Finding the LEADERS
A Sac State program to identify urban school leaders appears to be hitting its mark.
The six-year-old urban leadership program
already has a majority of its graduates in administrative and leadership positions. They include the first Hmong principal in California, a deputy superintendent in Boston, and three former students who were accepted into Harvard's superintendent's program, says program coordinator and Educational Leadership and Policy Studies professor Lila Jacobs.
Though the program requires a substantial
commitment-classes meet all day, every Saturday for a year-it draws students from all over Northern California. And Jacobs has been asked to re-create the program in the Los Angeles area.
Students complete coursework leading to a preliminary administrative credential, and may continue on to a master's degree, while continuing to teach in their districts.
A mixture of educators from Sac State and area school districts teach the courses. Coursework includes research, educational leadership, special education programs, legal issues, finance, supervision and evaluation,
and school-community relations. The students also shadow an administrator who is a former graduate.
Urban leadership is designed for people who specifically want to serve urban areas, and many are drawn by their own school experiences. "We prepare students to be change agents," Jacobs says. "Many have experienced turnarounds in their own lives because of someone they identified with."
That may be part of the reason the students
who enroll in the program tend to match the demographics—African American,
Latino, Hmong, Punjabi, Filipino—of the urban districts they serve. "Usually in urban districts there is a mismatch between staff and students," Jacobs says.
More: (916) 278-5388
|
