Clarification for MOA Draft

Here is a correspondence that will help clarify many of your questions regarding the draft of the MOA. Remember that the draft need not be posted to ClassWeb but should be prepared in anticipation of the Friday, July 14th event when we invite your cooperating administrator and coach to campus to work with you. Please make three copies of your draft to bring to the event on the 14th.

Here is the email exchange:

Dear Professor Richards,

My name is Ann Fraioli and I am in the 2006 SPA cohort. I was looking over the MOA example that Prof. Haferd sent out in preparation for the first day of classes and I found I had a couple of questions.

First, much of the sample MOA seemed relevant for the work I will be doing. Is it expected that the MOA is totally in our own words and style or are we only supposed to change small pieces so it fits our situation?

Secondly, I wasn't sure to what extent the coach should be involved in drafting the MOA. I had a meeting with my coach, Vi Abbott, and my cooperating administrator this week. We met for about an hour and talked about a lot of different things, but didn't get much time to spend talking specifically about the MOA. Should I meet with Ms. Abbott again before the first day of class to work on the MOA? Can I draft it myself and meet with her on July 14th? Finally, should the MOA be posted to ClassWeb or should we just bring our draft to the first day of class?

I hope spring has been treating you well, and that these questions are not too much of a burden.Thank you for your time. I look forward to seeing you on the 24th.Ann.


Hi Ann:

Let me see if I can answer your very good questions. I expect others have similiar questions so I'm ccing Tom so he can make sure these answers get forwarded to the rest of the cohort.

(1) its perfectly fine to use the structure and content of the previous exemplars for your own MOA, understanding that you may need to make modifications to be responsive to your own local ecology.

(2) Please note that the exemplar does not include the pincipal shadowing activity since this is a modification in the internship from last year based on feedback from coaches and the founding cohort. We will provide you with more structure on how to accomplish this part of the MOA this summer.

(3) The structure for the fifth project (the elective) is also highly adaptive to the local circumstances of your school but your MOA should include a description of the following elements: (a) Purpose of the project; (b) expected outcome; (c) time commitment; (d) resources/skills required to accomplish and alignment with ELCC standards (e) description of how you will document progress; (f) final assessment and reflection on the project.

(4) Coach is exactly what the title means. He or she is an highly seasoned expert in school leadership who has demonstrated a capacity for leading schools over an entire career in most cases. In short, your coach is the most important friend you have in the program because he or she knows what it will really take to be highly successful in developing your leadership skills. Use your coach to your advantage. They want to consulted, asked for advice,and provide guidance. Believe me, they are thrilled to do it. Furthermore, they will be honest with you about whether your proposal is doable, will lead to a successful internship experience or not.

(5) Bring the draft of the MOA to the meeting on July 14th. No point in posting it yet since you will inevitably be making revisions. Nonetheless, the more work you put in early consulting with both coach and principal, the closer you will be to having it in order.

I hope I have addressed your questions clearly. Please let me know.

Warm regards, Craig

Craig E. Richards
Professor of Education & Chair
Department of Organization and Leadership Teachers College, Columbia University
(212) 678-3420
cer8@columbia.edu