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Professional Development
Ground your leadership in best practices and frameworks that empower you to lead schools that support excellence for all learners.
AASA members are eligible for an exclusive membership discount on this program. Please visit AASA's website for details.
Click here to inquire about a custom engagement for your organization.
Being a school principal means attending to a seemingly endless series of urgent tasks that can challenge your resilience and confidence. Given the complex nature of the job and its day-to-day demands, how can you find the time and space to envision a future for your school based on what you know excellence to be as an educator? And how can you develop a plan to implement that vision?
Achieving Excellence: Leadership Development for Principals (AEL) is designed to give school leaders a chance to step away from day-to-day challenges, deeply explore their values as educators, and build a concrete plan that centers those values for the benefit of their school communities. This six-day institute brings together new and experienced principals from across the country and around the world to engage in dialogue and define educational frameworks that empower school leaders, students, families, and staff.
During this in-person institute, you’ll learn new frameworks and approaches to help you refine your vision of excellence in education. Together with other leaders and Harvard faculty, you will reflect on the values that define your community. Then, you’ll use those values to shape your leadership plan and create educational experiences that support all learners by truly reflecting community interests, strengths, and needs.
Throughout the institute, you’ll engage with a problem of practice and participate in a consultancy exercise so you leave the institute prepared to enact new leadership approaches in your setting. You’ll work with experienced principal facilitators in small group discussions to explore ideas, reflect on how they relate to the needs of your school, and create a plan to implement them. As you do, you’ll build strong peer connections with other principals from around the world.
Pamela Mason focuses on the role of culturally sustaining pedagogy in promoting literacy achievement, literacy assessment, and the efficacy of reading specialists and literacy coaches.
This program welcomes applications from both individuals and teams. First-time applicants need to create a Professional Education account to apply.
Individuals: Click the "Apply" button at the top of this page to log into your Professional Education account and access the application page. Proceed with the individual form until submission.
Teams:
Step 1: Designate one participant or an administrative staff member as the Coordinator.
Step 2: Upon the submission of the team application, all team members will receive an email notification with a link to their personal application form. Team members should complete their forms promptly. Once all team members submit their forms, the application is considered complete and ready for review by the Admissions Committee.
Invoices: Invoices will only be available upon your acceptance.
The tuition covers all instructional materials, a daily continental breakfast, beverages, and light refreshments during our scheduled breaks between sessions.
Travel, lodging expenses, and most lunches and dinners are not included in this fee. We have blocked a limited number of rooms in select hotels in the Cambridge/Boston area. The daily rates for these hotels typically range from $250 to $375 per room, plus applicable taxes. Once your applicants are accepted into the program, they will receive detailed information about these hotel options.
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 do not affect an applicant's prospects for admission. You may access the tuition assistance application after you have submitted your program application. Tuition assistance applications should be submitted at least one month prior to the final application deadline.