Naci Karadeniz has been in education for twelve years as a teacher and wants to expand his skills into educational leadership to better impact students and the community. He enrolled in the Educational Leadership program at American College of Education to gain the skills to become an effective school administrator. Some of his goals are to motivate and encourage stakeholder involvement, recognize student diversity, use research-based practices for evaluation, increase parental involvement, involve stakeholders in decision-making, and efficiently manage time. He believes the program will provide him with the necessary skills and understanding to achieve these goals and be a successful leader.

1. Running head: INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PROFILE
Individual Student Profile
Naci Karadeniz
American College of Education
October, 2016

2. INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PROFILE 2
I have been in education for twelve years now. I believe I did a good job in teaching and I
was an effective teacher. I impacted on my students and I contributed to their learning and
achievement. I started thinking about leading not only students but also teachers, parents, and
the community so I would expand my skills and start a new journey. When I started the
Educational Leadership Program over one and half year ago, I didn’t have any idea of the
meaning of a true leader. It’s been eight years that I have been working in the same school and I
was lucky to have great administrators to inspire me and let me decide a future administrator.
Professional developments are good but not enough to become a worldwide administrator and
have a vision on education. That’s why I wanted to start my journey in American College of
Education in Educational Leadership program to become an effective school administrator to
impact on education.
One of my goals is to motivate and encourage stakeholders to involve them in education.
Students are essential to reach this goal. Teachers have their own teaching styles, skills and
philosophies to teach. My observation and experience are that to recognize all type of learners,
motivate and encourage students to learn. According to Irvin (2007), “Classroom environments
and teacher actions can sustain and encourage, or undermine, student motivation and
engagement”. My second goal is to recognize diversity at my school. Diversity is important to
be recognized at the school level not only by some teachers. There are diverse learners at any
place in learning environments and those must be recognized and get equal opportunities.
Whatever I do to achieve my goals, I need to use research-based practices, measure and evaluate
how I am doing. One of the ways for evaluation that I like is surveys. Both paper and online
surveys in multiple languages would be ideal to analyze the results. I also talk about
interviewing and taking notes for the evaluation.

3. INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PROFILE 3
Parent and community involvement is also challenged for most schools and it is a big
problem in our school. School should increase collaboration with parents by organizing school events.
(Epstein, et. al. 2002). I gained a lot of skills with the Educational Leadership program and I made
a goal for the place I work which is a Title I school. I have already started using technology to
involve my parents and all stakeholders and they are all happy to see a significant increase in
parental involvement. I am now able to have front office send voicemails to all stakeholders in
multiple languages. I made my goal at the beginning of the program and now I am seeing I am
almost there.
Another goal that I set with this program is to involve all stakeholders in decision-making
process. Prior to starting the Educational Leadership Program at American College of
Education, I used to think to make a decision at the admin level. After taking the classes and
support from the faculty, I learned that I must include students, parents and community
members. Evidence-based practices help me to have a better understanding of the concept. So, it
is my goal to make sure to include learners in this process to increase the student learning and the
achievement.
My final goal with Educational Leadership program is to use the time efficiently and
meet all required expectations. I think it is important to set this as a goal in student level and
staff level as well. As I wanted to be an effective leader, time management and getting things
done on time is highly important and will help everybody to meet the required tasks. This must
be addressed in student assemblies and teacher PLC meetings to impact on education.
I would like to conclude that I want to achieve my goals that I set for this program.
Encouraging and motivating learners to learn, involving parents and community in the decision-

4. INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PROFILE 4
making process and using time efficiently to meet the required deadlines are important or an
effective Educational Leaders. Also, recognizing the diverse learners to maximize their skills is
key to have a better understanding to expand their skills for the achievement. According to
Kruse (2006), “Children with different backgrounds may be at varying levels of development
depending on their culture’s beliefs, practices, educational philosophies, and parenting styles”. I
understand that there are challenges, and difficulties that I am going to face but I am now
confident with American College of Education to provide me the required skills to be successful.
I am also happy to explore and deepen my understanding of the new Professional Standards for
Educational Leadership in this process.

5. INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PROFILE 5
References
Epstein, J., et. al. (2002). School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for
Action, Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
Irvin, J. (2007), Taking Action on Adolescent Literacy, retrieved from:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107034/chapters/student-motivation,-
engagement,-and-achievement.aspx
Kruse,T.S. (2006). Multicultural programs. Ypsilanti, MI: High Scope Press.