Drawing upon an interdisciplinary knowledge base, the Master’s Program in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies (POLS) emphasizes the organizational and policy contexts of education – and the knowledge and skills needed to effectively lead complex educational organizations. The goal of the program is to prepare students to act as successful participants, leaders, and change agents in a range of educating institutions, including traditional, charter, and private schools, non-profit organizations, businesses, colleges and universities, and public sector agencies that provide support and service to schools, colleges, and universities.

POLS is a rigorous nine-month, full-time, program of study framed around several core courses and thematically clustered courses that can be tailored to suit students’ professional interests and institutional foci.  For example, some students may choose to focus on higher educational administration or policy development, while others may shape their programs of study to focus on educational entrepreneurship or leadership in non-traditional schools. Critical concepts embedded within the domains of policy, organization, and leadership are integrated throughout the core and elective courses of the POLS program thus providing a broad framework for understanding policy making and leadership tasks in complex educational organizations and systems.

The program builds on the expertise of the School of Education’s faculty in the core areas of policy, organization, and leadership studies as well as other relevant domains, such as cultural diversity and language acquisition, learning theory, youth development, methods of inquiry and assessment, and school reform. In addition, the design of the program enables students to benefit from a broad range of resources and course offerings from the wider University.

Interested in becoming an urban school principal? A new two- year program combines the Stanford Policy (POLS) masters with the administrative credential program developed by New Leaders for New Schools. Click here for more information.