{"id":194692,"date":"2020-05-06T13:41:44","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T17:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=194692"},"modified":"2023-01-23T19:09:03","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T00:09:03","slug":"aspiring-school-administrators-present-capstone-projects-via-zoom-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/05\/aspiring-school-administrators-present-capstone-projects-via-zoom-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspiring School Administrators Present Capstone Projects Via Zoom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Screen
Attendees of the UCAPP Change Project Day participate virtually in April.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neag School students completing the\u00a0<\/span>UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP)<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>this spring presented their change projects \u2014 the program\u2019s signature capstone assignment, in which students identify a need or opportunity for school improvement and work toward positive change \u2014 during the 6th Annual Change Project Day.<\/p>\n

The program, designed to prepare school leaders to serve in the state of Connecticut, last month brought together 23 students to share their projects and field questions from alumni and fellow cohort members during presentations held via a Zoom web conference call.<\/p>\n

Change Project Day provides the opportunity \u201cto celebrate our students\u2019 UCAPP two-year leadership journey,\u201d says Richard Gonzales<\/a>, associate professor-in-residence and director of Educational Leadership Preparation Programs in the Neag School. The projects, he adds, serve as a \u201ccapstone assignment that provides an authentic opportunity for our students to apply what they have learned, and to lead improvement around an area of need in their internship or home school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gladis Kersaint<\/a>, dean of the Neag School, shared words of encouragement with the UCAPP grads and their guests during the online event. \u201cThe Class of 2020 will go down in UConn\u2019s history as nothing short of unforgettable, with everything that has transpired over these past few months,\u201d she said. \u201cYour perseverance has been extraordinary, but even beyond that, what\u2019s just as commendable is your enthusiasm about wanting to become capable leaders when the world is in greater need than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to the Pandemic: \u2018A Real-Time Case Study\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

While the Change Project Day normally would have occurred on the UConn Storrs campus, the coronavirus impacted that as well as the program\u2019s spring semester, including the launch of UCAPP 3.0, the third-generation design of the program.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cDue to the pandemic, our students had to deal with significant changes to their personal and professional realities in addition to managing the demands of UCAPP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Richard Gonzales, Director, Educational Leadership Preparation Programs<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

UCAPP had redesigned its program, introducing changes that went into effect this past July, through a nationwide $48.5 million four-year partnership program<\/a> funded by the Wallace Foundation. UConn is one of seven universities participating in the initiative, aimed at improving training for aspiring school administrators. As part of UCAPP 3.0, students will now have leadership coaches guiding them in planning and strategizing their change projects. The coaches, like the program\u2019s mentors of the past, will continue to be selected from among current and retired principals and school administrators.<\/p>\n

In response to the pandemic, all UCAPP courses continued without interruption, shifting to a distance-learning format. Instructors adjusted syllabi to incorporate discussions about leadership in K-12 public education in the face of unprecedented change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crisis served as a real-time case study for analysis, discussion, and reflection,\u201d says Gonzales.<\/p>\n

The bigger change occurred in the area of the practicum, or internship.\u00a0With schools closed, Year 2 students who presented in April could not bring closure to their school improvement initiatives (i.e., change projects). As a result, some students had to report limited, or \u2018in progress\u2019 outcomes, according to Gonzales.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leadership coaching also shifted to a distance-learning format.\u00a0As with the coursework, UCAPP leadership coaches used examples of school\/district responses to the crisis as a case study for discussion about effective school leadership practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the pandemic, our students had to deal with significant changes to their personal and professional realities in addition to managing the demands of UCAPP,\u201d says Gonzales. \u201cSimilarly, our faculty (instructors and leadership coaches) had to plan to support student learning differently and use technology to teach online.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this happened within a few weeks, and it honestly went as smoothly and positively as realistically possible. This speaks to the high capacity, professionalism, character, and commitment of everyone involved,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Learn more about the University of Connecticut Administrator Preparation Program<\/a> (UCAPP).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neag School students completing the\u00a0UConn Administrator Preparation Program (UCAPP)\u00a0this spring presented their change projects \u2014 the program\u2019s signature capstone assignment, in which students identify a need or opportunity for school improvement and work toward positive change \u2014 during the 6th Annual Change Project Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":194693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2427,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1879],"class_list":["post-194692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-educational-leadership","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 08:39:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194694,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194692\/revisions\/194694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/194693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194692"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=194692"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=194692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}