Goals of the course: This course will be conducted as an institute and will focus on the important dimensions of Human Resource Administration. The goal of the course is to help students to apply their learning to actual schools or school systems. The classes will consist of a combination of speakers, readings, discussions, case studies and lectures. The purpose is to help each student understand what constitutes an effective human resource administrative system at either the building or system level. Underlying that purpose, a major focus will be the leadership roles that teachers and administrators must play to successfully develop an effective human resource system. It will be the responsibility of the student to synthesize the knowledge and understandings gained in class and through readings and to then demonstrate the ability to apply their learning in a real world setting. This synthesis and application will be done primarily through the use of a reflective journal, which students must prepare after each class.The instructor is available to help clarify the syntheses either during or after class time. At the conclusion of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of:
Texts for this course are: Seyfarth, J.T., Personnel Management for Effective Schools, Third Edition, Alien & Bacon Course outline: •June 30 Introduction to the course and a review of course requirements. What does an effective Human Resource program look like?
•July 1 Panel discussion: What is an Effective Human Resource Program? Don McCallion, Director of Personnel, Framingham Public Schools The panel will address the question, What Constitutes an Effective Human Resource Program? Students should listen carefully to their presentation and be prepared to ask pertinent and informed questions. In this and all future presentations students must be able to apply what they learned to a school or a school system level in a way that makes the learning practical and meaningful. Reading assignment:Seyfarth, chapters 1, 2, 14, & 16,
•July 2 Active Anti-Racism: How does Active Anti-Racism apply to an Effective Human Resource System? Michael Feldstein, Newton Teacher and EMI Trainer and Carroll Blake, Wellesley Assistant Principal and EMI trainer will give a presentation on Active Anti-Racism. Reading assignment:"The Proactive Removal of Discriminatory Barriers: Affirmative Action as Effective Help", Anthony Pratkenis and Marlene Turner, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 52, No. 4, 1996. •July 3 Diversifiying staff: Goal vs. process strategy Reading assignment:'The Proactive Removal of Discriminatory Barriers: Affirmative Action as Effective Help", Anthony Pratkenis and Marlene Turner, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 52, No. 4, 1996. "Multicultural Education In a New Century", James Banks, "The New School Administrator", May 1999. •July 7 The class will demonstrate that students have understood and connected the presentations of the first week by developing a recruitment plan for the school system which reflects the importance of active anti- racist thinking and results in the hiring of a more diverse staff.The class will also demonstrate an understanding of the new re-certification process by developing a system plan for re-certification that makes sense
•July 8 The class will discuss the importance of an effective mentoring program for new teachers. The class will develop an effective mentoring program for a school system. Reading assignment:Seyfarth, ch.5, 6, & 7. •July 9 The class will examine the collective bargaining process and the difference between adversarial and collaborative bargaining. The class will consider how contract interpretation and legal issues affect the administration of a school or system. Students will examine a contract to determine how it impacts the administration of a school/system.Students will demonstrate an understanding of the documentation needed to discipline or dismiss a tenured staff member. Reading assignment:Seyfarth, ch. 5, 11,12,15 •July 10 Students will examine the Principles of Effective Teaching developed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and apply them to school settings. What will these principles look like in a classroom or school setting? Students will also discuss three types of teachers, excellent, average, & marginal and analyze how supervision and evaluation applies to each of these teacher categories. Reading Assignment:Tips for Principals, "How to Supervise a Marginal Teacher," National Association of Secondary School Principals •July 11 Students will be introduced to a technique for writing effective observations as part of the supervision evaluation process and will apply that technique while observing videos of teachers teaching This paper and the reflective journal are due at the end of the last class session. 1. You are the Director of Human Resources in a K-12 school system. One of your responsibilities is to help identify staff development needs for the system. You have just finished reading Geneva Gay's book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and it has had a profound impact on your thinking. You now want to write the superintendent a memo which will provide a rationale for creating a staff development program that reflects Nieto's thinking. What would the rationale look like? This memo must be no longer than 2 pages and it must:
Papers which do all of the above will receive grades of A- to A. Papers which address the first two bullets in a less than thoughtful and sophisticated manner but which are well written will receive a grade of B- to B+. Papers which do not do the above and which are not well written will receive a grade below B-. This paper is due July 3rd.
2. Students are expected to do a reflective journal after each class. The journal entries should be no longer than one to two type written pages using a font of 12 or above. The journal will be passed in and read by the instructor at the end of the course but will not be graded. Rather the journal will be used as a basis for completing the following assignment:
3. Each student will write a four page paper that describes an effective human resource program. The paper will demonstrate an understanding of the Seyfarth text, the other materials read for class and all of the class presentations and discussions. The paper will demonstrate the student's ability to synthesize this knowledge and than produce a clear, concise, well written paper. A paper which demonstrates that syntheses and which is well written will receive a grade of A-to A. A paper that is well written, but reflects a less than comprehensive syntheses of the knowledge will receive a grade ofB- to B+. A paper that does neither will receive a grade of less than B-. This paper and the reflective journal are due at the end of the last class session.
Class participation - 20%
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