School Leadership

Curriculum

All students in the School Leadership program must take a total of eight courses (32 credits).

All students must enroll in A-310D: School Leadership-Pre-practicum module, which typically begins the second week in August, in addition to two year-long core courses, A-328: Proseminar: School Leadership and T-330: School Instructional Leadership: Seminar and Practicum. All students are required to fulfill a half-time practicum requirement in a district, pilot, or charter school.

Please view the Program Description page for an in depth description of each strand.

Principal Licensure Strand

A-310D: School Leadership Pre-practicum (summer)
A-328: Proseminar: School Leadership (year-long)
A-341: Supporting Teachers for Instructional Improvement (fall)
T-330A, T-330B, or T-330C: School Instructional Leadership: Seminar & Practicum (year-long)
A-210D: Schools and the Law Module (spring)
Additional 2.5 courses

For more information on requirements for Principal Licensure, please visit our Licensure website.

School Development Strand

A-310D: School Leadership Pre-practicum (summer)
A-328: Proseminar: School Leadership (year-long)
A-341: Supporting Teachers for Instructional Improvement (fall)
T-330A, T-330B, or T-330C: School Instructional Leadership: Seminar & Practicum (year-long)
Additional 3 courses

SLP students must obtain a minimum of 32 credits in order to graduate. Besides the required courses, students must elect additional courses to complete the required number of credits. Students may elect a combination of modules (2 credits) and half-courses (4 credits) to meet this requirement.

Strongly Recommended SLP Related Courses:

A-027A: Managing Financial Resources in Nonprofit Organizations (fall)
A-111J: Critical Issues in Special Education Policy and Practice
A-117: Implementing Inclusive Education (fall)
A-122: The Why, What, and How of School, Family, and Community Partnerships
A-205: Microeconomics
A-310E: Leadership for Instructional Improvement (2 credit module)
A-310G: Datawise: Using Data to Improve Teaching and Learning(2 credit module)
A-506: Teachers' Unions and School Improvement
H-310M: Establishing Safe Spaces for Adolescent Learning: Preventing Bullying and Victimization (2 credit module)
S-011: Understanding Today's Educational Testing
T-006: Adult Development (spring)
T-210X: Foundations of Urban Education

Those in the Principal Licensure Strand will be particularly interested in:

A-129: The Federal Government in the Schools (spring)
A-312: Systematic Reform in Urban School Districts and Schools (spring)
A-326: School Reform: Curricular and Instructional Leadership (fall)

Those in the School Development strand will be particularly interested in:

HBS 1602: Entrepreneurship in Education Reform (taught at the Harvard Business School; winter/spring)
A-320: Building a Democratic School (spring)
A-327: Charter Schools: Threats or Opportunities for Public Education? (spring)

Cross-Registration

Many HGSE students choose to take courses at other Harvard graduate schools (aka, cross-registering), including the Harvard Business School (HBS) and the Kennedy School of Government (HKS). Harvard's schools operate on different schedules. Therefore, remain mindful of school's individual calendars and deadlines: start of classes, vacations, and exams.
For more information about cross-registering at other Harvard schools, please visit the Cross-Registration website.