OAKLAND UNIVERSITY
Department of Educational Leadership
EA 740: School as a Formal Organization, four credit hours, fall, 2009, Macomb # 8 Cohort.
Prerequisites: Admission to the Education Specialist degree program.
Catalog Description: An introduction to organizational theory and analysis and its application
to educational organizations. Students will be expected to complete written case studies.
Instructor: Dr. Brian Owen Clark, bclark@oakland.edu, home 248-373-3794,
office fax 248-370-4605
Required Texts:
Blankstein, Alan M. (2004). Failure is not an option: six principles that guide student
achievement in high-performing schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Bolman, L.G. & Deal T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations: artistry, choice, and leadership,4th
edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Michigan State Board of Education Modified ISLLC Standards for the Preparation of School
Principals
The course, EA 740, School as a Formal Organization, is aligned with the following Modified ISLLC
Standards that begin with the phrase …A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the
success of all students by:
1.0 VISION – facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and
stewardship of a vision of learning that is shred and supported by the
school community.
Specific Course Standards: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.8, 1.9, 1.11, 1.14,
1.15, 1.16, 1.17, 1.19, 1.22, 1.24, 1.25, 1.28.
2.0 CULTURE - advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional
program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
Specific Course Standards: 2.7, 2.9, 2.11, 2.15, 2.25, 2.26, 2.32, 2.35.
3.0 STUDENT SUCCESS – ensuring management of the organization, operations, and
resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.
Specific Course Standards: 3.1, 3.13, 3.17, 3.19, 3.23, 3.30, 3.33.
4.0 COMMUNITY – collaborating with families and community members, responding to
diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.
Specific Course Standards: 4.1, 4.9, 4.16, 4.23, 4.24.
5.0 ETHICS – acting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner.
Specific Course Standards: 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.11, 5.12, 5.13, 5.14,
5.15, 5.16, 5.19, 5.21, 5.24, 5.29.
6.0 POLITICAL – understanding, responding to, and influencing the larger political,
social, economic, legal, and cultural context.
Specific Course Standards: 6.2, 6.8, 6.10.
7.0 TECHNOLOGY – understanding and comprehensively applies technology to
advance student achievement.
Specific Course Standards: 7.4, 7.7, 7.9, 7.15, 7.17, 7.21, 7.24.
8.0 SYNTHESIS – synthesizes and applies knowledge and best practices and develops
Skills through substantial, sustained, standards-based work in real
settings to advance student achievement.
Specific Course Standards: 8.0
Course topics:
 Understanding and development of the (cohort) learning community model.
 Making sense of organizations through reframing.
 Applying the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames.
 Improving organizational leadership.
 Michigan’s standards for the development of educational leaders.
 Helping teachers develop as leaders.
 Ethical concepts and reasoning important to educational leaders.
 Self- Reflection.
 Six principles that guide student achievement in high-performing schools.
 Understanding schools and school systems as organizations.
Methods of Instruction:
 Instructional presentations
 Individual and group analysis of case studies
 Workshop activities
 Readings/discussions
 Student presentations
 Videos
Field Experiences/Mentorship: Throughout the Ed.S. program, students are expected to work
closely with their mentor to accumulate a minimum of 100 hours of leadership involvement.
Various course assignments, including those in EA 740, will provide opportunities for such
involvement. Additionally, EA 701 & 702 will require leadership activities and written updates. .
Students should keep a log of their field experiences using the model provided by their cohort
coordinator. This log will serve as documentation for Standard VIII in the student’s Academic
Portfolio.
Academic Portfolio: The eight Michigan Standards for leadership preparation will serve as the
structure for the student’s Ed.S. program portfolio. Students will collect artifacts from their
course work, internship, and their professional practice to serve as evidence of their leadership
development. The cohort coordinator will provide additional information regarding this activity.
Students will present their completed portfolio during EA 743, the final seminar.
Academic Conduct: As graduate students you are expected to conduct your work in conformity
with Oakland University policy on academic conduct, which appears in the Graduate Catalog.
You are expected to read and comply with those guidelines. Please ask for clarification if you are
uncertain about their implementation.
Performance Assessment:
1. Prompt and regular *attendance.
2. Active participation & positive class contribution.
3. Professional quality oral and written communication.
4. Evidence of thoughtful reflection and construction of knowledge.
* The instructor would appreciate advance notification of an impending absence, whenever
possible, in order to adjust discussion group assignments as needed.
Course Requirements and Grading:
50 points -Students will complete a 25 point, self-evaluation relative to performance
assessments #1 & 2 above. A form will be provided by the instructor and will be due at the final
class meeting. The instructor will likewise award up to 25 points.
100 points FNO Critique - Students will gain a thorough understanding of Blankstein’s “Six
Principles That Guide Student Achievement in High-Performing Schools”. They will write a
critique of a selected school’s efforts to develop & implement such a plan using these six
principles as the criteria. This paper will begin with a brief statement of its purpose followed by a
short demographic introduction to the selected school. The body of this paper will contain six
sections wherein the school’s application of each principle will be critiqued. The final section of
the paper will present recommendations for improvement of the school’s efforts to increase
student achievement within Blankstein’s model.
The estimated length of this paper is eight to ten pages, double-spaced, using a 12 font.
The development of a plan to implement the recommendations contained in this paper will
comprise the second major assignment of this course. (See below.)
150 points Reframing Analysis & Leadership Action Plan - Students will gain a thorough
understanding of Bolman & Deal’s four-frame model for reframing organizations. This paper
will begin with a brief statement of its purpose followed by four sections wherein the selected
school will be analyzed as an organization through the structural, human resource, political, and
symbolic frames. This organizational analysis will provide the basis for the next section of this
paper, namely the outline of an action plan to influence the direction of the school’s efforts to
increase student achievement. Ed.S. students will be expected to select from their FNO Critique
the recommendations of greatest leverage for the improvement of student achievement within
their school. Upon the selection of one or more of those recommendations, a plan of action for
their implementation will be created.
The goal of this assignment is the actual leadership of effective change benefitting students. The
reality of the Ed.S. student’s school situation, and the guidance of their mentor, will dictate the
level at which this leadership will be aimed. Some students may be able to influence change at
the total school level while others may have to implement their plan of action at a grade level,
department level, or within a designated professional learning community.
The length of this assignment is estimated to be eight to ten pages, double-spaced, using a 12
font.
Note: The student’s ongoing leadership experiences, relative to the implementation of their
action plan for improving student achievement, will provide the basis for an assignment in the
final Ed.S. seminar. Students are therefore expected to keep a journal of their leadership
experiences throughout the Ed.S. program as they work within the four organizational frames to
influence change by implementing their action plan. The journal will become the basis for a
summary report of this project in the final Ed.S. seminar (EA 743).
50 points - Technology Toolbox
This assignment is under development, but intends for educational leaders to use technology for
both individual and group professional development purposes. For example, on an individual
basis, students will be expected to use tools such as RSS Feeds and Google Reader to facilitate
regular access to professional information. On a group level, students will be expected to use
technology to create a professional, social network of educational leaders who will regularly
share information and resources of mutual interest and benefit for their craft.
50 points – Students will set up their eight-section, Ed.S. Academic Portfolio according to the
format provided by the instructor. Section VIII of the portfolio will contain the internship Plan of
Work and other items that will be explained by the instructor during EA 740.
Note: Final grades will be determined by dividing the total points earned out of the possible 400
by 100 and rounding up to the nearest tenth.