BOSTON COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF
EDUCATION
Department of Educational Administration
and higher Education
ED 451 Human Resources Administration
Spring Semester, 1999
Professor: Robert J. Starratt email:
starratr@bc.edu; tel .617-552-1961
Course Outcomes
By the end of the course participants will be
able to :
- situate human resources administration
within the agenda of school restructuring and renewal;
- articulate foundational issues of human and
adult development to human resources administration in
schools;
- situate human resources administration
within the theory of learning organizations;
- relate various dimensions of personal
administration to the theory of learning
organizations;
- critique and redesign school system
personnel handbooks
Assignments
- Participants will submit a written critique
of a personnel handbook;
- Participants will design a personnel policy
handbook, incorporating ideas from the course;
- In the final exam, participants will
present a proposal for a human resource development approach to
one area of personnel administration.
- Participants will keep a journal in which
they record their responses to and reflections on various course
activities.
Course Schedule
- January 25 Overview of the course and
course assignments. Presentation on major topics of the course:
human development, empowerment, school culture, core values, the
learning community. Assignment: Read the chapter on school
restructuring; identify a school system and begin to study its
approach to human resources administration, including its hiring
and induction process, its teacher evaluation process, its
approach to staff development, to collective bargaining, to
teacher accountability for student achievement. Obtain a copy of
the district's personnel handbook, or current teacher contract.
Begin Reading Senge's Fifth Discipline in preparation for classes
4, 5, &6.
- Feb. 1 Initial reports of studies of school
systems. Review of human development frameworks: Becker, Erickson,
Giddens, Piaget, Kohlberg. Administration and scoring of Myers
Briggs inventory. Assignment: Read the Sprinthals' essay.
Interview two teachers and ask them to talk about the most
important things they do for young people in their work; then ask
them what obstacles they encounter that prevent them from
realizing these things more fully. Where would you place them in
the Myers-Briggs categories? How does the Sprinthals' essay help
you to understand that teacher, as well as to critique human
resources administration in your school system. Continue reading
in Senge.
- Feb. 8 Review of participants' reflections
on Adult learning frameworks in their interviews of teachers and
their analysis of human resources administration in the system
they are studying. Presentation on Maslow, Hertzberg, and Hackman
and Oldham. Assignment: Read Senge, Part I, and chapters 9
& 10. Using his discussion of personal mastery and mental
models, critique various practices of human resources
administration in the system you are studying. Interview a teacher
about his/her mental model of teaching and learning. Try to find
how that model was derived/developed.
- Feb. 15 Discussion of personal mastery and
the notion of empowerment and teacher leadership. Discussion on
mental models about teaching and learning and the purposes of
schooling. Mental models and teachers educational platform.
Assignment: Read Senge, ch. 11 & 12. In the school
system you are studying, does the system propose a vision of where
the schools should be going and does it relate that vision to its
human resources administration? Provide examples of actual
practices of team learning, or at least of potential team learning
in your school system.
- Feb. 22 Discussion of participants'
analysis of the role of vision and team learning in their school
systems. Presentation of a systematic approach to developing a
culture of learning, a learning community. Assignment:
Read Senge Chps 18-21 & APPENDIX 1 & 2; be prepared to
summarize Senge's theory of the learning organization and how it
provides a guiding perspective for human resources administration.
Begin critique of personnel handbook/contract of the system you
are studying.
Spring Break
6) March 8 Discussion of how Senge's theory of
the learning organization can inform the theory and practice of human
resources administration. Beginning preparation for final
exam/assignment. Assignment: Complete and hand in on March 15
class a critique of the personnel handbook/ contract, and include
examples from actual practice, of the system you have been studying,
noting its strong and weak points from the perspectives of human
development and the learning community. Read Chapters on Recruiting,
Selection and Induction of personnel. Investigate your system's
recruiting, selecting and induction (orientation, mentoring, process
of supervision of non-tenured teachers). Interview a first year
teacher about her/his experience of the selection and induction
process.
7) March 15 Small group sharing on their
critiques. Overview of issues on recruiting, selection and induction
of personnel. Assignment: Read chapter on staff development
and handout on teacher leadership. Brainstorm ways to improve staff
development with a teacher.
8) March 22 Class development of ideas to
improve staff development programs in their systems. Introduction of
Teacher supervision and evaluation. Assignment: Read chapter
on teacher appraisal. Interview teachers on their experience of
supervision. Ask them how they would improve teacher appraisal if
they were in charge. Sit in on a teacher's class (after getting their
permission and understanding that you are doing this for a course
assignment, and that it is in no way a formal evaluation) and jot
down your observations. You may talk through your observations with
the teacher. Bring in a copy of the school system's teacher appraisal
form.
9) March 29 Class discussions of their
interviews and observations. Discussion of teacher evaluation as
human resource development; formative and summative evaluations of
teachers. Assignment: Read chapter on teacher evaluation, and
Rowan's essay on commitment and control. Prepare arguments for both
approaches to accountability; be prepared to debate one side or the
other. Observe another class; reflect on what you will need to be an
effective instructional supervisor or peer supervisor.
10) April 5 Debate on accountability through
commitment or control. Case analysis and simulation of Mr. Elgart.
Assignment: Read chapter on physics teachers' assessment.
Investigate how your system is tying teacher assessment to the
system's implementation of the state curriculum frameworks and state
testing.
11) April 12 Discussion on teacher assessment
and the implementation of state curriculum standards. Assignment:
Read chapter on collective bargaining, and examine how your
school system engages in collective bargaining. Interview the Union
leader in the school to get his/her perspective on the good and the
bad points of the process; interview the central office negotiator to
get his/her perspective on the good and the bad points of the
process.
Patriots'Day
- April 26 Sharing of interview results.
Discussion of improving collective bargaining processes.
Assignment: Explore how your system develops additional human
resources development: students, parents, paraprofessionals,
community volunteers. What are the mental models that come into
play here? What vision of human resource development is
needed?
13) May 3 Discussion of human resource
administration for students, paraprofessionals, parents, and
volunteers. How does Senge's systems thinking help? Assignment:
Prepare final exam.
- Final Exam. Assessment of the
course.