Program Overview

Introduction to the Doctor of Education Leadership Program

The Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is designed to prepare transformative leaders in preK–12 education. The program aims to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, and expertise necessary to become system-level leaders in school systems, state and federal departments of education, and national nonprofit organizations.

Program Overview

The Ed.L.D. Program is a full-time, three-year program built on a cohort learning model. Each cohort consists of up to 25 students from diverse professional backgrounds, including district/charter management leaders, nonprofit directors, principals, teachers, and policy researchers. The program is taught by faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Curriculum Information

The Ed.L.D. curriculum is a balance of multidisciplinary coursework and practice-based learning. Core courses and electives are taught by recognized leaders from across Harvard’s graduate programs in fields like data-based education reform, organizational change and innovation, and effective leadership strategies for urban schools.

Year One

All students in the cohort take the same classes in four foundational content areas: learning and teaching, leadership and organizational change, politics and policy, adult development, and leadership inside and out (including one-on-one executive coaching). Courses taken during the first-year focus on practice-based learning and serve as the framework of the first-year experience.

Sample HGSE Courses

• Leading Change
• How People Learn
• Evidence
• Ed.L.D. Proseminar
• Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Learning
• Race, Equity, and Leadership
• Practicing Leadership Inside and Out
• Sector Change
• The Workplace Lab for System-Level Leaders

Year Two

Each cohort member works with program advisers to choose an individualized sequence of electives from any of the Harvard graduate schools. Students work closely with the program faculty and staff during their second year to determine the best match with a partner organization for their third-year residency.

Sample HGSE Courses

• Second Year Practicing Leadership Inside and Out
• Driving Change
• Education Sector Nonprofits
• Negotiation Workshop
• Coaching with Equity in Mind
• Ethnic Studies and Education
• Deeper Learning for All: Designing a 21st Century School System
• Institutional Change in School Organizations, Systems, and Sectors

Year Three

Students take part in a 10-month paid residency at one of the partner organizations. During the residency, students work on a strategic project that synthesizes their experience and learning into a written Capstone project.

Paid Residency

The partner organizations include school systems and departments of education, as well as some of the nation's most influential and dynamic nonprofit, mission-based for-profit, and philanthropic organizations.

Strategic Project

Students define a strategic project on which to focus, with supervisors from their partner organization. The project allows students to practice and improve leadership skills, add important value to the mission and strategy of the partner organization, work systemically, and hold high-level accountability.

Capstone

During the residency period, students produce a written Capstone. The Capstone is a descriptive, analytic, and reflective account of their third-year leadership contributions to a strategic project within an Ed.L.D. partner organization.

Program Faculty

Ed.L.D. students learn with renowned faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Kennedy School. Faculty from the three schools share their individual expertise in the Ed.L.D. Program and work collaboratively to provide a challenging and coherent experience for students.

Faculty Director

• Frank D. Barnes

Faculty

• Kathryn Parker Boudett
• Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell
• Jennifer Perry Cheatham
• Elizabeth City
• Candice Crawford-Zakian
• Marshall Ganz
• Adria D. Goodson
• Deborah Helsing
• Monica C. Higgins
• Deborah Jewell-Sherman
• Lisa Laskow Lahey
• Jal Mehta
• Mary Grassa O'Neill
• Irvin Leon Scott
• Catherine Snow
• Michael L. Tushman
• Martin West

Program Highlights

The Ed.L.D. Program prepares graduates to do work for the public good in the American public education sector, whether that be at the system or state level. The program is designed to accelerate the progress graduates make toward achieving meaningful impact in influential roles and/or crossing boundaries in the following spaces in the public education sector:

• PreK–12 district or CMO leadership roles
• Foundation/philanthropy roles
• Education nonprofit roles
• State or federal education leadership roles
• Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation roles

The Ed.L.D. Program is a unique opportunity for individuals who are passionate about education and want to make a significant impact in the field. With its multidisciplinary approach, practice-based learning, and renowned faculty, the program provides students with the knowledge, skills, and expertise necessary to become transformative leaders in preK–12 education.