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Program Home ¤ Degree Description

Aspiring school leaders pursue coursework and skill development at Teachers College, Columbia University over two summers and undertake site-based research projects and internships at their schools of employment during the intervening year.  The cohort program allows them to balance full-time employment with graduate study drawing on a diverse group of talented educators whose obligations preclude them from attending courses during the traditional 15 week semester or for whom distance is a barrier to attendance.  The program is 36 credits, is completed in two consecutive summers, and leads to a M.A.or M.Ed. degree and School Building Leader Certification in New York State (New York has reciprocity with many states.)  Housing is available for those who require it. 

Applications for the 2009 cohort are now being accepted. The Application Deadline is February 1, 2009. 

We are pleased to announce that Summer Principal Academy students qualify for Americorps Funding. In collaboration with the Peace Corps Fellow Program at Teachers College, students enrolled in the Summer Principals Academy and who serve in high needs schools qualify for $9,500 in tuition awards through Americorps. The Summer Principals Academy is the first principal development program to receive this support. Americorps stipends are limited to two lifetime awards and can be used to defray the cost of tuition or student loans accrued during the course of studies in the Academy.

The Public School Summer Principals Academy integrates practice and skill development with theory and research using case studies and simulations and teamwork. Aspiring school leaders are encouraged to construct transforming possibilities for student learning, school improvement, social equity, and opportunity.  We foster leadership development through an integrated set of experiences that include sound theoretical and "best practice" knowledge, problem-based coursework and field-based experiences, including an intensive and extended internship.  The following seven statements represent the core values of the Public School Principals Summer Program:  

• Quality education and education leadership are central to promoting social justice and diversity and these values are central to ethical leadership;
• School leaders are responsible for nurturing not only the teaching and learning of all members of the school community but also for nurturing their own self-actualization and personal transformation;
• Skillful collaboration and team work are essential to foster quality schools;
• All aspects of leadership development and education will promote the practice of intellectually and ethically reflective leadership.
• Active, participatory learning rooted in actual school contexts, simulations, case-studies, and offering multiple opportunities to improve leadership skills is core to the curriculum; and
• Innovation and risk-taking play a key role in creating a vision and promoting educational change

The knowledge, skills and dispositions we seek to develop in the cohorts of students selected for the Public School Principals Summer Masters Program need to reflect and sustain these core competencies.  They are also substantially present in the guidelines developed by ELCC and New York State for the certification of school building leaders.  However, we seek to exceed the competencies of "good principals" and develop the intellectual, moral, and practical foundations that will permit principals of excellence to emerge.  Excellent principals are developed over many years in the cauldron of reflective school leadership.   The best academic programs support such emergence by providing a rich, complex and adaptive learning environment that mimics closely the actual competencies required and provides frequent and prompt feedback  The Summer Principals Academy provides exactly that kind of environment promoting respect for, and encouragement of cohort participants as they seek to become the best leaders they can be. 

The cohort model offers two intensive summer courses of study for six weeks each (12 credits per each 6 weeks) , a three credit Program Development course that uses a mixed delivery (online  and  including a winter call back workshop), as well as continuous support for students throughout their academic year (including the 6 credit public school leadership internship). The schedule supports the reality of aspiring principals who are currently working teachers, team leaders, department chairs or supervisors who cannot afford to leave their schools or programs to attend full-time.   The summer academic schedule is Monday-Friday, 8:15- 4:00 PM.  For first year students, Introduction to School Leadership is offered in the morning and Adult Learning for School Leadership in the afternoon during the first three weeks.  Mediation and Conflict Resolution is offered in the morning and Supervision of Learning in the afternoon during the second three weeks.  Nine credits occur via non-traditional venues including distance learning, site based experiential learning and written exchanges with faculty via student e-portfolios.

E-portfolios using an electonic platform are a central component of each student's experience in the program.  A special fee of $75 provides provides students with a license so that their portfilio will be active for three years after graduating from the program. Copies of student work, exemplars from projects and case analyses, the internship, personal and professional vision statements, and other documents will be on-going representations of student accomplishment.  All faculty teaching in the program will be proficient in the use of e-portfolios and will contribute to student progress through them by evaluating their work, providing additional perspectives, pointing out opportunities for personal and professional growth and mentoring. 

Information on this course of study can be found by clicking the course of study outline link to the right. Please note: the information contained in the course of study outline was approved by the New York State Department of Education in the summer of 2004.  It is the most current statement of the academic requirements for this course of study.