January 17, 2019 | UHCL Staff
In order to better address the evolving needs of Texas’ schools and communities, the State Board for Educator Certification adopted new standards in 2016 for future principals wishing to become certified. In November 2018, University of Houston-Clear Lake’s College of Education’s Principal as Instructional Leader certification was approved by the Texas Education Agency, and now, says Associate Professor of Educational Leadership John Decman, students leave the university with Advancing Educational Leadership certificate and the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System certification and are ready to perform on Day One.
“The change was prompted by research that showed there is a large pool of people who hold this certification but aren’t principals,” Decman said. “Instead, those people were holding positions in curriculum coordination, or directorships. High schools often have thousands of students and a principal might have nine or 10 assistant principals. Functions are being delegated, but the state is saying that the person in charge of the school should be the instructional leader.”
This certification, said Decman, gives its holder those leadership skills. “The certification emphasizes the softer skills related to instructional leadership: coaching and helping teachers grow. It de-emphasizes the management component,” he said. “We were required to show TEA how UHCL’s program addressed instructional leadership through its curriculum. We rewrote every course in our program and they approved our documentation without any edits within one day. All our coursework has fieldwork embedded,” Decman said. “The second year of this 30-hour certification is an administrative internship. Students have to demonstrate that they can put what they’ve learned into action.”
Students such as Ciara Marks, who hopes to receive her master’s in educational management with the principal as instructional leader certification in May 2020, said that she aspires to a career in school administration. She said she knew from many coworkers’ recommendations that UHCL had a very highly-regarded program. “My previous principal graduated from UHCL, as well as others I know in my school, and everyone strongly suggested I look into UHCL’s educational leadership degrees. I’m extremely satisfied with my decision to further my education at UHCL.”
Marks has taught elementary math and science at James Bowie Elementary in Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District for six years. After completing 12 hours of her master’s and beginning work on her certification, she says UHCL has lived up to her expectations. “The program keeps the end goal in mind and the course objectives are aligned to the certification tests so that students can be confident they’ll be successful,” she said. “During the spring semester, I will take the T-TTESS Appraisal course, taught by Dr. Decman, Principalship, and Foundations of Multicultural Education.”
Marks said that she’d like to become a principal because she’d like to help teachers teach. “I want to help enrich teachers’ lives and help them be more effective,” she said. “I would like to be a model of instructional excellence for incoming and veteran teachers.”
Finding time to do the courses, she said, is the hardest part. “I’m also the third grade team leader, mentor, UIL coach, and an afterschool program coordinator at my school,” she said. “If I can do 12 hours of course work and succeed in addition to all my various roles, then others can too. I take pride in being excellent at everything that I do. You just have to find the time and consistently execute your plan.”
Decman said this is a “complete, turnkey certification. Candidates continue to get support through the exam process and we give our practitioner partners as little reason for pause as possible. We can document that our students are extremely well prepared.”
He added that students succeed with the support and expertise of his colleagues. “(Professor) Felix Simieou, (Assistant Professor of Educational Administration) Tom Cothern and (Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership) Antonio Corrales are part of the team of faculty who worked on this certification.”
For more information about UHCL’s Principal as Instructional Leader certification, visit www.uhcl.edu/admissions/events/principal-certificate-info-session.
