Graduates will perform as master teachers who have acquired skills of collecting, analyzing and interpreting data; analyzing contextual influences to include policy and economics; and developing, implementing and disseminating coherent and relevant plans for improvement at many levels.

The capstone project requires that graduate candidates develop and implement a learning improvement project. The project will lead to improvement in the classroom, the school, the district, or at the state level. The project begins with the identification of a problem the graduate candidate wants to improve. For example, at the classroom level, the graduate candidate will identify the need to improve student's academic skills or civic skills. At the school level, the graduate candidate will, with the help of other school professionals, improve parental involvement.

Critical Components to the School Improvement Project

• Choose a problem
• Survey professional literature
• Adopt a theoretical framework to both guide data collection and the development of the improvement option
• Identify possible barriers
• Collect and analyze data
• Develop learning improvement plan
• Apply learning improvement plan and disseminate results

If this excites you and strikes you as being professionally challenging and fun, and if you want to learn how to more effectively make a difference in your classroom, school, and beyond, this degree is for you!