What You Will Learn

Expand your leadership skills, explore new ways to enhance student learning and create success for yourself and your school.

Program Overview

Today's school leaders struggle to balance their roles as instructional leaders with the many other demands of the job. Through Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership, participants will develop their leadership skills, efficacy and ability to support teacher development and student achievement. Participants will also expand their understanding of leadership and explore multiple approaches for addressing leadership challenges.

This institute will help you identify areas of school improvement, establish priorities, develop strategies and build a base of support around a change initiative. You will explore successful models for school improvement, learn how to lead and manage change and understand how to implement curriculum innovation. Through research-based curriculum, you will focus on effective supervision and evaluation, approaches to solving leadership challenges with a focus on U.S. settings and how to best support teaching and learning. Upon completion of the program you will have examined your own leadership challenges in the context of instructional improvement and learned how to lead and manage your school more effectively.

Program Objectives

• Apply research and best practices in developing school improvement efforts focused on increasing student achievement
• Develop an understanding of how adult learning and teacher development contribute to school improvement
• Shape a school culture that supports learning for all
• Implement an effective process for supervision and evaluation of teachers and other instructional staff
• Learn techniques for managing change

Who Should Attend

• School leaders in the early years of their careers seeking improved leadership skills and a more focused approach to classroom practice
• New principals or educators in leadership positions with five years or less experience in their roles, including assistant principals, teacher-leaders, instructional leaders and curriculum specialists

Faculty Chair

Pamela Mason is Lecturer on Education, the Director of the Masters Program in Language and Literacy and the Director of the Jeanne Chall Reading Lab at HGSE. Mason served for 10 years as a reading/language arts curriculum director and for 19 years as an elementary school principal in the Boston area. She is president of the Massachusetts Association of College and University Reading Educators (MACURE) and was past president of the Massachusetts Reading Association. She collaborates with colleagues nationally and internationally on preparing reading specialist teachers, implementing literacy coaching developing school leaders and evaluating school-wide literacy programs.

Additional Faculty

Samuel Betances, Senior Diversity Consultant, Souder, Betances & Associates

John Collins, Founder, Collins Education Associates

Hunter Gehlbach, Assistant Professor of Education, HGSE. Gehlbach is an educational psychologist with an affinity for social psychology. His interests lie in improving educational settings through enhancing the social interactions of teachers and students.

William Henderson, Former Principal, Boston Public Schools

Jeff Howard, Founder and President, Efficacy Institute

Robert Kegan, William and Miriam Meehan Professor in Adult Learning and Professional Development, HGSE. Kegan is a psychologist who teaches, researches, writes, and consults about adult development, adult learning, and professional development. His work explores the possibility and necessity of ongoing psychological transformation in adulthood; the fit between adult capacities and the hidden demands of modern life; and the evolution of consciousness in adulthood and its implications for supporting adult learning, professional development, and adult education.

Kim Marshall, Coach, New Leaders for New Schools

Susan Moore Johnson, Jerome T. Murphy Professor in Education, HGSE. Johnson studies and teaches about teacher policy, organizational change, and administrative practice. A former high-school teacher and administrator, she has a continuing research interest in the work of teachers and the reform of schools.

Irma Tyler-Wood, Partner, Ki ThoughtBridge

Enrollment Instructions

Applicants are responsible for submitting a supplemental essay with their online application.

Admission decisions are mailed three weeks after complete application materials have been submitted.

Participants will be selected based upon the match between their stated objectives and the goals of the institute. To maximize the learning experience, the institute aims to bring together as diverse a group as possible.

Fees

The comprehensive program fee includes all sessions, instructional materials, refreshments, special events, certificate of participation and a letter indicating clock hours of instruction. Payment (or a purchase order) must be received within 30 days of admission.

Payment or a purchase order is due 30 days after admission. Participants are responsible for their own travel expenses.

Cancellation Policy

Cancellations must be submitted via fax or email. Full refunds will be given up to 30 days prior to the start of the program. Due to program demand and pre-institute preparations, cancellations received 14 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of 10% of the program tuition. Cancellations received within 13 days prior to the start of the program and no-shows are subject to the full program tuition. Please note: cancellation fees are based upon the date the written request is received.

Since the Harvard Graduate School of Education is not responsible for non-refundable travel arrangements or other expenses incurred, it is recommended that you not make lodging and travel arrangements until you are admitted to the program. The Harvard Graduate School of Education reserves the right to change faculty or cancel programs at its discretion. In the unlikely event of program changes, the school is not responsible for non-refundable travel arrangements or other planning expenses incurred.