EDLD 775 - Organizations and Systems for Equity

Units: 3
Organizational theory is examined and students enhance their ability to think systemically as they learn models and strategies to facilitate their knowledge for the purpose of implementing inclusive cultures that foster trust, challenge assumptions, resolve conflict, and support teaching and learning.

Prerequisites: Admission to Ed.D. Educational Leadership Program.
Possible Instructional Methods: Hybrid.
Grading: A-F grading only.
Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Examine and analyze a range of strategies to ensure that all members of the educational community (students, parents, teachers, administrators, district staff, school board, and community members) are working in concert toward achieving a shared vision (3.1).
Examine and analyze methods by which leaders create expectations so that norms, beliefs, structures, and skills for inquiry, innovation and continuous improvement are part of the day-to-day culture of the organization (3.2).
Design strategies for applying concepts of inclusion, relationship, diversity and social justice to specific institutional and community contexts in support of positive change (3.3).
Articulate educational perspectives that demonstrate systems thinking at multiple levels (site, district, local, state, federal) that specify linkages among elements of a system, and that identify points of leverage for systems change (3.4).
Formulate a systems perspective regarding a range of issues of educational practice, policy, and politics in support of systemic equity-based change and sustainability (3.5).
Demonstrate and compare leadership strategies that support groups in effective planning and decision-making processes that include guiding the community in using democratic processes to create meaning and a shared sense of purpose; surfacing disagreements, conflicts and gaps; asking questions that surface assumptions and challenge the status quo; and skillful eliciting and including diverse perspectives (3.6).
Articulate, compare, and assess strategies to ensure that historically marginalized students, parents, and community members are actively participating and influencing decisions (3.7).
Design systems (structures, processes, time, resources and forums) that build trust, support collaboration, and lead to shared commitments to support learning (3.8).
Design and facilitate processes and structures that support a climate in which teachers are encouraged to pose questions of practice and engage in dialogue about race, ethnicity, language, home culture, equity, racism, bias, and institutional racism (create a climate where problem posing, critical dialogue about social justice is supported) (5.5).
Demonstrate an understanding of educational organizations by being able to analyze, design and implement dynamic systems that support the organizational mission and student achievement (6.1).
Formulate strategies to increase the distribution of leadership within the organization so that responsibility for leadership and change is shared across and among members of community (6.7).
Analyze the ways in which federal, state, and local politics and priorities influence system goals, policies, and district institutional leaders, and how educational leaders can influence politics and policies at all levels (7.1).
Design systems for ensuring open access and influence of communities of color (and other marginalized groups) to the political environments that shape school educational systems with a particular focus on reducing structures, policies, and practices that contribute to institutionalized racism (7.4).