Graduate Certificate in Educational Administration

3 Semester Units

Leadership and Organizational Behavior will review major leadership behavior patterns and strategies that promote effectiveness in organizations. Focus will be placed on the principles of school leadership, as well as specific theories behind organizational behavior. Students will be challenged to become more self-aware of their personal leadership style and will be able to develop their abilities to influence others, whether or not they have positional or hierarchical authority over them.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Analyze how leadership concepts and practices have evolved over the centuries to the present day.
• Compare and contrast leadership with management and examine how the distinction is not clear-cut in schools.
• Evaluate the purpose of educator evaluation systems for the organization and the individual.
• Assess how models of leadership can help future and current leaders become more effective.
• Consider the role that meaningful work plays in an individual’s lifespan in American culture.

3 Semester Units

Educational Personnel Management utilizes a management approach that examines the processes and procedures necessary for implementing effective human resources administration in an educational setting. In particular, this course will cover the essential dimensions of the human resources function from planning to performance evaluation and compensation.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Examine the structural framework of public education as it relates to the human resources administration function.
• Evaluate the varying methods of recruitment.
• Analyze the ethical dimensions of human resources.
• Assess the various approaches to delivering staff development for teachers, principals, and classified personnel.

3 Semester Units

School-community relations explores how various social and political forces impact effective relations between schools and the communities they serve.  With an emphasis on diversity, methods of implementing educational change with community support, and cultural pluralism and its effects on school-community dynamics are also reviewed.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Analyze the importance of public relations.
• Evaluate effective school-community relations.
• Assess the importance of internal communications with administrators, teachers, students and staff.
• Consider the importance of a crisis plan and a crisis management team.
• Judge the process of change and community acceptance of new ideas.

3 Semester Units

Public policy reviews educational policy from a micro and macro perspective. In addition, it reviews the general concepts of public policy, and looks at the socioeconomic context of the school, as it relates to economics, demographics, politics, culture and values. It also analyzes the policy process, the key players, and the typical issues involved, as well as a historical perspective to aid in understanding the current education reform climate.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Examine the dimensions of educational policy in the United States.
• Analyze the politics of policy as it plays out at the local, state, and federal levels.
• Trace the progress of educational conditions and issues as they become translated into policy proposals, enacted, implemented and evaluated.
• Track the evolution of educational policy through the major periods of American educational history.