The Master of Education in Educational Leadership with Principal certification is a 30-hour non-thesis program. The program is composed of 27 hours of specialized preparation for TExES certification and 3 hours of AEL/T-TESS certification or an elective. If a student demonstrates sufficient proficiency, course substitutions may be approved by the Master of Education Program Director. Substitutions must meet State Board for Education Certification (SBEC) requirements. Students who meet additional state criteria will be qualified to sit for the state Principal TExES exam. Upon completion of the program, passage of the Principal TExES exam, and specific state regulations, the student will be qualified to apply for state Principal’s Certificate.

ADMISSION

There are no additional requirements other than those required for admission to the graduate program at DBU.

PROGRAM CONTINUANCE

Continuance in the program past the first 12 hours is pending submission of a satisfactory score on the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) or Graduate Record Examinations® (GRE®).

A waiver of the GRE or MAT requirement may be considered if the student meets one of the following conditions:

• earns an “A-“ or higher in each of the first four courses (12 hours) of graduate coursework in the DBU College of Education, or

• holds a Bachelor’s degree from the DBU College of Education earned within the past five years with a cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher, or

• holds a Master’s degree from DBU.

PREREQUISITES

Entrance requirements for graduate programs in the College of Education must be met, including having at least two years of credible teaching experience in an accredited K-12 public or private school by the time the candidate has completed the necessary coursework and is ready to take the appropriate certification examinations. A copy of the teacher candidate’s service record will be required to substantiate the teaching experience requirement prior to recommending the teacher candidate to register for the state certification examinations.

Principal Certification 

CORE COURSES

Note: The State Principal Certificate qualifies an individual for the Principalship in grades Pre-Kindergarten through Twelve and for almost all positions in the central administration office except the Superintendency. The certificate requires the completion of a master’s program, two years of successful teaching experience in an accredited public or private school, and the passing of the Principal TExES exam.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION GRADUATE DEFENSE OF DEGREE

Because of Dallas Baptist University’s quest for meaningful assessment of graduate candidates, a defense of degree is required in all College of Education Graduate Programs. The defense of degree is a capstone collection of signature assessments and artifacts with reflections that demonstrate a candidate’s personal growth, development, and acquisition of knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

A digital format will be utilized by the candidate to enhance the presentation and to justify why the degree should be awarded to the candidate. The candidate’s formal defense will be presented to members of the Educator Preparation Board and will take place on the main campus each semester.

It is recommended that candidates attend a Defense of Degree workshop held each semester. It is also the candidate’s responsibility to schedule a meeting with their designated program director who will provide additional information regarding objectives, service-learning, artifacts, reflections, presentation format, and evaluative criteria and scoring.

Candidates must register for the Defense of Degree course as prescribed in their degree plan during the semester in which they will present their defense of degree to the Educator Preparation Board. The EPB is a group of experienced and widely successful educators from Dallas Baptist University and the Metroplex. Practicing teachers, administrators, consultants, superintendents, guidance directors, personnel directors, and Educational Region Service Center personnel, as well as DBU professors and administrators, volunteer their time for this highly selective process. The Educator Preparation Board serves as the College of Education Graduate Programs’ advisory board and meets three times a year to assess graduate candidates’ defense of degrees.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION GRADUATE E-PORTFOLIO

Dallas Baptist University’s educator preparation programs strive to provide a quality learning experience that enables all candidates to impact EC-12 learning. The E-Portfolio is designed to be an individualized collection of documents to prepare the candidate for future positions; demonstrate the candidate’s ongoing knowledge, skills, experiences, and dispositions; and provide the candidate with the opportunity for self-reflection. All graduate candidates are required to compile and maintain an electronic, developmental E-Portfolio. There are three types of documents that must be included in the E-Portfolio: required documents, foundational elements, and competency artifacts. Throughout the program, the candidate will collect these documents and upload them to their designed TaskStream account.

The organization of E-Portfolio is governed by the State Board of Educator Certification standards and competencies, DBU/InTASC competencies, and DBU’s Educator Preparation Provider competencies in addition to specific field of study competencies.

The E-Portfolio will be used to assess your development as you proceed through your designated program. Candidates who do not have all required documents and “signature assessments” uploaded into TaskStream will not be allowed to proceed to the next level as designed by these Transition Points:

• Transition Point One: Requirements for Program Admission

• Transition Point Two: Requirements for Program Entrance

• Transition Point Three: Requirements for Program Continuance

• Transition Point Four: Requirements for Program Completion

• Transition Point Five: Requirements for Program Evaluation

It is the candidates’ responsibility to meet with their designed program director and/or advisor to discuss the E-Portfolio required documents, checkpoint scoring, foundational elements rubric, and the competency artifacts rubric.

Non-Certification Degree Track in Educational Leadership

The Master of Education in Educational Leadership Non-Certification degree is a 30-hour non-thesis program. The program is composed of 21 core hours and 9 hours of specialized preparation electives. This degree is available only to students who are not seeking Texas State School Principal Certification. A completed non-certification agreement form is required for participating students.

The following are the courses in the non-certification track:

(S-L)=Course(s) with field-based service-learning component.

Refer to individual course descriptions for course requisites.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Find course descriptions by category under the Graduate Course Descriptions section in the navigation panel.