Education Leadership (33 S.H.)
The Masters of Education Leadership is designed for teachers and other professional staff in birth-12 schools who want to develop their leadership capacities as productive change agents and supporters of school-wide initiatives through the promotion of continuous improvement strategies and effective administrative practices.
Education professional who enter this degree program are the leaders and future leaders of our schools. They are distinguished from other educators, in part, but their willingness to take a more active role in the decision-making processes that occur at their schools.
Students in the Masters of Education degree program may choose one or two paths. One path leads directly toward the (post-masters) K-12 principal licensure. Elective coursework is directly related to K-12 principal preparation.
The other path allows students who are not interested in becoming a K-12 principal to focus elective coursework on his or her professional interests and aspirations (e.g., student services, curriculum and instruction, educational technology, student assessment, team leader, mentoring, school business management, early childhood education, alternative education, charter leadership, community relations, and so forth).
Graduates provide leadership in their school building or program. Often this means they become:
- Team leader
- Curriculum and instruction
- Educational technology
- Student assessment
- School business management
- Alternative education such as charter leadership
- Student services
- Dean of students
Capstone Writing Requirements
Candidates must write a significant research paper or master’s thesis to show proficiency in research and writing at the graduate level. The topic and proposal for this paper is initiated in LDRS 618 - Scholarship and brought to completion under the guidance of a capstone/thesis advisor. Guides for form and style are available from the Department of Leadership Education.
Non-Thesis Option - student completes LDRS 618 - Scholarship and writes the paper under the guidance of their capstone advisor.
Thesis Option - student completed LDRS 618 - Scholarship , takes LDRS 699 - Master’s Thesis (Thesis Advisement Credits) , writes the paper under the guidance of their thesis advisor, and defends their research to a faculty panel.
