The Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Ed.D in School System Leadership, Specialty: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Dual Language Education (SLTL) program is the first of its kind in Maryland to prepare teacher leaders and administrators to address multilingual learners鈥 needs at the macro levels (i.e., school and district levels) to parallel the already important changes teachers are making at the micro levels (i.e., individual classrooms). Given that the multilingual learner population in Maryland鈥檚 P-12 system has almost doubled in less than a decade, MSDE has recognized the ever-increasing need for more teachers and administrators to understand how to address these student populations鈥 academic, language and cultural needs across the curriculum. While teacher education programs in this area have started to increase, teacher leader and administrator preparation continues to lag behind severely.
As opposed to a traditional doctoral programs with a culminating dissertation focusing on theoretical contributions to a larger field, this program has students addressing real-time problems of practice in the form of a Capstone project, which per our MOUs with LEAs are to be implemented into the schools and/or districts immediately upon graduation.
- Demonstrate knowledge of current and historical theories and research of second language acquisition by creating effective pedagogical practices for language learners using linguistically鈥恦aried and culturally responsive teaching and assessments that are district鈥恮ide.
- Identify the perspectives and needs of diverse members of the school community and the importance of meeting those needs.
- Engage and communicate with diverse school communities and to identify culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies for developing and sustaining family/community partnerships.
- Effectively communicate their District鈥檚 vision, mission, and core values, including a commitment to equity, diversity, and community as it relates to language learners.
- Evaluate the gap areas between their district鈥檚 vision/mission and current reality, including gap areas related to language and cultural equity, diversity, technology, and community.
- Identify a Problem of Practice as it relates to language learners in the school system through the analysis of multiple sources of data.
- Design, implement and evaluate a developmentally appropriate, accessible and culturally responsive system of assessments and data collection, management and analysis that supports instructional improvements for language learners.
- Identify the environmental forces, institutional factors, policy network activities and interest group pressures that affect education policy in their systems as it relates to successfully addressing the language, cultural and academic needs of their language learners.
- Juxtapose national and state policies, rules, laws and regulations with education in their county in order to identify the implications of the educational policies for individual schools including how the policies are to be implemented.
Information on admissions and application can be found through your local school district. This program currently operates exclusively through a school district partnership with Prince George鈥檚 County Public Schools. The program is not open to admissions for individuals outside of this partnership.
A new cohort starts every other year; all applicants must go through their school district鈥檚 initial round of vetting before being eligible to apply to UMD.
The program includes 41 credits of coursework, 7 credits of an applied apprenticeship, 6 credits of Capstone proposal, and 6 credits of Capstone. Below are the courses.
Teachers in Prince George鈥檚 County Public Schools: check with your district ELD supervisor to inquire about enrollment.
- Core: EDUC705 - Education Policy Making and the School Leader
- Core: EDUC740 - Managing Educational Organizations in a Diverse Society
- Core: EDUC767 - Seminar on School District Leadership
- Core: EDUC770 - System Innovation and Transformation Management
- Specialization: TLPL637 - Teaching for Equity in Bilingual/Language Immersion Programs
- Specialization: TLPL740 - Language and Education
- Specialization: TLPL743 - Teaching English Language Learners: Current and Future Research Directions
- Specialization: TLPL744 - Research Foundations of Second Language Education: Examining Linguistically Diverse Student Learning
- Research: EDUC701 - Applied Research and Data Based Decision Making for School Leaders
- Research: EDUC702 - Applied Research Design for Education Leaders
- Research: TLPL 791 - Qualitative Research I: Design & Framework
- Professional: EDUC703 - Conducting Library Research for Capstones
- Professional: EDUC704 - Introduction to Writing for Education Leaders
- Professional: TLPL 888- Apprenticeship in Education
- Evaluation: EDUC828 - Mid-Program Evaluation Portfolio
- Capstone: EDUC829 - Doctoral Capstone