Lessons Learned: A326 Final Project

Three students in Senior Lecturer Katherine Merseth's course, School Reform: Curricular and Instructional Leadership, recently produced a video reflecting on lessons learned in the class. The popular course focuses on school reform policy from the perspective of the classroom, school, and district, specifically by looking at leadership and pedagogy and a deep investigation into the purpose of schools.

For a final assignment, Merseth asked students to design a project of their own choosing to demonstrate an understanding of the various stakeholders in school reform, the variety of efforts currently being used to improve schools, and specific leadership acts taken to implement these reforms. Ed.M. students Diego Vallejos, Ayelet Ronen, and Maggie Ward created a 13-minute video featuring an artistic and verbal rendering of their views on the purposes of schools.

The goal of the video is to illustrate students’ beliefs and perspectives, an awareness of others’ beliefs and knowledge, and an understanding of strategies and approaches in school reform.