This culminating course for the Ed.S. program will usher students through the process of designing and completing a final project that pulls together program course-work, personal context and professional goals. Students will have the opportunity reflect on the content learned throughout the program and apply leadership principles in the design of the final project. This course should be taken during the final semester of the program.

Interested in transforming education? This course explores a range of innovative efforts to improve education with the goal of preparing seminar students to envision and create innovations of their own that are grounded in theory, inspired by real-world examples, and infused with creativity. By the end of the seminar, you will have taken the first step by developing and pitching a transformative idea of your own.

This course examines the various theories, frameworks, and practices that help to cultivate and sustain the engagement of families and communities in the educational development (social, emotional, and academic) of children and in the improvement of schools. We focus in particular on research-based examples of the role families and community can play with respect to teaching and learning in K12 schools.

Educators, policymakers, and pundits point to Finland, Singapore, and other countries that produce high marks on international assessments as places to study and perhaps emulate. This course provides that opportunity. We study successful educational systems around the world to identify steps to improve education in our own contexts, wherever they may be.

This course is designed to provide you with an overview to key issues related to the education of linguistic minorities (labeled "English Learners," or "ELs") in K-12 settings in the United States. We will explore second language acquisition theory, language policy, pedagogical approaches, and the practices of ELs and their teachers.

Students learn about major approaches to research and study exemplars of each. Students will learn to evaluate research reports on the basis of accepted standards for each approach. Prerequisite: Admission to doctoral program or instructor consent.

In this course you become an educational entrepreneur by designing and implementing an educational innovation for a school or similar setting that you choose. You will help your partner site identify a challenge, design an innovative approach to address that challenge, and test and refine your approach. In short: in this course you will design an innovation that could impact learners immediately and for years to come.

Course permits students to work, under close faculty guidance, on an individual research project. Research done in this course may not be considered a part of thesis or dissertation work. Enrollment in this course should be limited to two three-credit registrations (six credits) at the doctorate level. Exceptions to this regulation should have the approval of the advisory committee and the dean of the School of Education.

Teaching and learning are highly complex and interactive processes occurring at the intersection of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This course deeply explores instruction, the approaches and methods used to facilitate learning. After establishing a foundation of what is known about how people learn, we will consider how context, culture, and content should influence instructional decision making in terms of planning and implementation.

The field of curriculum studies seeks to understand the complex environments of teaching and learning within our society--to see beyond curriculum guides, standards, and lesson plans to make meaning of the lived experiences shared by students and teachers and to ascertain how decisions about what is and not taught are made, how teachers implement official knowledge, and how students respond.