Education Administration Program at CSU Fresno

Building successful partnerships is a key theme in the Education Administration program at California State University, Fresno. Strong relationships are being forged to enhance the preparation of school leaders and to build networks of support for the critical work of leading schools. Two successful collaborative endeavors at CSU Fresno are the Chancellor’s Fellowship and the Central Valley Educational Leadership Institute.

The highly successful Chancellor’s Fellowship has linked over a dozen local school districts with CSU Fresno to prepare educational leaders. Over 70 candidates have passed a rigorous selection process for the fellowship that begins with the written recommendation of each candidate’s superintendent. Many of the Chancellor’s Fellows move quickly into leadership positions and have garnered high praise.

The administration of CSU Fresno saw a need to provide continued support to school leaders in California’s Central Valley. The Education Administration Program faculty, working with local businesses and school districts, formed the Central Valley Educational Leadership Institute (CVELI). The first conference of CVELI (June 2004) brought together valley school and district leaders with nationally known experts on standards, assessment, and school reform efforts. Its success catapulted CVELI into a series of partnerships with local business groups, community members, the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC), and local school districts. Recently, CVELI has taken on the coordination of the ACSA Superintendents’ Symposium for professional development activities funded by the Gates Foundation as well as the ACSA Aspiring Superintendents’ Academy. The partnership with BASRC provides instructional support and leadership coaching to local school districts. Future plans for this collaboration include two Best Practices Institutes each year for valley schools, plus other activities involving teacher, principal, and superintendent networks.

Joint Doctorate Programs at CSU San Marcos and San Diego State University

San Diego State University joined forces with California State University, San Marcos and the University of California, San Diego to establish a joint education doctorate in education leadership last year. The program admitted its first cohort of 18 in January 2005, and addresses advanced study of academic administrative leadership and research skills that will foster evidence-based decision making in local schools and colleges. In the San Diego area, K-12 and community college educators have long expressed a strong interest in a high-quality, affordable Doctor of Education program. The three partner institutions are committed to recruiting doctoral candidates from current populations of educators working in the state’s schools and communities. The vision of the program is to prepare educators in four areas required for effective educational leadership:

• Leadership for Learning. The foundation of the program rests on the belief that the work of school leaders must always attend to the common objective of increasing student achievement.



• Leadership for a Diverse Society. The program will focus on the development of the theory and practice of institutional diversity. Candidates will learn to implement inclusive practices, not as a matter of policy, but as a matter of personal commitment and understanding of how institutions are historically transformed as a result.



• Leadership for Organizational Change. Graduates will focus on developing critical habits of action to support effective problem solving, build leadership capacity within institutions, and alter institutions in ways that materially improve the learning condition for their students.



• Leadership for Organizational Development. The program will support its doctoral students in myriad ways to help them understand the importance of building leadership capacity within their educational organizations.

This program is the latest of just four new applied doctorate programs in the state, jointly developed by the CSU and UC systems, in an attempt to address the unmet need for advanced preparation of K-12 and community college leaders in California. The programs are designed for working professionals, and directly related to the real issues and problems facing California K-14 education. As California lags far behind the rest of the country in the ratio of fully prepared leaders to the school population, efforts to increase the capacity of the public universities to provide such preparation are important. In addition, it is increasingly important to provide affordable access to the large population of diverse professionals who need this training. To better address this need, the California State University is seeking the authority to offer the applied degree, the Ed.D, independently as well as in partnership with the UC. This will allow the CSU to prepare not only more K-14 leaders but also to provide the initial level of preparation now required for those in the critical public health professions of audiology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. This initiative is broadly supported by those in the K-14 arena as a welcomed avenue to meet these important needs.