Teachers College Program Modules
Programming for Leaders of Urban School Systems
Leadership & Equity Strand
District Level
The UELC posits that developing leaders’ intercultural knowledge, attitudes, skills, and worldview is critical for their success in multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural cities and urban school systems. UELC Modules 1-4 provide opportunities for extended collaborative learning that give leaders tools for developing intercultural competencies and opportunities to adapt and use these tools to their current school and district contexts within a strategic thinking framework.
Critical Issues Strand
District Level
The UELC supports leadership development by researching and developing cases and convening experts on topics that are critical issues in urban education, such as special education, multilingual learner programming, school safety, and employee misconduct. UELC Modules 5-8 provide opportunities for extended collaborative learning that give leaders tools and practice in responding to and managing crises, employing strategic thinking, building collaborative decision-making teams, and leading teams from a strengths-orientation.
Leadership Tools & Assessments
District Level
Intercultural Development Index (IDI)
Modules 1, 2, 3, 4
Strategic Planning
Module 3, 6, 8
StrengthFinders (Gallup)
Modules 5, 6
Collaborative Decision-Making
Modules 5, 7
Teachable Point of View (TPOV)
Module 1
Talent Recruitment Plan
Module 2
College & Career Program Plan
Module 4
Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (ISLLC 2015)
District Level
1) Mission, Vision, and Core Values
Modules 1, 2, 3, 4, 7
2) Ethics and Professional Norms
Modules 1, 5, 6, 7, 8
3) Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
Modules 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
4) Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
Modules 4, 5
5) Community of Care and Support for Students
Modules 1, 6
6) Professional Capacity of School Personnel
Modules 2, 6
7) Professional Community for Teachers and Staff
Modules 2, 7
8) Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
Modules 3, 5, 6, 7, 8
9) Operations and Management
Modules 4, 8
10) School Improvement
Modules 3, 8
Overview
In this module, the Intercultural Development Index (IDI) assess provides leaders with a framework for reflecting on the role intercultural competencies play in their leadership work in schools. This module’s case study touches upon issues of discrimination against students and adults from immigrant and racial minority communities. In the simulation, leaders of urban school systems contend with issues of fairness in the hiring process of district and building personnel while concurrently grappling with incidents of racially fueled bullying among youth.
Key Skills Developed:
- Intercultural Competencies in Leadership
- Formulating Organizational Values
- Equity in Hiring
Overview
This module focuses on strategic planning for an urban school district in crisis. Based on a case in Little Rock, AR leaders enter into a simulation where they advise the Superintendent on strategic planning within a highly charged community context and the a prospect of an indefinite School Board suspension and a potential redrawing of district lines if reforms prove ineffective.
Key Skills Developed:
- Intercultural Competencies in Leadership
- Strategic Thinking & Planning
- Engaging Family and Community Constituents
Overview
Based on the cheating scandal in Atlanta, GA, this module features a simulation in which leaders are tasked with crisis management and collaborative decision-making following allegations of organized and institutional cheating on a standardized exam within a fictional urban public school system.
Key Skills Developed:
- Ethics of High-Stakes Testing
- Working in Collaborative Teams
- Decision-Making
Overview
In this module, participants are introduced to the strategic planning process within the context of a New Jersey school district seized by the state following chronic financial and academic concerns. In the simulation, leaders work to collaborate with the School Board, city and state officials, families, teachers, and community groups to develop strategic multi-year policies.
Key Skills Developed:
- Community Organizing
- City and State Politics
- Strategic Thinking
Overview
This module features a simulation in which district leaders must plan and execute reforms to address a teacher retention crisis. Based on a case in Charlotte, NC where opportunity and achievement gaps persist for students in racial and linguistic minority groups, leaders must build effective coalitions among the many interest groups within the district to recruit more diverse teachers and leaders across the district.
Key Skills Developed:
- Intercultural Competencies in Leadership
- Leading Professional Learning for Adults
- Recruitment for Diverse Teachers and Leaders
Overview
Based on a case in Prince George’s County, MD, this module’s simulation tasks leaders with addressing long-standing issues of equity across a community’s racial and language divides. Leaders will collaborate to reform college and career readiness programs for this urban district while also managing the media and contemplating issues of grant management.
Key Skills Developed:
- Defining College & Career Readiness (Equity Lens)
- Planning for Grant Funding (Strategic Thinking)
- Collaborative Decision-Making
Overview
This module’s case study is based on the multi-year abuse case of a west coast elementary school teacher who had a record of complaints of inappropriate sexual conduct dating back several years in a fictional urban school district. Simulation participants grapple with the community fallout of these incidences of sexual misconduct between teachers and students on school premises as they work to reestablish trust among all community stakeholders.
Key Skills Developed:
- Collaborative Decision-Making Teams
- Preventing Sexual Misconduct
- Restoring Public Trust
Module 8
Public Safety
Critical Issues Strand
Overview
This module is currently in development and will focus on water quality or active shooter simulation.
Key Skills Developed:
- Crisis Management
- Preventative Strategies
- Restoring Public Trust
Programming for Leaders of Urban Schools
Leadership & Equity Strand
Building Level
The UELC posits that developing leaders’ intercultural knowledge, attitudes, skills, and worldview is critical for their success in multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural cities and urban school systems. UELC Modules 101-104 provide opportunities for extended collaborative learning that give leaders tools for developing intercultural competencies and opportunities to adapt and use these tools to their current school and district contexts within a strategic thinking framework.
Critical Issues Strand
Building Level
The UELC supports leadership development by researching and developing cases and convening experts on topics that are critical issues in urban education, such as special education, multilingual learner programming, school safety, and employee misconduct. UELC Modules 105-108 provide opportunities for extended collaborative learning that give leaders tools and practice in responding to and managing crises, employing strategic thinking, building collaborative decision-making teams, and leading teams from a strengths-orientation.
Leadership Tools & Assessments
Building Level
Intercultural Development Index (IDI)
Modules 101, 102, 103, 104
Strategic Planning
Module 103, 107, 108
StrengthFinders (Gallup)
Modules 105, 106
Collaborative Decision-Making
Modules 105, 106
Teachable Point of View (TPOV)
Module 101
Strategies for Attracting Diverse Teachers
Module 103
Teacher Leadership Models
Module 103
Crisis Response Plan
Module 102
Tenets of Building & Maintaining Trust
Module 102
School Change Project Planner
Modules 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108
Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (ISLLC 2015)
Building Level
1) Mission, Vision, and Core Values
Modules 101, 102, 103, 104, 108
2) Ethics and Professional Norms
Modules 102, 105
3) Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
Modules 101, 102, 103, 104, 105
4) Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
Modules 104, 107
5) Community of Care and Support for Students
Modules 101, 106, 108
6) Professional Capacity of School Personnel
Modules 103, 106
7) Professional Community for Teachers and Staff
Module 102
8) Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community
Module 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108
9) Operations and Management
Module 107
10) School Improvement
Modules 101, 105, 106, 107, 108
Module 101
Leading for Diversity
Leadership & Equity Strand
Overview
In this module, the Intercultural Development Index (IDI) assess provides leaders with a framework for reflecting on the role intercultural competencies play in their leadership work in schools. This module is based on a case in a fictional west coast city and centers on a building-level leadership team’s response to racially-motivated bullying.
Key Skills Developed:
- Intercultural Competencies in Leadership
- Formulating Organizational Values
- Building Classroom and School Community
Overview
This module highlights a new teacher leadership program in Charlotte, NC; the simulation asks a building-level leadership team to consider teacher leadership and teacher diversity issues together in order to address a chronic districtwide teacher shortage across the district affecting their school in dramatic ways.
Key Skills Developed:
- Collaborative Decision-Making
- Models for Teacher Leadership
- Building and Retaining a Diverse Teacher Workforce
- Strategic Thinking
Overview
This module focuses on a case in Prince George’s County, MD where community divisions center on a grant-funding program designed for newcomer families. A leadership team with members from multiple schools housed in the same school building considers how to find a balanced approach to serving recently arrived immigrant families alongside more well-established families.
Key Skills Developed:
- Dual Language Programming
- Working in Collaborative Teams
- Decision-Making
Module 107
Technology in Schools
Critical Issues Strand
Overview
The simulation in this module is set in Los Angeles Public Schools where a one-to-one iPad program garnered widespread condemnation, both locally and nationally. A school building leadership team must work to establish a technology plan that will leverage an Apple Schools grant into significant schoolwide changes in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Key Skills Developed:
- Instructional Leadership
- Technology Management
- Strategic Thinking
Overview
This module centers on a small urban district in Stone Mountain, GA where racially charged comments made by the principal at a graduation ceremony brought one school into the national spotlight. The module sets up a simulation of a school-based leadership team in the aftermath of the graduation scandal.
Key Skills Developed:
- Crisis Management
- Media Management
- Rebuilding Community Trust
Overview
This module centers on a simulation set in Little Rock, AR where a racial and linguistic fault line divides the community when new programming for failing schools is introduced by a new state-appointed Superintendent. Activists in the community respond to a new proposal for a dual language program that consolidates two schools: an underenrolled and overstaffed middle school primarily serving Black families and an elementary school serving primarily Latino families. A school leadership team must make programmatic decisions supporting college and career readiness for all students in the newly consolidated school amidst community protests.
Key Skills Developed:
- Defining College & Career Readiness
- Community Organizing
- Dual Language Programming
Overview
Situated in Camden City, NJ, this module explores issues related to providing appropriate services for students with disabilities. The module’s simulation centers on a school-based leadership team in a charter school grappling with a scandal relating to special education students. The leadership team works to find plausible solutions for navigating the legal, social-emotional, academic, and staffing issues present in the simulation.
Key Skills Developed:
- Collaborative Decision-Making Teams
- Instructional Leadership
- Special Education Programming
Module 108
School Turnaround
Critical Issues Strand
Overview
This module is currently in development and will focus on a case of school turnaround.
Key Skills Developed:
- Crisis Management
- Strategic Planning
- Changing School Culture