The Cooperative Superintendency Program (CSP)
During the last two decades, the public’s outcry for more and better accountability of public education has brought about significant change in the state and federal laws that govern our public schools. This statutory re-definition of what is to be expected of public schools, how educational services are delivered and how the effectiveness of such services get measured has led to a widespread acknowledgement of the need for significant educational reform. Consequently, America’s schools have been in the midst of a reform-minded environment affecting all levels of the public education system.
The implications for the roles and responsibilities of educational leaders have been significant. These forces of change have caused major re-thinking in the manner in which we view the traditional structure and organization of public schools, and the management and accountability for the appropriated resources. Today, the roles and responsibilities inherent in executive educational leadership positions require individuals who possess skills, knowledge, and experience to provide direction within dynamic and complex organizations.
The Cooperative Superintendency Program (CSP) at the University of Texas at Austin is at the forefront of preparing executive level educational leaders to meet the ever-changing needs of today’s public education system, striving to maintain its position among the top-rated superintendency preparation programs in the nation. The CSP seeks to attract persons with outstanding professional readiness and preparing them for executive level leadership positions, which include: (1) superintendents of school districts, (2) chief executives in state education agencies, (3) directors in education service centers or laboratories, and (4) executive level management posts in large cities or suburban districts. Other career goals may appeal to graduating Fellows, but the four noted above dictate program content; most notably superintendency preparation.
The CSP Fellow as part of a Legacy
Over 350 Fellows have completed or are in the process of completing the program. CSP graduates are counted among former U.S. Department of Education Asst. Secretaries; Texas Commissioners of Education; higher education faculty; former (25) and current (42) superintendents in Texas and other states, such as Oregon, Missouri, Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and California; school district central office administrators; and campus administrators. In the State of Texas, during any given school year, the breadth and depth of the impact of the CSP Fellows is felt by over 40% of students enrolled in its public schools.
The CSP Fellow as Scholar
The CSP is designed as a 27-month program of studies, with a new cohort of CSP Fellows inducted each June. The CSP is a full-time program with intense study and reflection by Fellows, providing many opportunities to develop as scholar-practitioners.
The CSP program of studies is designed as follows:
| Summer I (June/July) | 12 credit hours | |
| Year 1 (Fall Semester) | 15 credit hours | |
| Year 1 (Spring Semester) | 15 credit hours | |
| Summer 2 (June/July) | 3 credit hours | |
| Year 2 (Fall Semester) | 6 credit hours | |
| Year 2 (Spring Semester) | 6 credit hours | |
| Summer 3 (June/July) | 6 credit hours | |
| 6 credit hours _____________ |
(Elective courses to be completed sometime between Summer 2 and Summer 3) |
|
| 69 Total Credit Hours | ||
The CSP encourages didactic teaching and learning for its Fellows. Core courses include: Ethics and Values in Education; Organizational Design and Behavior; Social Cultural Contexts in Education; Educational Policy and Politics; and Educational Economics and Finance. Research Courses include: Introduction to Human Systems of Inquiry, Program Evaluation, and Qualitative and Quantitative Research design. Courses specific to the superintendency include: Superintendency Seminars and Internship; Administrative Theory and Practice; Instructional Leadership; School Restructuring and Renewal; Special Populations; Data-Driven Decision Making; and School Law.
University professors representing every area of study represented on the University of Texas at Austin campus enhance the CSP with supplemental course offerings, as well as offering service on CSP Fellows’ doctoral treatise committees. The doctoral treatise design and development are high-standard endeavors, which provide CSP Fellows with the opportunity to engage in research focused to address a unique problem pertinent to the superintendency, and which will uniquely add to its associated body of knowledge and literature. Upon successful completion of the program, the Fellows emerge with an earned University of Texas Ed.D. degree in Educational Administration as testimony to high order professional and scholarly attainments.
The CSP Fellow as Practitioner
A variety of opportunities are provided throughout the CSP for each Fellow to acquire competencies and experiences that match that student’s interest, background and unique composition of strengths and weaknesses. Beyond routine tasks, each Fellow is able to pursue projects and assignments, which expand the Fellow’s competencies and contribute significantly to the assigned organization and to the education of the children of Texas.
The Cooperative Superintendency Program provides the doctoral student a variety of special field-based learning experiences. Throughout the first two years of the program the fellows are expected to participate in major professional educational conferences and in the initial fall semester they will be paired up with a mentor superintendent who is also an adjunct faculty member of the department.
Other learning opportunities include professional visits to and observations in a representative sample of school districts; various training and consultation roles with school boards, superintendents, administrators and teachers; and familiarization with significant professional organizations and individuals in education at state and national levels.
While the CSP is a full-time program of studies, class schedules are organized to allow Fellows to maintain their current full-time professional positions. A combination of traditional coursework, independent directed research, and field experiences provide rich opportunities for CSP Fellows to balance theory and practice, as well as develop higher order thinking and decision making skills.
The CSP Fellows
In tandem with the University of Texas at Austin, the CSP acknowledges that while we take pride in our well designed and executed program, and our nationally recognized faculty, true success of the CSP is measured in great part by the quality of its Fellows. The CSP seeks Fellows who possess the desire and aspiration to be among a select group of world-class educational leaders, as well as possess the incumbent capacity to successfully complete an intensive and rigorous doctoral program of study.
Program provisions rest upon assumptions that CSP candidates:
- Represent broad ranges of experiences and high levels of expertise
- Demonstrate evidence from previous positions in education of a commitment to student learning
- Demonstrate a command of the foundations of professional knowledge and skills requisite for mid-management administrators acquired from university graduate study (usually 45 hours or more) and field experience
- Possess a sheer intellectual prowess and curiosity sufficient to engage in scholarly and clinical-setting acquisition of professional knowledge and value-commitments
- Are equipped to grow professionally and rise dramatically high in leadership positions
- Exhibits a style of performance that evokes acceptance by others, including being creative, and task-oriented, and open to new ideas and change
- Possess sufficient confidence needed to invest twenty-seven months of professional and family life in the stressful and consuming endeavor
- Aspire to be a Superintendent
- Strongly desire to be a Fellow in the Cooperative Superintendency Program.
These profile components are dimensions along which candidates display their relative readiness to pursue superintending in the real world of public schools.
CSP Fellow Candidate Nomination
The search for candidates is vigorous. More than 800 nominators from Texas and other states will be helping identify talented, prospective candidates for the next cycle. Candidates may be nominated or may nominate themselves. We make great efforts to obtain a large, diverse pool of applicants. Nomination forms can be submitted online using our electronic Nomination Form or request for a form to be mailed may be made by contacting the CSP Administrative Assistant, Ann Reed, via email at: ann.reed@austin.utexas.edu
Each nominee is solicited to become a candidate.
Timeline: Nomination, Assessment and Acceptance
ACTIVITY |
DEADLINE |
| Complete NOMINATION FORM online or request form | November 1 thru January 2 |
| Submit Completed PORTFOLIO | February 1 deadline |
| Complete UT Graduate School application | February 1 deadline |
| Complete GRE exam (if most current scores are older than five years) | February 1 deadline |
| E-mail notice sent to those selected to attend CSP Assessment Center | February 5 |
| CSP Assessment Center | Last Saturday in February |
| E-mail notification of acceptance or rejection into the CSP | Second Saturday in March |
| CSP Commences | First Monday in June |
Additional helpful information on Graduate Admissions can be found at
http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/admissions/
Apply to the Graduate & International Admissions Center (GIAC) using the online application (Texas Common-Online). (US Graduate) The application deadline is February 1. Go to: https://www.applytexas.org/adappc/gen/c_start.WBX?s_logon_msg=Y
Please address all correspondence for the Cooperative Superintendency Program to:
Dr. Rubén D. Olivárez, Ph.D., Director
Cooperative Superintendency Program
Department of Educational Administration
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, D5400
Austin, TX 78712-0374
Or if to the EDA Graduate Advisor:
Dr. Martha N. Ovando, Ph.D., Graduate Advisor
Department of Educational Administration
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station, D5400
Austin, Texas 78712-0374
