M.Ed. in Educational Leadership

W. Tyler Page Assistant Professor (401) 456-8023 wpage1@ric.edu

The Educational Leadership program is designed to prepare and influence socially responsible educators to become leaders. Successful completion of this program leads to a master's degree and certification as a school principal in Rhode Island. LEAD's mission is to develop leaders who will improve the quality of learning for all students by working creatively, reflectively, and ethically to create vital, democratic and caring places for powerful teaching and learning. The faculty in this program is strongly committed to developing learning communities grounded in collaborative and responsive relationships with candidates, each other, area schools and communities.

Design

LEAD'S design is a cohort model built around the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards. The LEAD cohort model was chosen because it aligns with the core beliefs (values) of the program. The cohort model is a series of semester long courses and field/internship experiences. Candidates complete the required sequence of courses as a learning community and engage in class and field-based experiential learning projects designed to develop important leadership skills. In addition to rigorous course work, administrative candidates complete two field experiences and two internships in multiple settings, tailored to individual career objectives.

Core Values

Learning

• Learning is the core issue in education; curriculum, instruction and assessment cycles facilitate learning. Attending to our own learning and reflective practice helps us to keep learning central.
• Deep, useful learning, from field and class, is facilitated through dialogue encompassing deliberate, simultaneous reflection upon experiential and conceptual elements

Democratic Collaboration

• A "program" is a group of faculty who remain in conversation/dialogue about a group of students and the curricular/field experiences they develop and modify to facilitate learning outcomes consonant with the mission.
• Quality education is a responsibility shared by school systems, families, communities, businesses, and governments and involves facilitating dialogue across boundaries, building alliances and partnerships for change; school leaders have outreach and initiatory responsibility.

Diversity/Equity

• Ethical and social justice imperatives drive leadership behavior toward ensuring all children and youth the opportunity and the support to grow, learn, and become contributing members of our democratic society.
• Culturally competent leaders are vital to empowering schools to address the needs of a diverse society.

Critical Inquiry and Continuous Improvement

• Leaders manifest a spirit of critical inquiry, ongoing reflective and critical self examination, and willingness to change when new insights develop.

The faculty of the LEAD program is committed to developing skilled educational leaders.