MS+Educational+Leadership+Program+Goals


 * MS Educational Leadership Program Goals (Goals Self-Assessment)**

__**1. Envision and guide organizational change.**__

What guides my organizational change is my vision, passion, and the reality that alternative high school programming is needed in our school district. Alternative high school programming provides a curriculum and structure that appeals to the special emotional, academic, and social needs of a student at-risk of dropping-out of school. At present, Wisconsin has a 20% drop-out rate. Half of that 20% will end up incarcerated. Everyone pays when someone drops out of school. According to the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and the MacIver Institute for Public Policy (2009), high school drop-outs impact tax revenues, Medicaid costs, and incarceration costs. The report concludes that Wisconsin could save $395 million each year by improving graduation rates. Each student who fails to graduate from high school produces direct costs to taxpayers through lower tax revenues and greater social costs.


 * __2. Communicate effectively, engage constituents, develop people and build community.__**

As a life-long resident of Oshkosh and an educator for the Oshkosh Area School District, I have been actively involved in a variety of leadership roles that have had a direct impact on public education and our community as a whole. I am an active member of the Oshkosh Education Association in the capacity of a Public Relations Representative and Building Representative for my school. It is amazing how a few simple actions can have the most impact. For example, every local election, I am assigned to a phone bank to encourage district and community members to get out and participate in local elections. The phone calls often end with, “Thank you for letting me know who to vote for; I want the best for public education and my children (or grandchildren).”

I have also stepped up to the microphone at a few community meetings earlier this year to support and advocate for alternative high school programming with, “If you don’t invest in students at-risk of dropping out; you’ll pay for it in other ways…for the going rate for 3 ‘hots and a cot’ is approximately 35,000 dollars a year.”


 * __3. Advocate and promote equity for diverse populations, and respect for individuals.__**

This opportunity is not difficult for me; for this goal not only comes natural to me but has been developed for the past 17 years as an educator. Working with incarcerated individuals in the past and presently EBD teenagers has given me the opportunity to not only work with many individuals from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds but also with many students with emotional and learning disabilities. I have experiences that range from helping students who have aged-out of high school programming on a paid and volunteer basis to supervising sweat lodges for incarcerated Native Americans. My hands-on experiences with diverse populations have been rich, life-changing, and helped me develop and practice a cultural sensitivity to maintain what I do best: Advocate and teach self-advocacy for those who don’t have a voice and loving and accepting these individuals unconditionally and without judgment.

__**4.Integrate theory, data, research and ethical standards into the context of one's practice through continual learning**.__

This opportunity has been on-going for me since the mid 1970s. I have been attending classes at UW-Oshkosh and Marian College (non-stop) to not only keep my educator’s license current but also to reap the personal and professional benefits from life-long learning. As my piano teacher once told me, “You may lose a job, a home, and family and friends along the way, but no one, absolutely no one, can take your education away from you.”