Dr. Bradley R. Curs will be co-presenting a paper entitled HOPE for Access: Effects of Merit-Based Aid on Enrollment by Gender in a session on student financial aid policies.

José Muñoz will be presenting a poster entitled California’s Cal Grant Program and First Year Student Enrollment: An Examination of Racial Differences in a poster session.

Dr. Heather Mosley Linhardt will be presenting a paper entitled Building Instructional Capacity of Science Teachers Through Strategic Management of Human Capital in a session on school leadership and district structures for math and science achievement.

Haigen Huang will be co-presenting a poster entitled Principal Leadership and Teacher Professional Development: A Cross-Country Phenomenon in a leadership and professional learning poster session.

NPR story: Read the brief synopsis and hear the entire interview on the KBIA webpage.

Columbia Missourian: Read the article about the academic consequences of MU moving to the SEC.

Not surprisingly, professional development begins to fade as a priority when it changes so drastically from year to year and doesn’t take on a lasting effect, according to Dr. Carol Maher, an assistant professor of professional practice for MU’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.

“Main Event Management Corporation developed the system with 151 management models,” says Dr. Jay Scribner, professor and department chair of MU’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. “They function as guides to thought and action, and apply to both organizational leaders and staff members.”  “The models translate concepts into practical, operational tools,” says Maher. “They create a filing system that allows school leaders to quickly retrieve knowledge and communicate ideas by referencing shared images and words so that they can better understand one another.”

According to Maher, there is a myriad of professional development opportunities for teachers, but those opportunities are rare for administrators. Model-Netics provides a strong training opportunity for school leaders, including assistant principals, principals and superintendents.

2010 is the fourth year for instruction in Model Netics in the Columbia Public Schools District.  “Before Columbia would sign-on for the Model-Netics program, they wanted a guarantee that the after-hours training would be engaging, enjoyable and educational,” Maher laughed. “I think that’s exactly what they got.  Now, not only does the district has a common language and knowledge retrieval system, the network among leaders in the district has grown and is enhanced and strengthened.”

Model-Netics is designed to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency through management and organizational development.  There are several major benefits to Model-Netics, including the following:

• Manager Development. The Model-Netics models enable managers to organize and control their accumulated knowledge and experience and apply them to the practice of management – in real-time.
• Organizational Development. Model-Netics is designed to be taught to all members of an organization. Model-Netics provides personnel throughout the organization with an understanding of management concepts and practices, and a common understanding of how organizations work.
• Communication. Model-Netics provides a common management language for use by everyone in an organization.
• Culture Building. Model-Netics provides a framework for building and maintaining a performance culture in the organization.

If your school and/or district leaders would be interested in benefiting from such an engaging and useful training, contact Dr. Carol Maher at maherm@missouri.edu for more information.

To begin improving your team and to better understand the level of dysfunction you are facing, ask yourself these simple questions:

Do team members openly and readily disclose their opinions?

Are team meetings compelling and productive?

Does the team come to decisions quickly and avoid getting bogged down by consensus?

Do team members confront one another about their shortcomings?

Do team members sacrifice their own interests for the good of the team?

Although no team is perfect, and even the best teams sometimes struggle with one or more of these issues, the best schools constantly work to ensure that their answers are “yes.” If you answered “no” to many of these questions, your team may need some work.

Striving to create a functional, cohesive team is one of the few remaining competitive advantages available to any school looking for a powerful point of differentiation. Functional teams avoid wasting time, talking about the wrong issues, and revisiting the same topics over and over again due to lack of buy-in. Functional teams also make higher quality decisions and accomplish more in less time and with less distraction and frustration.

Participant Outcomes

• 1. Participants will understand the weaknesses of team dynamics and how to overcome them
  2. Participants will create an action plan that will help develop roles of the Leadership Team
  3. Participants will increase leadership skills and communication practices

Contact Jill Dunlap at dunlapedvisions@gmail.com to learn more about this professional development opportunity for your district!