Program Overview

Program Overview

The Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship (ELOE) Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is designed to help students become effective, strategic, and innovative leaders within the field of education. The program prepares students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to lead with impact in diverse roles, including preK–12, higher education, the nonprofit sector, government, and philanthropy.

Program Description

The ELOE Program is centered on the core belief that a connected, collaborative, and committed community of students, supported by faculty experts, and guided by the ELOE program model, will successfully transform the field of education across a variety of sector roles and careers. The program's curriculum is anchored in five core competencies:

• Lead change and think strategically
• Foster productive organizational conditions
• Navigate politics and practice political inclusion
• Communicate effectively
• Develop self and others

Curriculum Information

The ELOE Program is designed to provide a set of scaffolded learning experiences helping students to grow along the five ELOE core competencies, gaining the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to have impact in professional roles as education leaders, organizational innovators, and entrepreneurs. A minimum of 42 credits are required to graduate with an Ed.M. degree from HGSE.

Foundation Courses

The main elements of this academic year curriculum are:

• The Foundation courses — How People Learn, Evidence, Equity and Opportunity, and Leading Change — in which students gain core skills central to the profession of education.
  • This program commences with How People Learn, an immersive online course that runs June–July and requires a time commitment of 12–15 hours per week.
  • Students take a minimum of two additional Foundations courses in person:
    • Equity and Opportunity: Offered as Identity in Context in August or as an approved elective during the academic year
    • Evidence: Offered in August and January Terms
    • Leading Change: Offered during the Fall semester

Program Core Experience and Course Distribution

To fulfill the program requirement, students must take a minimum of 12 credits specific to ELOE, including:

• The ELOE Program Core Experience (4 credits) aimed at helping students explore and expand their understanding of the program’s core competencies in relation to their personal and professional goals.
• ELOE Course Distribution List (a minimum of 8 credits), which is a curated set of courses specializing in one or more of the ELOE core competencies. At least one selected course must fall on the ELOE continuum of field-based learning.
• The remaining credits are taken via elective coursework, which includes the opportunity to specialize in a Concentration.

Program Faculty

Students will work closely with faculty associated with their area of study, but students can also work with and take courses with faculty throughout HGSE and Harvard.

Faculty Chair

• Ebony N. Bridwell-Mitchell, Herbert A. Simon Professor in Education, Management, and Organizational Behavior, Faculty Chair, Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship (ELOE).

Faculty

A list of faculty members associated with the ELOE Program includes:

• Drew Allen
• Uche B Amaechi
• Bianca J. Baldridge
• Whitney Benns
• Candice Bocala
• Kathryn Parker Boudett
• Jennifer Perry Cheatham
• Elizabeth City
• Sarah Dryden-Peterson
• Hadas Eidelman
• Liya Escalera
• Shawn Ginwright
• Debbie Heller Goldstein
• Houman Harouni
• Monica C. Higgins
• James P. Honan
• Angela Jackson
• Robert Jenkins
• Raquel Lynne Jimenez
• Lisa Laskow Lahey
• Jaein Josefina Lee
• Karen L. Mapp
• Timothy Patrick McCarthy
• Richard Melvoin
• Sebastian Munoz-Najar Galvez
• Mary Grassa O'Neill
• Gabrielle Oliveira
• Francesca Purcell
• Alexis Redding
• Fernando Reimers
• Paul Reville
• Irvin Leon Scott
• Lynette Nicole Tannis
• Gillien Sarah Todd
• Christina "V" Villarreal

Career Pathways

The ELOE Program prepares students for a variety of career pathways, including:

• Education nonprofit leadership and management
• Education entrepreneur/organization founder
• College or university administrator
• School or district
  etwork leader
• Educational advocate and organizer
• Public official, administrator, city, state and federal government
• Education consultant, technical assistance and direct service provider
• Media, communications and public relations

Cohort & Community

The ELOE experience is not only about strengthening knowledge, skills, and dispositions but also about building a community of colleagues who can provide support during the program and for years afterwards as they work together to transform the field. The ELOE Program purposefully works to honor and build on the diverse backgrounds and experiences of students — from countries and regions around the world – by providing a varied set of cohort-based, community-building experiences. The aim of these experiences is to build a network of current students and future alumni united by a shared commitment to leading for excellence, equity, and impact in the field of education. In ELOE, the focus is on "One Cohort. One Commitment."