A helpful metaphor for visualizing the complexity of CAIS schools is to imagine a series of interlocking gears. The academic program is located at the center of this ‘machine’ with direct connections to school purpose, leadership, enrolment management, human resources, and facilities. Our schools are first and foremost learning institutions, and all leaders within CAIS benefit from understanding the challenges and opportunities within academic programming.
Module Overview
This module provides an overview of essential topics facing academic leaders in CAIS schools and how wider school structures connect with and impact the education program. While academic mandates and curricula differ by province, this module will identify the effective foundational traits in educational programming.
Learning Intentions
Participants will:
- Discuss the role of educational programs in school equity, diversity, and inclusion work
- Understand different models of division heads, department heads, and instructional leaders
- Learn how research can best inform professional learning for faculty
- Look at how educational leaders initiate, support, evaluate and sustain change in schools
- Discuss effective practices to support academic integrity
- Review the elements of proactive and effective faculty growth and development programs
- Understand the business pressures, hard constraints, and soft constraints in timetabling
- Appreciate the challenges of teacher training and retention within the independent school landscape in Canada
- Share ideas on the academic structures that support student mental health and wellness
- Consider how the science of the developing brain informs educational programming
CAIS 2021 National Standard Alignment
Close alignment will be made with the following CAIS 2021 National Standards:
- Standard 4 - Education Program Foundation
- Standard 5 - Learning and Teaching
Direct connections will also be made to CAIS 2021 National Standards:
- Standard 1 - School Purpose (e.g. academic mission and vision)
- Standard 2 - School Leadership (e.g. academic leadership structures)
- Standard 6 - Student Well-Being and Support (e.g. faculty involvement in academic and student support)
- Standard 10 - Human Resources (e.g. professional development for teachers)
Facilitator Biography: Constance McGuire
Constance McGuire is currently the Deputy Head of School at The Rosedale Day School. Prior to taking on this position, she served as the Director of Academics at Lower Canada College, following many years of teacher and leadership roles at international schools in Asia, South America, and Europe. With such a range of experiences at different educational institutions, she brings her expertise with a variety of educational programmes to this module. She is especially proud of leading LCC to receiving IB MYP authorisation during the spring of 2020, when doing things virtually was still new, in addition to LCC being the first CAIS school to receive dual accreditation from NEASC and CAIS.
Originally from Ontario, Constance went abroad to teach early in her teaching career. She married a fellow teacher and started a family that grew to include two daughters and a dog before repatriating everyone to Montreal, and then coming home to Ontario. Constance has a Bachelor of Arts, Honours degree from Queen’s University, a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Ottawa, and a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Oxford Brookes University, along with a number of AQs and the CAIS Leadership Diploma. She is also an associate member of the Ontario Principals’ Council. She loves to travel, read, and spend time in nature and with family, sometimes all at once.