By Matt Thomas
One of the funniest commercials I enjoy watching this time of year shows a dad taking his children to an office supply store to buy school supplies. The commercial’s humor isn’t related to what you see but rather what you hear. The “soundtrack” playing is Andy Williams’ famous Christmas song, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” As the song continues…with kids jingle belling and everyone telling you be of good cheer…you see the dad gliding through the store throwing just about everything he can in the cart while the children disappointingly follow behind. It still makes me laugh out loud.
But, yes, it’s the start of another new school year and it really is one of the best times of the year. At Baylor, our campus is teeming with life; coffee shops are full, students are rushing to class, parking is at a minimum, and an overall excitement is in the air.
The new year also allows me to share some exciting updates about Baylor’s Center for School Leadership (BCSL).
Baylor University is the only Protestant Research 1 university in the world.
Since attaining this research status in 2021, Baylor has enjoyed the unique benefits of being one of the nation’s top research institutions as a doctoral university with very high research activity. Now being situated within a Christian research institution, the BCSL is more equipped than ever to work with PK-12 schools, Christian organizations, colleges, and faculty from other Christian universities to better realize our mission of becoming the most influential Christian leadership catalyst for educators in the world. When you work with the BCSL, you can be confident that you are partnering with leaders, resources, expertise, and scholarship at the highest level with a distinctly Christian voice and mission.
BCSL increased its research and professional capacity through affiliations with scholars, fellows, and a growing advisory board.
The landscape of education is rapidly increasing which means the work is plenteous and outpacing what any single team can do alone. While partnerships can be limiting, the BCSL is committed to sharing resources, knowledge, expertise, and research with Christian scholars and organizations who participate in Kingdom-minded work. This new season is marked by the addition of 18 Scholars who will collaborate to initiate, publish, and maximize their scholarly output of research, 7 Fellows who are practitioners currently serving in the PK-12 space. These skilled facilitators provide professional learning focused on role-specific leadership development in the context of a network-based learning environment, and a growing Advisory Board of nearly two dozen Christian leaders who serve as a trusted group to the BCSL team.
Master of Arts (MA) in School Leadership enrolled 57 leaders.
The MA in School Leadership is the largest Master’s program in Baylor’s School of Education and serves leaders from 10 states. Our students enjoy learning from our faculty who represent some of the best educators in the country. Cohort 3 is already beginning to fill up. We’re on our way to surpassing our goal to equip 120 emerging and practicing leaders through this program by 2025.
This update is an invitation for you to join the work where you can. We’re seeing an overwhelmingly positive response from Christian educators who are interested in good work being done more than credit being given, or who are looking for a place to do meaningful work in an environment where that good work is celebrated and shared for the glory of God.
Over the next several weeks, you’ll hear from our team about how we hope to contribute to the growth and improvement of Christian education by supporting leaders, schools and Christian organizations.
Soli Deo Gloria