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Further information: Contact John McAndrew
Public Relations Office, (570) 208-5958
October 14, 2019 - The King’s College Education Department has added a K-12 Principal Certification Program that will begin with course offerings in January. The course requirements were approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education in August.
The 18-credit program will begin with two eight-week online courses during the spring semester. Each participant cohort group will follow the same class sequence and complete the course requirements in two years. Upon completion of the program, candidates take the School Leadership Licensure Assessment for Principal Certification (PRAXIS). The program is open to candidates with a minimum of three years teaching experience.
The program consists primarily of five three-credit online courses which each include 20 hours of field experience. Following the completion of the five courses, the remaining requirements are three one-credit Practicum courses consisting of a total of 260 hours of supervised experiences over the course of 12 months. The experiences will be divided equally between elementary, middle and high school. Total required supervised field and intern experience time will be 360 hours.
“All of our instructors are practicing local administrators and legal experts and our courses focus on their real-life experiences,” said Dr. Denise Reboli, chair of the King’s education department. “Our instructors do not offer ‘canned’ online courses. The courses have been developed in collaboration with our practicing school-based instructors connecting the Pennsylvania Department of Education competency expectations and how they translate to the day-to-day operations of schools. Our program’s emphasis will include instructional, management, and fiscal responsibility frameworks. We believe that the instructors in our program provide a strong foundational base as well as a practical application of competencies.”
The first course, “The Principalship,” begins Jan. 11. The course is an overview of the principal’s role in relation to leadership, supervision, organization management, and community interaction. The course will be taught by well-known and respected local educator, David Tosh, Director of Curriculum, Instructional and Pupil Services K-12 for the Wyoming Valley West School District. Tosh has served as an assistant principal and a principal at the elementary through high school levels for Wyoming Valley West and has been a faculty member for the Curriculum and Instruction master’s degree program and Professional Development Center at King’s.
The second course for the spring semester will begin March 7. “Principles of Instructional Supervision” will be taught by Leeta Dennebaum, a middle school assistant principal for the North Pocono School District. She has also served as a Supervisor of Curriculum and acting elementary principal in the Forest City Regional School District, a Curriculum Specialist for the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit 19, and an instructional mathematics literacy coach for the Scranton School District.
The remaining three-credit courses in the curriculum are School Improvement, Law & Education, and Financial Management.
Tuition for the Principal Certification Program is competitively priced at $385 per credit.
To register or for more information, contact Christine Stevens, director of graduate admission, at (570)208-5991 or christinestevens@kings.edu, or visit www.kings.edu/GradEducation.