Certificate in Advanced Education Leadership (CAEL)

About CAEL

Advance your leadership skills and prepare to make an impact as a preK-12 education leader. This is an online certificate program with significant job-embedded learning.

“CAEL participants have the opportunity to make changes to their own practice, reflect on their experience with a professional learning community, receive feedback from an experienced facilitator, and further refine their practice. This kind of immediate application and impact is powerful.” — Elizabeth City, Faculty Chair for CAEL

Overview

The Certificate in Advanced Education Leadership (CAEL), based on the groundbreaking Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, provides current and aspiring education leaders with an innovative and flexible online learning experience that develops a robust understanding of the complexities within educational systems, while honing the leadership skills to create transformational change. 

Led by HGSE faculty members, CAEL offers five distinct 12-week online modules which may be taken separately or pursued as a certificate. Participants who wish to earn the certificate must complete the Leading Learning module and can select three of the remaining four modules to complete within 24 months of beginning the program. Leading Learning can be taken at any point within the certificate timeline, and you can begin with any module and complete modules in any order.

The five modules in the CAEL portfolio are:

• Developing Myself
• Driving Change
• Leading for Excellence and Equity
• Leading Learning (required module for the certificate)
• Managing Evidence

Program Details

The experience is designed to be both rigorous and flexible. The activities are asynchronous, allowing you to choose when within a given week you complete them. Each week will require 5-7 hours of work, with more guided work during "learning" weeks (weeks 2, 3, 4, and 8) and more job-embedded practice and application during the remaining weeks. Each participant will have a designated online learning facilitator to contact directly for support.

Earning the Certificate
Following the successful completion of four modules, a final assignment will be required to receive the Certificate in Advanced Education Leadership. This final assignment provides an opportunity to reflect on the CAEL journey and to look forward, considering opportunities for further application. The assignment for the final reflections (which is required but not graded) will be sent to qualifying participants after they have earned their fourth module certificate.

Pursuing HGSE Graduate Credit
Participants admitted to complete CAEL modules for graduate credit will complete a specialized version of the final activities during weeks 9-12. Participants should estimate an additional five hours of study during that period.

Schedule of Offerings

Who Should Participate

CAEL is intended for current and aspiring leaders in preK-12 school systems, including:

• Superintendents and district-level administrators
• Directors of charter management organizations
• Administrators at state agencies
• Experienced principals and teachers who aspire to system-level roles
• Teams of education leaders seeking to strengthen their skills and collaborative capabilities
• Educators are encouraged to apply as teams to increase their impact

Taking CAEL Modules as a Team
Taking this course as a school-, district-, or organization-level team is a powerful way to enact a collective impact on learning in your system. You can tackle a more significant problem of practice by engaging and collaborating in this material as a team. By identifying unified goals and objectives together, you can collectively apply what you learn as you learn — not only enhancing your team's toolkit but also establishing a throughline and transformed learning culture.

Your team will work on a single, shared problem of practice across the 12 weeks, submitting a single midterm and final project that represents your collective effort. Along the way, you will also have the chance to submit individual assignments where you engaged in personal learning.

English Language Proficiency Requirements

English language proficiency is a requirement for application to and successful participation in this online course. All participants are expected to have fluency in English, including a basic knowledge of education terminology, in order to effectively engage with the content, complete assignments, and interact with other members of the learning community.

Fees & Policies

Tuition includes all instructional materials. Participants receive a certificate of competency as well as a letter confirming the amount of clock hours awarded per module (60 hours). CAEL does not provide course hour equivalents.

Full tuition is due by the indicated payment deadline, please refer to the individual program’s community and application page for payment deadlines. While a purchase order confirms enrollment, full payment is still required by the final payment deadline. Please note that failure to pay by the payment deadline will result in your withdrawal from the program.

Please click here for more information on payment, refund, and withdrawal policies. The Harvard Graduate School of Education reserves the right to change faculty or cancel programs at its discretion. The school is not responsible for any planning expenses incurred.

Tuition Assistance

Tuition assistance is available for this program on a need- and application-basis. Tuition assistance is granted based on participant and institutional needs. Requests for tuition assistance have no effect on an applicant's prospects for admission. You may access the tuition assistance application after you have submitted your program application.

Closed Captioning and Accessibility

This online course consists of a combination of both pre-recorded videos and live web conferences. The majority of our pre-recorded videos are closed-captioned and accompanied by PDF transcripts. For live events, we will arrange for captioning services upon your request. Please email us at ppe@gse.harvard.edu if you require these accommodations. If possible, requests should be made at least a week in advance. Please note: we will make every effort to secure services, but all are subject to availability.