Ed.D. in Educational Administration & Leadership, 2007
School of Education
November 1, 2007
Ed.D. Graduate Robert Pletka Advances to Superintendent of El Centro Elementary School District
In 2003, Robert Pletka joined the inaugural cohort of the CSU/UCI Joint Ed.D. program in Educational Administration and Leadership. He chose as his emphasis area Educational Technology Leadership, offered in collaboration with partnership campus Cal Poly Pomona. The emphasis suited Robert’s professional interests. He was employed as Director of Technology for the Covina Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) and an Adjunct Professor at National University, teaching multimedia, Internet, networking web design, educational technology and telecommunications.
Prior to joining CVUSD, Robert taught 3rd, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District. He has summarized his classroom experiences and his evolution as an educator in his most recently published book Educating the Net Generation (Santa Monica Press, 2007). (It should be mentioned that while he was teaching in Lake Elsinor, Robert also served as City Commissioner for the City of Murrieta from 1993 to 1997.)
Educating the Net Generation emerged from the doctoral research work Robert conducted, in part for his dissertation, but also to implement his vision of how to engage high school students in an extended cross-discipline learning activity. For his research Robert secured corporate, community, and educator support to provide 2000 students from 30 diverse schools throughout California with 200 digital cameras and professional support for documenting life in their high schools. The culminating projects were a presentation at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts and publication of My So-Called Digital Life.
Shortly after the Digital Life project received national attention, Robert was offered and accepted the position of Associate Superintendent of Vista Unified School District in Southern California, which led two years later to his current position as Superintendent in El Centro.
The Department of Education is proud of Robert’s accomplishment and of his commitment to improving educational opportunities for California youth.