Core Curriculum and Course Requirements
Semester 1 | Semester 2 | Semester 3 | Semester 4

Semester 1 (9 units) [back to top]

EDU 553 - Community, Shared Values, and Learning (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: understanding the stages of community and the processes involved in the development of community; identifying concepts built around the effects of social settings on learning; building communities to support research and learning; developing shared values to support successful learning and accountability; recognizing the implications of ways of knowing and diversity within the community as elements for educational and systemic social change; creating various community learning settings where learning and the personal creation of knowledge will be the norm; applying and analyzing multiple community strategies in work settings, and discussing and sharing the data and hypothesis.

EDU 554 - Understanding Differences: Valuing, Honoring, Supporting, and Celebrating Diversity (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: understanding the implication for conflict between the basic assumption that a democratic society is built on the premise of equal opportunity for all and the historical control of one-leader-to-many followers; defining and creating proactive and appropriate reactive strategies to support the heterogeneity of the U.S. population; an awareness and understanding of the impact of language and culture in learning; the development and support of culturally responsive learning environments; offering many rich, varied, and potentially volatile learning/learner opportunities; understanding the growth in educational and human services manifested in the changing demographics of our society; taking into consideration, supporting, and adapting to the implications of changing family patterns, as well as the expanded need for social connections and belonging to groups and/or gangs; the broadening ethical issues and needs of our population; being grounded in special education procedures and services; supporting and applying the expanding increase in the body of knowledge focused on brain research, multiple ways of knowing, and culture; projecting and valuing future need as positive tools for expanded and more diverse learning experiences for all citizens, rather than threats to our historical past; celebrating, adapting to, expanding upon, and applying multiple strategies to support diverse thinking, learning, knowledge creation, and application; creating and implementing a diversity challenge project in the pre-K-to-16/work setting.

EDU 559 A- Guided Practice/ Fieldwork (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: connecting learning and work; field experiences during the school day; improving practice and enhancing pre-K to 16 student learning; continuous research, hypothesis/theory, application, reflection, modification cycle; collaborative learning; implementation and documentation of major projects.

Semester 2 (9 units) [back to top]

EDU 552- Collaborative Instructional Leadership (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: concepts of educational leadership; identification of leadership roles needed in schools, classrooms, the profession, and the community; strategies for energizing and sustaining leadership innovations; rationale, indicators, and strategies for collaborative instructional leadership to support improved academic student outcomes and preparation for future academic, economic, political, cultural, and social change; human relations and professional ethics; aligning, coordinating, and monitoring resources both fiscal and personnel; site management; teacher supervision and evaluation; creation and implementation of a comprehensive school plan serving a diverse community of learners; understanding the local, state, federal, and national policies and their implications: understanding the collaborative nature of inclusion and special education, and the implications for community learning; the understanding and organization of strategies for supporting and engaging with others as they lead; team building; school and classroom culture; school decision making; shared leadership; group processes; conflict resolution; cultural understandings; communications; interpersonal relations.

EDU 550- Building Capacity Through Research (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: understanding systems and change; recognizing and valuing the need for the robust use of research in education, especially in the classroom; understanding and valuing curiosity, data gathering, reflection, and continuous inquiry as support for enhancing self-directed, professional practice; using research in classroom, school, and district decision making that focuses on enhanced classroom practice and improved pre-K-to-16 student learning; using educational research to move from a dependent, industrial society to a knowledge creation-and-application society with the ability to develop, analyze, and apply information; understanding the legal aspects of school management including collective bargaining; knowing how to implement and support research-grounded change; strategies to support students as they develop the skills and capacities to become critical, empowered problem solvers, creators of knowledge, and advocates for proactive social, economic, cultural, and political change.

EDU 559 B- Guided Practice/ Fieldwork (2 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: connecting learning and work; connecting and expanding learning and work from 559A; field experiences during the school day; improving practice and enhancing pre-K16 student learning; continuous research, hypothesis/theory, application, reflection, modification cycle; collaborative learning; implementation and documentation of major projects.

EDU 600A Capstone Project Design (1 unit)
This knowledge area emphasizes: the research and design of a capstone project identified by the student in cooperation with his or her accountability support groups within the Master's of Art in Collaborative Education Leadership program. This project will include:

• extensive action research in an area of concern/understanding within the project designer's classroom, school, or district; specific to instructional leadership
• evidence of a significant impact on pre-K-16 student learning, etc.; the creation of new knowledge;
• evidence of linking to the standards of the community that will appear in the portfolio as evidence of learning;
• the passion of the project designer for this learning and application;
• the writing of a journal article to inform the profession; and indications of a life after the degree.

The capstone may be an independent or collaborative study experience. An expert in the field should be part of the support structure for this learning.

Semester 3 (9 units) [back to top]

EDU 556 - Technology, Communications, and Learning (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: defining and identifying connections between teaching, learning, technology, and communications; exploring and identifying multiple strategies of effective listening, speaking, discussion, dialogue, problem solving, and conflict resolution; identifying and applying skills for using technology as a multimedia tool for learning, a data management and decision-making tool, and a resource for communication with parents and other stakeholder groups; understanding the power of data through collection, analysis and application; using technology to support student and teacher growth-and-learning data collection for instructional decision making; exploring and becoming proficient in a minimum of two new technologies that will support students learning in the classroom and systemic change in the district; accepting ownership for leadership and change.

EDU 558 - Empowerment: Learning and Assessment (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: defining learning, assessment, and education in a standards based system; identifying the elements of learning and assessment; discussing and identifying when, how, and why humans learn; researching and identifying the ideal connections between education, culture, and learning; designing and implementing an optimum education setting that honors continuous learning; defining and understanding the notion of authentic assessment; identifying the role/s of the student, the teacher, the principal, the parent/caregiver, and the community in learning; understanding the equation of life = needs, issues, and understandings + learning and application + assessment; exploring, discovering, and applying the connections between learning, multiple assessment strategies, personal control of learning, empowerment, and transformation; identifying the implications of the equation for tomorrow's citizenship.

EDU 559 C - Guided Practice/ Fieldwork (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: connecting learning and work; connecting and expanding learning and work from 559B; field experiences during the school day; improving practice and enhancing pre-K-to-16 student learning; continuous research, hypothesis/theory, application, reflection, modification cycle; collaborative learning; implementation and documentation of major projects.

Semester 4 (9 units) [back to top]

EDU 551 - Historical/Social Issues and Trends in Education: Tools for Influencing Change (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: the historic and social contributions of education on the present and emerging ideas/needs in schools and schooling; understanding the legal and ethical issues associated with special needs students; the recognition of the structures of cultural dominance and the affirmation of the value of many cultures; a foundation and strategies for identifying the knowledge, skills, competencies, and disposition students will need to participate fully in current and future citizenship and leadership including fundamental values, beliefs, and attitudes; and identify and support connecting a variety of fundamental educational strategies with emerging innovations to support student learning, multicultural expression and transformation.

EDU 555 - Human Growth Learning (3 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: understanding human development theory from early childhood through adulthood, including significant transitions/passages; examining and developing hypothesis about the links between age-appropriate physical development, learning, and other characteristics as they affect learning; recognizing and providing for the diverse needs of special learners; reviewing the essential elements of childhood education including its evolution efforts and the historical, social, and political factors associated with the concepts of child raising, family support, and the many transitions from home to the school to the social and the work world; understanding and appreciating the influence of culture on learning, growth, and development; developing a vision for quality education based on the theoretical foundations and the reality of what is happening in classrooms and districts.

EDU 559 D- Guided Practice/ Fieldwork (1 unit)
This knowledge area emphasizes: connecting learning and work; field experiences during the school day; improving practice and enhancing pre-K16 student learning; continuous research, hypothesis/theory, application, reflection, modification cycle; collaborative learning; implementation and documentation of major projects.

EDU 600B Capstone Project Specialization (2 units)
This knowledge area emphasizes: the capstone project will be identified by the student in cooperation (with) his or her accountability support groups. This project will include:

• extensive action research in an area of concern/understanding within the project designer's classroom, school, or district;
• evidence of a significant impact on pre-K-16 student learning; the creation of new knowledge;
• evidence of linking to the standards of the community that will appear in the portfolio as evidence of learning;
• the passion of the project designer for this learning and application;
• the writing of a journal article to inform the profession; and indications of a life after the degree.

The capstone may be an independent or collaborative study experience. An expert in the field should be part of the support structure for this learning.

(02-06)

* The coursework which qualifies students for the CA Preliminary Administrative Services Credential has been integrated into the first 3 semesters of the core curriculum.