M.Ed. in Educational Leadership (Online & In-Person)
Earn Your Master of Education in Educational Leadership (EdL) & Preliminary Administrative Services Credential (Optional)
Transform Yourself To Transform Education
The global education community is in dire need of visionary leaders who possess courage, self-awareness, and understanding of deeper learning pedagogy. Together with our K-12 school network, High Tech High and the GSE are globally recognized for project-based learning and advancing equity and justice in education. Engaging in transformative work means developing leaders are crucial in guiding schools and educational organizations to address the pressing challenges of our time. As such, we empower our candidates to establish environments where every child in every neighborhood actively participates in a democratic process that is grounded in principles of justice and educational equity.
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What sets us apart
96 SCHOOLS
In addition to developing teacher leaders and school leaders for the 16 High Tech High schools, the EdL program has developed leaders for 80 external schools.
50%
Nearly 50% of EdL students identify as people of color — 2.5x the national average for school leaders. Over 95% of alumni hold leadership positions as executive directors, principals, deans, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders.
10 OR 20 MONTHS
Options for working professionals to earn their degree in 10 months or 20 months either online or an in-person residency with a school leader in one of the 16 High Tech High schools in San Diego.
About the Program
The Master’s in Educational Leadership program is designed to help educators strengthen the skills, mindsets, and tools to lead for justice and deeper learning. Our program believes in the connection of theory and practice, and it is perfect for those who are ready to commit to self-development within a dedicated learning community. Therefore, it is uniquely created for educators with at least three years of experience working with students, practitioners, or in the greater field of education. Likewise, about 40% of candidates enrolled in our program already hold a Master’s Degree or higher. Moreover, our commitment to theory and practice is reified through our practitioner faculty who serve as educational leaders outside of instructing our courses. All of our courses are designed and taught by education leaders from around the nation, and educators from our very own HTH K-12 schools.
The EdL Program provides candidates with three pathways for earning a master’s degree. The first is a full-time, 10-month residency program at one of the 16 K-12 High Tech High Schools. The second and third pathways are almost exclusively online, completed in either 10 or 20 months with a required one-week immersion course at our San Diego campus in August.
ONLINE PATHWAYS: A NEW OPTION FOR EDUCATORS
The HTH Graduate School of Education also wants to ensure that educators like yourself don’t have to leave their communities to pursue their graduate degree. That’s why we launched our online pathways!
The online program offers a unique High Tech High GSE experience consisting of meaningful engagement with faculty and inspiring peers from all over the world, as well as membership in a lifelong network of leaders in the deeper learning education movement. The program is career-embedded, so you can apply and reflect on what you are learning to the work you’re doing in your own context. Due to the practice-based nature of the program, the best fit candidates are actively working or volunteering in an educational context at least part-time.
Our program launches with a one-week immersion course at our San Diego campus, where you will take a deep dive into project-based learning pedagogies and build community with your cohort, and the remainder of the program takes place online.
In the EdL program, students gain an appreciation that ushering in an era of transformational education will require collective action from leaders in school systems and education-focused organizations.
HTH RESIDENCY PROGRAM
Our 10-month in-person residency program will match you with a school director or teacher-leader in one of the 16 HTH diverse-by-design, K-12 project-based charter schools. As a Resident, you will be pushed to your growth edge and asked to make significant contributions to your school community while also being supported in your learning. As such, the residency is designed to provide you with professional mentoring, practical experience with project-based learning, and an expert community of practitioners to help guide you in your leadership journey.
ALUMNI OUTCOMES
Graduates of our program are prepared to lead the following roles:
School Leadership roles: School Principal/Director, Assistant Principal/Dean, Instructional Coach, Teacher Leader
School District or CMO leadership roles: Directors of Curriculum and Instruction, Program Manager, Program Director, Executive Director of Professional Development, Chief of Staff, Chief Operation Officer, Director of DEI
National Education Non-Profit roles: Executive Director, Deputy Director, Education Director, Managing Partner
While about 60% of our alumni have plans to immediately pursue leadership roles, many of our alumni are simply interested in deepening their pedagogy and leadership skills in their own classrooms, and continue in traditional teaching roles.
Launch Date
Duration
Format
Engage with GSE Admissions
1 on 1 Call
Meet with our Admissions Manager to discuss more program details, learn how you can prepare your application and ask any questions specific to your personal journey
Info Session
Sign up for our mailing list to receive the full recording and slide deck for our last information session.
We are now accepting applications for our Fall 2025 cohort. Please take a moment to review our application guide for more information about our Admissions process, and submit your materials by our priority deadline on December 1.
Applicants interested in pursuing the optional Preliminary Administrative Services Credential (PASC) offered through our partnership with the San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) should refer to the admissions process here. Please note the PASC admissions process is separate from admissions to the GSE. Join our mailing list for more information!
All Candidates:
- For K-12 educators and leaders, at least three years prior teaching experience is strongly preferred
- For educators and leaders working in the education ecosystem (non-profits, start-ups, etc.), at least three years prior work experience designing and facilitating learning is strongly preferred
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Earned BA/BS from a regionally accredited university with a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0. Applicants with a GPA below 3.0 are encouraged to include an explanation of their academic qualifications within the initial application form.
- The GRE is not required for admission to the HTH GSE
Additional Requirements for International Candidates:
- If you’ve earned your degree outside of the United States., the transcript must be evaluated for equivalence by World Education Services, Inc. (WES) or Educational Perspectives with a Course-by-Course Report.
- The program requires a strong command of written and spoken English prior to entry. Applicants whose primary language is not English are required to achieve the following scores on either the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or The International English Language Testing System (IELTS):
- TOEFL minimum scores: 550 on the paper-based version, or 216 on the computer-based version, or 80 on the internet-based version (iBT). TOEFL scores must be no more than five years old at the time of application. You can request that your scores be sent directly to the institution through ETS by entering the school code B433 when requesting your test scores.
- IELTS minimum score of 7.5 on the Academic Module with individual section scores (e.g., reading, writing, listening and speaking) of at least 7.5.
- If you attended a four-year undergraduate institution in the U.S. and successfully earned your Bachelor’s degree, the language testing requirements will be waived.
- If applying as an international student, the HTH GSE is approved to offer F-1 visas. You can find more information about studying in the U.S. and applying for the F-1 visa here.
Program Tuition: $20,000 (The tuition is the same across all three pathways)
Available Aid
Fellowships:
Diversity Fellowships are available to all students. For our purposes, diversity includes, but is not limited to, culture, socioeconomic background, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, and life experience.
School Teams Scholarship
As part of our efforts to catalyze and sustain change in schools, we are excited to offer discounted tuition to teams comprised of at least two aspiring leaders from the same organizational context. Scholarships between $1,000-$3,000 will be awarded to each candidate.
Federal Student Aid:
EdL students are eligible to apply for federal financial aid. Aid consists primarily of William D. Ford Federal Direct Loans (Unsubsidized), Federal Graduate PLUS Loans, and Federal Work Study. Degree-seeking graduate students are eligible for federal financial aid if they:
- are enrolled in 4.5 or more units per term,
- meet the HTH GSE’s Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) policy,
- are in good standing with prior federal loans,
- are citizens of the United States (or eligible non-citizens)
Please review the Financial Aid FAQ’s for more information. To apply for aid, follow Steps to Apply for Financial Aid.
Living Stipends
Students enrolled in the 10-month residency pathway may receive an additional living stipend for the duration of the program pending confirmation of school site placement. Payments will be disbursed according to the three academic terms with funding released for Fall Term: mid-August, Winter Term: early December, and Spring term: early March.
Core Courses
Throughout your first year, you and your cohort will participate in seven Core courses that cover competencies we believe all educators should have.
- Immersion Week: Core Values and Foundations: Delivered in person at the GSE in San Diego, this course prepares candidates to lead for deeper learning by introducing seminal topics, foundational critical pedagogy texts, and project based learning as we build a trusting and connected community of learners.
- Leading for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: In this course, students develop as leaders for DEI through action and reflection at the personal, interpersonal, institutional and structural levels.
- Cultivating Conditions for Deeper Learning: This course builds the capacity of school leaders to design for transformational learning environments by cultivating the conditions that lead to Deeper Learning.
- Facilitating Adult Learning: This course examines the levers of environmental architecture, professional learning, and one-on-one coaching that school leaders utilize to support adult learning.
- Positive School Culture/School Law: In this course, students examine how educational and constitutional law intersect with the development of positive school culture.
- Financial Resourcing for Equity: This course provides students with an understanding of education funding and explores how leaders leverage budgets for equity by collaborating with diverse stakeholders.
- Leading Innovative Schools: This course interrogates the conditions of “innovation,” the future of education, and the change leadership required to create, redesign, and lead transformational learning.
CAPSTONE
The “Inquiry to Practice” Master’s Capstone series spans three terms (Fall, Winter and Spring). In this series, students lead change by applying the principles and tools of human centered design and continuous improvement to collaborate with colleagues, students and families to disrupt predictable patterns of success and failure, and meaningfully and measurably improve teaching and learning.
LEADERSHIP COURSES
Examined Leadership: The central focus of “Examined Leadership” is to support you in your continued development towards deepening self-awareness, furthering the ownership of the self, and activating courageous leadership. This course is designed with the guiding principle that leaders must engage in a quest toward a more critical view of themselves and the world and should include themselves in the “change equation.”
Culture, Conflict and Conversations: This course is designed to support candidates in developing and deepening their practice as antiracist educators working in culturally and linguistically diverse learning environments. Candidates build their capacity in culture building, conflict comprehension, and engaging in courageous conversations.
Leadership for School Change (Residency Program Only): This course supports Residents’ leadership development as they explore what it means to be an effective leader and analyze the intersection of theory and practice at their High Tech High School site. The residency provides a disruptive experience for reimagining school– ideas for inspiration and iteration, not replication. Residents will have ample opportunity to observe, practice and reflect on effective leadership by engaging in three Leadership projects over the course of the year (one per term).
San Diego County Office of Education
Candidates can complete their Preliminary Administrative Services Credential through our partnership with the San Diego County Office of Education by adding an additional course of study (11 Saturdays) to the EdL program. Please note the PASC admissions process is separate from admissions to the GSE. Contact us at gseadmissions@hightechhigh.org for more information.
Our Team
Tim Warren
Practitioner Faculty
John Diaz
Practitioner Faculty
Mackenzie King
Practitioner Faculty
John Bosselman
Practitioner Faculty
Paul Yumbla
Practitioner Faculty
Nicole Hubbard
Improvement Facilitator
Charity De La Rosa
Program Manager
Kevin Bryant
Practitioner Faculty
Angie Guerrero
Practitioner Faculty
Carolene Joy Cabrera King
Practitioner Faculty
David Trautman
Practitioner Faculty
John Santos
Practitioner Faculty
Rachel Wegner
Practitioner Faculty
Brittney Quinones
Recruitment & Outreach Manager
Anna Champion
Financial Services Manager
Francesca Henderson
Director, M.Ed. Educational Leadership
Jorge Cabrera
Practitioner Faculty
Katie Weisberg
Practitioner Faculty
Kelly Wilson
Dean
Melissa Daniels
Director of Leadership Development
Michelle Pledger
Director of Liberation
Address
Office of Admissions
High Tech High
Graduate School of Education
2150 Cushing Road
San Diego CA 92106
Contact
Contact us if you have questions about any of our programs.
(619) 398-4902