Applicants for the K12 School Leadership M.Ed. program must meet the following minimum requirements: 

• GPA of 3.0 or higher;
• current Utah Professional Educator License;
• minimum three years' experience as a licensed educator (teacher, social work, counselor, etc.) in a public, charter, or private school.

  Apply Yourself Application Link

IMPORTANT:  Under the Program Information section on the AY application, first choose your program of interest, which is Educational Ldrship & Policy MEd. Then choose your area of emphasis - K12 School Leadership.

Please upload the following under the appropriate sections on the Apply Yourself application:

SPECIFICS TO ELP DEPARTMENT ADMISSION INFORMATION

1. WRITTEN ESSAYS - PLEASE RESPOND TO AND UPLOAD ALL THREE PROMPTS! UPLOAD INTO WRITING ESSAY SECTION. LEAVE STATEMENT OF PURPOSE SECTION BLANK. IF SYSTEM WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO MOVE PAST WITHOUT UPLOADING SOMETHING, THEN JUST UPLOAD A FILE THAT SIMPLY SAYS “STATEMENT OF PURPOSE” INTO THAT SECTION.

Prompt #1:  Explain why you have chosen school administration as a future career path.  Describe how you have demonstrated your leadership potential as an educator.  Include why the University of Utah program is the best fit for you.  Please limit your response to 300 words or less.

Prompt #2:  Describe a time you intentionally designed a powerful learning experience for students.  How did you design this experience and what were the results?  Please limit your response to 300 words or less.

Prompt #3: Describe a specific situation where you have demonstrated leadership as an educator that furthered equity and inclusivity/diversity within schools. How did this experience illustrate your potential as a social justice advocate?  Please limit your response to 300 words or less.

2. RESUME.

Submit a resume that outlines your educational professional history.  Be specific in the roles you have had that demonstrate leadership potential (i.e. experiences as department chair, committee chair, specialist assignments, professional development leader/coach, etc.)

3.    RECOMMENDATION FORMS.  

Request that letters of recommendation be submitted through AY.

1) a confidential letter of recommendation from your current supervisor.

2) in addition, two other letters of recommendation from either a supervisor (current or previous) or a professional colleague.  All letters will need to address your leadership capabilities and potential.

4. CURRENT COPY OF YOUR EDUCATOR EVALUATION AND COPY OF CURRENT UTAH PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR LICENSE (OUT OF STATE LICENSES ACCEPTED). PLEASE EMAIL THESE TWO DOCUMENTS DIRECTLY TO MARILYNN HOWARD AT MARILYNN.HOWARD@UTAH.EDU.

 PLEASE NOTE:  We do NOT require a GRE test score.

SCREENING INTERVIEW

selected applicants will be invited to a zoom based screening interview

Applicants are responsible to ensure that all application materials are provided on or prior to the application semester deadline. Applications that are incomplete at the application deadline may not be considered.

If you have questions or concerns at any time please contact the program director, Dr Shari Fraser at 801.581.6714 or shari.fraser@utah.edu

The K12 School Leadership master’s degree is a four semester program for experienced educators seeking a career in school administration.  The program provides future school administrators with the knowledge and skills essential for today’s leadership in K12 schools. 

ELP 6020 Systems Thinking and Student Support
This course solidifies students’ leadership perspective with adopting and developing the thinking and practices of systems and supports. Specific systems will include Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for behavior and academics, school wide behavior management system (PBIS), teacher support, and a school wide culture that supports these systems.

ELP 6120 Evidence Informed Leadership for Learning
The ability to “use data”—to gather, organize, analyze, and present data to plan, execute, and monitor school improvement—is increasingly recognized as a critical skill for education professionals. This course is designed to help education leaders learn the basic concepts of data literacy, applied data analysis, and data-informed decision-making to lead data use and equitable improvement planning within their organizations.

ELP 6230 Ethics, Law, and Policy
This course provides an introduction to the legal principles and laws affecting the administration and management of K-12 schools with an emphasis on special education law and policy.  The course will focus on the interplay of legal and ethical decision-making within leadership practice.

ELP 6250 Leadership for School Improvement
This course focuses on understanding and developing leadership knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to promote change in K-12 educational organizations, including school improvement tied to accountability policies. This course assumes that school improvement and organizational change seek to build equity and justice (or dismantle systemic injustice and inequities). The content of the course includes perspectives that inform how practitioners collaborate to design and plan organizational change, use a research base on implementation and effectiveness of previous change initiatives, respond to conflict about and resistance to change, build organizational capacity, and sustain people through change processes in the long-term.

 ELP 6350 Leadership for Teaching and Learning
This course introduces students to concepts of instructional leadership with a concentration in applied practice in the areas of observation, evaluation and supervision. The intent of this course is to expose students to the theories, principles and practices of instructional leadership, adult learning theory and developing a positive, effective, school wide learning environment.

ELP 6412 Designing and Leading Professional Learning
This course prepares educational leaders to develop powerful, research-based professional learning opportunities to generate equitable outcomes for organizational change and school improvement. Students will experience professional learning designs as they learn to select, design, and facilitate learning opportunities for individuals and groups in their schools.

ELP 6420 Leveraging Educational Resources
This course is designed to prepare students to utilize, manage and administer educational resources at the school level.  Students will examine the trends, issues, scope and practices of school finance, personnel administration and time management.  A focus will be placed on understanding the analysis of issues involved in the alignment of a shared vision and the planning and strategies to guide educational resource allocation.

ELP 6511 Leadership for Equity and Social Change
This course will focus on the learning of concepts from social justice leadership and culturally relevant practice; and how application of these concepts can change the discourse and practice of school leaders to help create a shared vision of equitable schools that promote a school climate and culture that is safe for all student’s backgrounds.

ELP 6710 K12 Practicum
The Leadership Practicum is the fieldwork experience for administrative licensure candidates. It combines a hybrid model seminar with field experiences that supports progress towards completion of all components designed to meet ELP Department expectations and USBE School Leadership Licensure requirements.

Practicum

In addition to the required content courses, students in the school leadership licensure programs will have a hybrid practicum course each semester.  This will serve as the (fieldwork) experience for school leadership licensure candidates.  This course combines an individualized approach to field experiences with seminar and workshop support. The practicum experience supports the student’s progress towards requirements designed to meet ELP Department expectations and USBE School Leadership Licensure requirements.

 Practicum Course Format

Seminars, Workshops, Cohort Meetings
Seminars and workshops may include guest speakers, panel discussions, skills practice, network opportunities and sharing of developing and established school leadership expertise. Seminars, workshops, and cohort meetings will be scheduled during each semester.  Cohort meetings are for the purpose of updating all licensure students with current and relevant program information.

School Site Practicums
Each student will complete a total of ten days of school-based JOB SHADOWS during the program. Three days are to be scheduled at each of the elementary, middle, and high school level. Please note that it is expected that the job shadows occur during a regular school day. 

Leadership for Learning Guide
The Leadership for Learning Guide has been developed to support the school leadership licensure candidate to engage, observe, participate, and explore multiple tasks and activities that are required of school administrators.  These tasks and activities have been designed around the Utah State Standards for Educational Leadership. The student will use this guide as a self-paced learning project throughout the course of their program of study.

University Information

• Apply Now
• Graduate School Information 
• University of Utah Catalog
• University of Utah Academic Calendar

Department Information

• ELP Department Student Handbook