State-Mandated Educational Leadership Program Redesign: A View From Florida

• In Event: Roundtable Session 85
  In Roundtable Session: Promoting Active Agency in Educational Leadership-Preparation Policy Making: Furthering Discussion in the Professoriate

Abstract

(While this session will use papers produced in the five case studies as a discussion starting point, this interactive symposium is intended to stimulate further discussion about others’ experiences with program redesign. A summary of the context of each case study is provided in this proposal, and full papers will be distributed at the session.)

In summer 2007, all educational leadership programs in the state of Florida were required by the state department of education to revise their educational leadership program to align with new legislation, Senate Bill 6A, or The Cecil Golden Act. Faculty had seven months to revise their educational leadership programs or risk losing their ability to certify educational leadership students for school leader licensure. The state department of education claimed that the new 132 knowledge and skills were an extension of the ISLLC standards and Florida's Leadership Preparation Standards, but the connection was not obvious. Further, many faculty believed that the mandated curricular and other program area changes were so specific they had lost autonomy as university faculty in graduate level curriculum development and programming, especially given that only a handful of faculty across the state had been invited to help develop the new standards; moreover, faculty worried that the mandated changes would likely weaken rather than strengthen their programs. In addition, the state mandate required preparation programs to prepare annual reports of individual student assessment in each of the 132 skills and competencies. Other elements of the state mandate required changes in the selection process, internship, field experiences, and degree requirements for certification. The Florida case will discuss how one department of educational leadership, Florida Atlantic University, responded to the required revisions to their curriculum and programming while at once, complying with the legislation and using it to improve certain components of their pre-existing program.

Author

• Meredith L. Mountford, Florida Atlantic University