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Welcome to the newsletter of the UIC EdD program in Urban Education Leadership. If you have items to be considered for submission, please forward them to ckbarron@uic.edu
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March 2021
UIC LEADERS ON THE MOVE!
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In this issue...
In this issue you will read about a range of news, including:
- Current student and alumni appointments
- Current student and alumni awards
- Program announcements
- EdD Information Session dates for 2020-2021
- Superintendent Endorsement Information
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Recognizing Students as Leaders
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Recognizing Students as Leaders Dr. Jason Salisbury, Educational Policy Studies
As schools begin to return to in-person learning, it is important to think about the voices and actions of students as leaders, especially students from historically marginalized groups. There is a growing body of research and practice demonstrating how students offer unique insights and abilities as transformative change agents in schools. This means they need to be more than receivers of leadership and policy; students should be contributors, generators, and implementors of school improvement work. This is especially true in current times when most school personnel have limited experience attending school in a time of multiple global pandemics (COVID-19, white supremacy, and record wealth inequity).
Youth leadership is about creating intentional times for students to engage in transformative leadership to generate more just and responsive schools. When thinking about youth voice, a spectrum emerges beginning with youth providing schools data or opinions about school decisions and policies (for example, as reflected in the 5 Essentials surveys). The spectrum culminates with youth engaging in research about their school, developing an action plan to address identified areas of concern, and leading the implementation of the action plan (as illustrated in Youth Participatory Action Research). As schools progress toward the latter end of the spectrum, youth and community-centered justice-oriented improvements are increasingly possible.
The current context represents a vital time to think about youth leadership because of how the massive upheaval in K-12 schools creates a rush to act for young people instead of with young people in the name of efficiency. A few points for schools to consider when moving youth to the center of educational practice and leadership:
1. How have we included the voices and actions of students in the decisions we are making?
2. When we include youth voices, are we tokenizing those voices?
3. How have we included the voices of all students and not just students we want to hear from?
4. What substantial leadership roles and actions are students engaged in?
5. How are we intentionally supporting youth in honing their leadership skills?
Welcoming the voices and leadership of young people creates opportunities for dramatic shifts towards justice in schools. And, it creates spaces for anxiety and uncertainty for adults in schools. In the end, we need to trust that young people are invested in their education and want it to be meaningful. Additionally, we have to remember that students have insights into their education because they experience their schools every day from perspectives that are different from ours.
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On February 12, the UIC communications officer Carlos Sadovi noticed a piece that got national news coverage, writing that "more than a dozen publications picked up a story regarding Education Secretary nominee Miguel Cardona. The story includes four experts discussing teacher shortages and one mentions the Urban Educational Leadership Program in UIC’s College of Education as an example of programs working with local school districts. https://go.news.uic.edu/UrbanEdLeadership-UIC." A faculty member from University of Connecticut wrote:
Examples of programs working with local school districts to do it differently include ours at the University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program, University of Washington’s Danforth Educational Leadership Program, University of Denver’s Ritchie Program for School Leaders and the Urban Educational Leadership Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. They are highly selective and seek to recruit high-potential district educators. Their faculty includes university scholars teaching alongside seasoned practitioners, and they offer extensive clinical placements for participants, who must demonstrate competence as instructional leaders.
UIC has been mentoring UConn's ed leadership program re-design with Wallace funding for almost three years under the leadership of Professor Shelby Cosner, Director of the Center for Urban Education Leadership. The article goes on to say:
Secretary Cardona – who was himself an adjunct professor in Connecticut’s APP program – can help expand such programs nationally, for example by creating seed grants that encourage school-university partnerships and making graduate student loans forgivable to help qualified teachers pursue leadership positions.
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Congratulations to Lela Majstorovic !
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Lela Majstorovic has recently been selected as the next Assistant Superintendent of Schools for district U46 in Elgin, IL. Majstorovic, who currently serves as the Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Schools, Instruction and Equity in U-46, will begin her new role July 1, 2021. As Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Schools, Instruction and Equity, Majstorovic brought a student-centered approach to the oversight of eight middle schools, five high schools and two alternative programs. Majstorovic developed new procedures and policies to ensure the implementation of Standard Based Learning and Assessments, while also increasing college and career preparation opportunities. Mrs. Majstorovic was also former CPS Network 1 Chief, and received her Superintendent Endorsement from UIC.
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Congratulations to Dr. Chala Holland !
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Dr. Chala Holland (Cohort 7) has recently been appointed Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services for Naperville, District 203. Dr. Holland, who is currently Principal of Lake Forest High School, will begin in her new role July 1, 2021. Dr. Holland has worked in education for twenty years. Before becoming Principal of Lake Forest, Dr. Holland was Assistant Principal of Oak Park and River Forest High School. During her tenure in education, Dr. Holland has focused on developing strong school communities and systems of communication.
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Congratulations to Dr. Ariel Correa !
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Dr. Ariel Correa (Cohort 1) will be the next principal of Officer Donald J. Marquez Elementary School, which is part of the Acero Schools charter network. Dr. Correa previously worked as the Director of Education and Principal for Innovations Academy and Streamwood Behavioral Healthcare System, where he helped develop a trauma informed care model to help evolve teaching and learning practices. Before working for SBHS, Dr. Correa worked as principal of Hilltop Elementary School in Elgin, IL. Under his leadership, Hilltop saw an increase in student achievement scores of 3.5% each year. Dr.Correa also worked as Principal at Cesar E. Chávez MAC, where they experienced 11% growth each year during his tenure.
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Congratulations to Dr. Jimmy A. Lugo !
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Dr. Jimmy A. Lugo (Cohort 10) had his contract as principal of Stowe Elementary School (CPS) renewed. Dr. Lugo has worked in education for almost twenty years. He made the transition to administration to become principal of Stowe in 2013. Stowe is a Dual Language School located in West Humboldt. The school’s vision is “Every Child, Empowered. Every Need, Supported. Our Community, Inspired.” Dr. Lugo began his principalship at Stowe with an aim of connecting students to learning and school as a place of joy and belonging. Two of many strategies to enact his vision was establish data driven decision making and reinstating sports opportunities between Stowe and neighboring community schools. Go Wolves!
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Congratulations to Patricia Stuber !
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Patricia (Patti) Stuber (Cohort 16, CLC Cohort 7) is the new Interim Principal of Northside College Prep High School.
Ms.Stuber recently served as Assistant Principal at Kenwood Academy High School, leading and co-leading teams in the high school and providing primary support to the Academic Center (AC). In the AC role she created collaborative team systems that led to new Academic Center instructional and MTSS learning goals. She was also engaged in equity and instructional improvement initiatives, having led both the AP Equity Team and Instructional Leadership Team.
Prior to Kenwood, Ms. Stuber was a classroom teacher, teacher leader, curriculum coordinator and ILT lead at Steinmetz High School. In her latter roles, she led instructional inquiry cycles that focused on creating and building student centered classrooms and critical thinking routines. She also created a robust adult learning environment.
Having served as Resident Principal at NCP during 2018-2019, Ms. Stuber is looking forward to reconnecting with all stakeholders to support the completion of the schools’ year end goals.
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Congratulations to Dr. Jacqueline Menoni !
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Congratulations to Dr. Jacqueline Menoni (Cohort 11). Dr. Menoni was recently selected as a finalist for the 2021 Golden Apple Award of Excellence in Leadership. Dr. Menoni is one of nine finalists chosen from a record-setting 121 nominations. Dr. Menoni has been working in education for fourteen years. Dr. Menoni is currently principal of Jose de Diego Community Academy, where she has been Principal for six years, and has been a principal in CPS for seven years. During her time as Principal of Jose de Diego Community Academy, Dr. Menoni has dedicated herself to developing stronger school systems through the cycles of inquiry. Dr. Menoni is currently in charge of the Personalized Learning Transformation program at Diego Community Academy, where teacher leaders coach their peers in order to strengthen depth of content knowledge and improve pacing and planning for the CCSS.
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Congratulations to Dr. Krista Rajanen !
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Dr. Krista Rajanen (UIC Cohort 15, CLC Cohort 6) has successfully defended her capstone, "Growing a Sense of Urgency to Improve Student Outcomes through Trusting Relationships". Dr. Rajanen is currently the Assistant Principal of Norwood Park Elementary School. Before becoming Assistant Principal, Dr. Rajanen completed her CLC Residency at Westinghouse College Prep under the leadership of UIC Alumni Dr. Patrick McGill. Dr. Rajanen has worked in education for over ten years and she has dedicated herself to developing communities in her schools.
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Congratulations to Dr. Barbara San-Roman !
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Dr. Barbara San-Roman (UIC Cohort 15, CLC Cohort 6) has successfully defended her final capstone, "The Evolution of a School-Wide Focus on Social Justice through Teaming, Self-Reflection, and Trust". Dr. San-Roman is the Principal of George Washington High School in CPS. San-Roman served as the CLC resident Principal at Washington, and then Assistant Principal for two years under the leadership of Dr. Kevin Gallick, UIC EdD alum, before stepping into the principal position. Dr. San-Roman was recently featured as one of the newest fellows of the University of Chicago Civil Leadership Academy.
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Welcome Back to Maria Makkawi !
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Welcome back to Maria Makkawi, who has come back to work with the Ed.D program. Makkawi has worked in the College of Education for over 20 years. In her time at UIC, Makkawi has worked with four successive Deans. Welcome back to Maria!
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ASPIRE: PREPARING TEACHER LEADERS FOR URBAN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP:
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In last month's newsletter we introduced our readers to our new initiative, Aspire and this month it gives us great pleasure to provide an update:
The ASPIRE Fellowship is a unique collaboration between the UIC Ed.D. Program in Urban Education Leadership and Teach for America Chicago-Northwest Indiana. The fellowship provides professional development and targeted coaching to current teacher leaders seeking to enter a principal certification program in the next 2 years, with the goal of becoming a CPS Assistant Principal or Principal in the next 3-5 years. Eighty-nine percent of the inaugural cohort identify as Black or LatinX, and they are guided by a diverse and talented group of program facilitators, coaches, and mentor principals. Thus far, the seminars have proven to be rich, dynamic learning experiences catalyzed by the intense passion and commitment that the Fellows bring to each session. It is with a sense of honor and obligation that UIC and TFA work together to shape this new generation of powerful, young leaders who will undoubtedly reshape the face of leadership in public education in Chicago and beyond.
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Black EdD Student Mentoring Program Launches in April
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This April, the UIC EdD program will collaborate with Katonja Webb, former Associate Director of the Center for Urban Education Leadership, to launch the Black EdD Student Mentoring Program. This initiative will pair 10 Black students in the residency and post-residency phases with Black program alumni working as school and district leaders. This model -- a less formalized relationship than the coach/coachee dyad -- will offer opportunities for students to engage in candid conversations with mentors who have successfully navigated the EdD program and the pathway to urban school leadership. We look forward to following this exciting initiative and hearing feedback from students and mentors!
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Former Ed.D. Program Coordinator Steve Tozer appears on Education Trust Podcast
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Below is an abstract from the paper written by Christopher Day, Qing Gu, and Pam Sammons, titled "The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes: How Successful School Leaders Use Transformational and Instructional Strategies to Make a Difference". Here is the LINK to the paper.
Purpose: This article illustrates how successful leaders combine the too often dichotomized practices of transformational and instructional leadership in different ways across different phases of their schools’ development in order to progressively shape and “layer” the improvement culture in improving students’ outcomes.
Research Methods: Empirical data were drawn from a 3-year mixed-methods national study (“Impact Study”) that investigated associations between the work of principals in effective and improving primary and secondary schools in England and student outcomes as defined (but not confined) by their national examination and assessment results over 3 years. The research began with a critical survey of the extant literature, followed by a national survey that explored principals’ and key staff’s perceptions of school improvement strategies and actions that they believed had helped foster better student attainment. This was complemented by multiperspective in-depth case studies of a subsample of 20 schools.
Findings: The research provides new empirical evidence of how successful principals directly and indirectly achieve and sustain improvement over time through combining both transformational and instructional leadership strategies. The findings show that schools’ abilities to improve and sustain effectiveness over the long term are not primarily the result of the principals’ leadership style but of their understanding and diagnosis of the school’s needs and their application of clearly articulated, organizationally shared educational values through multiple combinations and accumulations of time and context-sensitive strategies that are “layered” and progressively embedded in the school’s work, culture, and achievements.
Implications: Mixed-methods research designs are likely to provide finer grained, more nuanced evidence-based understandings of the leadership roles and behaviors of principals who achieve and sustain educational outcomes in schools than single lens quantitative analyses, meta-analyses, or purely qualitative approaches. The findings themselves provide support for more differentiated, context sensitive training and development for aspiring and serving principals.
In 2016, this paper won the Davis award for the top paper published in Education Administration Quarterly.
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Upcoming EdD Information Sessions
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We have dates for the 2021 Information Sessions.
If you'd like to register, click this link HERE.
4/24/2021, 9:00 – 10:30
5/4/2021, 3:30 – 4:30
5/22/2021, 9:00 – 10:30
6/26/2021, 9:00 – 10:30
All sessions will be held via Google Meets
For general program inquiries you may contact Dr. Cynthia Barron (ckbarron@uic.edu). If you have any questions about the application process, please contact Elise Wilson (elise@uic.edu).
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We are now accepting applications for the newly revamped superintendent program. If you are interested in learning whether the new UIC Superintendent program is the right match for you, we encourage you to fill out an interest form. At the end of the interest form, you will see a prompt to submit your resume to Superintendent Program Coordinator, Dr. Cynthia Barron (ckbarron@uic.edu). Shortly after your submission, she will contact you to set up a phone call to learn more about your background. For any questions about the program, do not hesitate to reach out to Dr. Barron.
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