An overview of strategies for guiding teachers and other professionals toward improving student achievement by building better learning communities.

A purpose of this course will be to prepare professional educators through teaching, research and services to become committed to life-long learning and to facilitating the process of building better communities.

This course will prepare future teacher leaders to work effectively within their school community as well as with the communities in which they work and with the families of the students they teach.

A purpose of this course is to prepare professional educators through teaching, research, and service to become committed to life-long learning and to facilitate the process of building better communities. Students will demonstrate best educational practices and professional dispositions and will learn how to create a positive, motivational learning environment in schools while recognizing, appreciating, and including diverse learners and perspectives. Additionally, students are expected to demonstrate satisfactory skills in curriculum leadership; to engage in action research related to schools; to engage in literacy coaching; to address current family, community, regional, and national issues related to scholastic achievement, and to use tenets of instructional leadership to guide teachers and other professionals toward improving student achievement.

The Research Project, as the culminating experience in the Instructional Specialist Program, provides the candidate an opportunity to synthesize and apply program components and a timely topic in the field.