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Mission Statement

Educational Leadership Mission Statement

The graduate program in educational leadership at Westminster College is designed to develop the requisite knowledge, applicable skills, and appropriate attitudes in aspiring school leaders.

The expected outcome of the program is not a credential or collection of courses, but rather professionals who desire to be effective leaders...people whose actions, words, and beliefs demonstrate leadership at its finest.

The Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership (PIL) and the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards are woven through the coursework, the related field experiences, and the culminating internship which seeks to integrate theory and practice. The integration of practical fieldwork, technological applications, simulations, and problem-solving activities, and ethical considerations within the academic coursework is central to the program which focuses on responsibility, accountability, student achievement, and school improvement.

There exists a cognizance that the understanding of self is critical to the understanding of others; thus opportunities for personal growth and professional development are important.

The program is undergirded by:

  • A sense of service
  • A positive spirit
  • An emphasis on an ethical foundation
  • The promotion of the highest professional standards

The goal of the program is to develop servant leaders who pursue a call rather than a job; who maintain a focus on the vision of better schools for our children; who manage themselves, their personnel, and their students with strength and gentleness, expertise and understanding, fairness and firmness, respect and truth, and goodness and grace.

PA Inspired Leadership Standards

Core Standards

  1. Knowledge and skills to think and plan strategically creating an organizational vision around personalized student success.
  2. An understanding of standard-based systems theory and design and the ability to transfer that knowledge to the leader’s job as an architect of standards based reform in the school.
  3. The ability to access and use appropriate data to inform decision-making at all levels of the system.

Corollary Standards

  1. Creating a culture of teaching and learning with an emphasis on learning.
  2. Managing resources for effective results.
  3. Collaborating, communicating, engaging, and empowering others insides and outside the organization to pursue excellence in learning.
  4. Operating in a fair and equitable manner with personal and professional integrity.
  5. Advocating for children and public education in the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.
  6. Supporting professional growth of self and others through practice and inquiry.

Special Education Competencies

  1. Over-representation of diverse students in special education.
  2. Prevention and early intervention.
  3. Effective instructional strategies for students with disabilities in inclusive settings.