Master of Education in Educational Leadership - Urban School Specialization

Course Descriptions

EDU 6375 Leading with Values (3 hours)
This course enables participants to examine their identity as a leader and how their decisions and actions impact values-driven behavior, organizational resilience, adaptability, and an achievement based culture.

EDU 6376 Internship I: Campus Leadership (3 hours)
This intensive on-site experience will involve participation in a one-week summer culture camp hosted at Uplift Education during which the candidates will be required to build a plan for their personal contribution to building a tight achievement-based culture at their school.

EDU 6241 Organizational Behavior (2 hours)
This course is a study of behavior in educational organizations.  Topics include vision, culture, organizational climate, perceptions, attitudes, motivation, goal-setting, influence, decision-making, and leadership.

EDU 6266 Values and Performance Based Culture (2 hours)
This course enables candidates to utilize meaningful measurements for embedding culture, benchmarking, and setting performance standards, goals and prioritizing actions that produce results.

EDU 6267 Instructional Leadership: Program Management and Evaluation (2 hours
This course examines instructional leadership, instructional organizational techniques, the coaching and evaluation of effective instruction and other skills needed to effectively lead schools through data-driven instructional improvement and staff development.

EDU 6245 Leading Organizational Change (2 hours)
This course is a study of behavior in educational organizations.  Topics include vision, culture, organizational climate, perceptions, attitudes, motivation, goal-setting, influence, decision-making, and leadership. 

EDU 6240 Legal and Ethical Aspects of Leadership (2 hours)
This course focuses on the legal and policy issues critical to effective educational leadership.  Topics include compliance, equity, code of ethics, and the development, communication, and implementation of effective policy.

EDU 6268 Current Education Policy (2 hours)
This course will familiarize the candidate with policy that has impacted school leaders during this decade and an overview of how Texas compares or contrasts against the national policy landscape.

EDU 6269 High Performance Operating Systems (2 hours)
This course will support candidates in learning to develop, communicate and effectively implement clear and strategic actions aligned with educational priorities that lead to performance against goals.

EDU 6270 Instructional Leadership: Data Planning and School Improvement (2 hours)
This course examines school improvement planning, the strategic use of data, the use of assessments to measure and support student achievement, the continuous school improvement model and the development of school improvement plans.

EDU 6252 Special Populations (2 hours)
This course addresses trends and issues impacting instructional programs for special populations. Topics include program development, evaluation, compliance issues, and implications for budget, facilities, and staffing.

EDU 6254 Student Services (2 hours)
This course examines how discipline, safety, and crisis management support a positive learning environment. Data from support services like counseling, social and health services will be analyzed as contributing factors.

EDU 6271 Instructional Leadership/PDAS (2 hours)
This seminar is a required training for Texas Principal Certification.  The seminar will be conducted by certified trainers from the Region 10 Educational Service Center with SMU faculty participation.

EDU 6272 Strategic Management of Human Capital (2 hours)
This course focuses on achieving effectiveness in building school and staff capacity by insuring student achievement through recruiting, selecting, developing, evaluating, rewarding, and retaining talent and teams through the support of core competencies.

EDU 6377 Experiential Field Studies (3 hours)
This course includes internship activities directly aligned to the coursework in each module of the program. Field Studies projects will be part of a summative portfolio assessment.

EDU 6395 (Can be repeated 4 times) Urban School Residency (12 hours)
During residency candidates have authentic opportunities to lead adults, make mistakes, and grow through meaningful assessments, ongoing coaching and feedback, and identification of candidates' strengths and weaknesses.