Goals
Our goal is to help you build leadership skills by creating models of leadership and learning, helping you develop sharpened abilities in both areas. Specific goals of the online Master’s in Educational Leadership Program include:
A leadership model that is thoughtful and reflective and in which candidates create optimal conditions for teaching and learning by collaborating with constituencies and applying research tools, inquiry methods and change theory to strategic planning.
A leadership model that is collaborative, valuing inclusiveness, teamwork and information sharing.
A leadership model that confronts ethical, social, and fiscal demands while remaining grounded in knowledge of teaching and learning.
A learning model that focuses on the implementation of organizational change through the growth and development of all stakeholders.
Who Should Apply?
The Educational Leadership Program is ideal for public and independent school teachers who have a desire for advancement and are able to manage the simultaneous demands of work and school. They may identify with Mills’ strong emphasis on public service and may have an interest in effecting change through work with nonprofits and other community-based organizations.
Degree Requirements
Coursework
We believe that our students’ ideas have the power to change the world. Relevant subjects, challenging discussion and creative approaches to coursework will help you hone your skills and solidify your ideas. You will tackle and solve real-world problems while developing new ways of thinking, both academically and creatively.
Across all courses and professors, our curriculum is grounded in a coherent vision of educational leadership. Courses may include:
In this course, you will address the realities of curricular planning in a system that privileges standards and testing above holistic intellectual and social emotional development. Through extensive reflection, readings, analysis, observation and collaborative discussion, you will strategize new ways to design teaching so that it reaches the whole student, increasing their options in school and after.
According to the most recent NCES teacher attrition survey, approximately 16 percent of teachers change schools or leave the profession each year. In this course, you will learn how the handling of evaluations, feedback, and professional development can create or destroy the culture of a school, and you will activate the necessary skills to become an effective human resource manager.
Evaluation is a stalwart of education, but it is not an unbiased process. In this course, you will learn to approach evaluation as a tool for framing pain points and devising interventions, while addressing the messy and ambiguous problems you might encounter in a system with numerous stakeholders.
Educational leaders must understand the ways in which race and ethnicity operate in our schools and in our communities at large. In this course, you will engage in research, self-reflection and group discussion about critical issues surrounding race and ethnicity, interrogating power dynamics in your own and other educational settings and creating an action plan for positive change.
Educational change-making is most effective when community participants are drawn into and included in the action inquiry process. In this course, you will learn the why, what and how of Participatory Action Research (PAR), a mode of inquiry that respects the situated knowledge of local informants to equalize power relationships between the researcher and the researched.
Premised on the belief that the issues confronting urban schools are inextricably linked to key issues in society, this course will prepare you to articulate your own mission and purpose as a leader in this setting, examining the complex challenges found in urban schools in the context of social, political, and economic conditions at the local, regional and national levels.
In this course, you will examine moral and ethical questions in order to critique conceptions of community, equity, diversity and democracy, and you will consider the moral and ethical implications of programs and policies as you develop your own strategic institutional vision in a larger context of predominant theoretical and philosophical approaches.
Acknowledging the reality that our students may face or have faced war, poverty, abuse, neglect, chronic illness, loss of a loved one, drug addiction, or any other number of negative experiences in their K-12 years, this course will challenge you to address issues surrounding trauma and social-emotional learning in public schools to develop a trauma-informed approach to educational leadership.
In this course, you will draw from theorists including John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Sylvia Ashton-Warner to unpack global educational trends in the context of today’s shifting technological and political paradigms. Engaging in a think tank with fellow professionals, you will then apply learnings to construct your own ideal 21st-century learning environment.
With an underlying philosophy that strong leaders are by nature reflective, this culminating experience will ask you to create a professional portfolio based on self-assessment, personal goal setting, and discoveries made throughout your graduate studies. You will demonstrate your readiness to embrace lifelong professional development by articulating your vision for education and your placement within that vision.
Career Services
While enrolled, you will be encouraged to use our full complement of career services, including:
- Individual career counseling with career assessment
- Resume review, cover letter preparation, and mock interview practice
- Managing your online presence
- Internship and job search postings
- Workshops, presentations, and - information sessions
- Networking opportunities with employers and alumnae
- Resource library