Urban Education Leadership, Ed.D.
distinctive features
- Commitment to the simultaneous transformation of K-12 schools and higher education.
- A highly selective admissions process.
- A three-strand doctoral program structure.
- Academically rigorous program.
- Coursework co-designed and co-taught by UIC academic faculty and by principals and system-level instructional officers who have themselves transformed urban schools.
- Three years of site-based coaching and mentoring aimed at producing candidates who have proved their ability as change agents in schools.
- Regular assessment of candidate performance throughout the three-year program.
- Thesis research that focuses on genuine problems of leadership practice.
To produce school leaders
who have the knowledge, hands-on experience and drive
to transform failing urban schools into high-achieving
learning communities, higher education must change how
it conducts the business of leadership preparation.
Our program integrates both kinds of change. We are
therefore committed not only to individual candidates
but to school systems as our clients, with a consequent
focus on identifying and meeting the leadership needs
of low-performing schools and school systems in Chicago
and the metropolitan area.
UIC selects a diverse cohort
from candidates who already hold a master's degree,
who have demonstrated records of outstanding classroom
instruction as well as instructional leadership as teachers
or administrators, and who are clearly committed to
transforming schools where the leadership need is most
evident.
The program allows students
to choose among 3 concentrations leading to either the
Illinois Type 75 General Administrative Certification
(preparation for the school principalship), the Illinois
Superintendent Endorsement, or, for those already holding
the Type 75, advanced leadership development tailored
to school building or system level positions.
This advanced degree program
integrates change-oriented academic and professional
development with fieldwork in such areas as: development
of critical and analytic thinking and writing skills,
uses of data for strategic planning and instructional
leadership, development of technology-rich urban school
environments, and analysis of exemplary, in depth cases
of urban school transformation.
In addition to working directly
with transformative school leaders, school districts,
unions, and exemplary urban schools, students study
with nationally-recognized UIC faculty specialists in
literacy and mathematics instruction, technology, special
education, bi-lingual education, race and ethnicity,
educational assessment, business management, and other
areas.
This coaching is provided
by former high performing principals in addition to
mentoring by principals who are successfully confronting
the needs of urban schools. From day 1 of the first
semester, candidates assume roles as change agents who
lead collaborative school improvement initiatives. The
coaching therefore supports actual school improvement
projects aligned with candidates' school's SIPAAA. Candidates
who become principals after their first year in the
program are coached on a weekly basis for the next two
years to help them reach transformational goals in their
new school. Candidates who enter the program as principals
receive similar support for all three years.
Candidates are assessed each
semester by a team composed of university faculty, clinical
faculty, and practicum coaches; assessments are used
for developmental purposes as well as program continuation
decisions.
Candidates conduct research at the school or system level that employs methods of inquiry authentic to the inquiry, data-collection, and analysis, and decision making tasks of school leaders.