, group activities and class feedback. (10%)

  • Artifact #1: Select and bring in an artifact that represents who you are as a professional.

  • Artifact #2: Select and bring in an artifact that represents an effective school.

  • Please note: Twitter will be used with the course hashtag #gse573 throughout the semester. The expectation is for students to send between 3 to 5 tweets a week on related course content. A self-evaluation rubric will be distributed during the first class. (10%)

2. Weekly readings and annotations on Perusall (25 %)

• Over the course of the semester, students will highlight between 5 to 7 annotations with appropriate comments, questions, upvoting, etc for each reading.

• Questions/annotations will be evaluated based on two criteria:

  • The relevance of the quote or summarized topic as it applies to the readings and/or other student comments/questions.

  • The creativity, importance, thoughtfulness, insightfulness and/or interesting perspective of the question.

3. Mini-Class Presentation (15 %)

• • Starting in week 6 students will have approx. 30 minutes to facilitate/lead lessons for the class.

  • Topics are the choice of the students ~ but must tie in either with Hargreaves book on Well-Being or the Handbook on School Improvement.

  • Students can create their own pedagogical approach.

  • Suggested ideas are case studies; bringing in guest speakers; presenting a video and leading discussion; role-plays based on a salient issue in education leadership, or an arts-based or creative project relevant to a leadership issue

  • The rubric will be shared with criteria for presentation

4. Calm Waters School(40%):

OPTION A (traditional school improvement plan):

Working individually (or with ONE partner), select an issue or challenge that could be faced in a school milieu that is related to student success and/or achievement.

Identify the context (e.g. elementary, secondary, adult centre) and describe the issue. Using appropriate tools and processes, create an action/strategic plan.

Your plan should:

1. identify the issue

2. state the goal(s) / objective(s)

3. identify who will be involved and their role(s)

4. identify strategies and/or actions to be used or put in place • determine data to be collected & analyzed

5. include a timeline

6. any other elements deemed important

OPTION B (creating a high-performance school):

Working individually (or with ONE partner), use one of the frameworks covered in the course to come up with a plan for Calm Waters School:

• For example, if a group picks the Fullan/Kirtman framework the final project will be organized as follows:

  1. Coherence Making

     1. 1. Develop a strategy for using the right drivers.

        2. Design a process to ensure your goals are clear and understood by all.

  2. Focusing Direction

     1. 1. Identify the steps you will take to tackle the overload, fragmentation, and distractors.

        2. Determine a change strategy to support a shift in practice.

  3. Cultivating Collaborative Cultures

     1. 1. Design a plan to ensure professional learning is sustained and systematic.

        2. Develop a plan to strengthen collaborative work.

  4. Deepening Learning

     1. 1. Design an instructional coherence framework for implementation and strategy for implementation

  5. Securing Accountability

     1. 1. Identify the strategies you will use to build internal accountability

        2. Outline a plan to ensure external accountability

  6. Leading for Coherence

     1. 1. Strategize your plan to develop leaders at all levels.

Students will receive constructive feedback on assignments over the course of the semester via email, Perusall comments, and text messages.

Detailed rubric to be posted on Moodle after the first class.

Rubric for facilitating face to face and online discussions: