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Harvard Certificate in School Management and Leadership?

Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 7:35 am
by jdurey
As a teacher who one day aspires to become principal or HoS, would this certificate on its own be a sufficient qualification (years of experience, etc aside)? Or would I be better off getting a full-on MEdL from any other university? Link here: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/program ... ing-change

Response

Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 9:44 am
by PsyGuy
There are leadership at senior and executive levels that have bachelors degrees, though the pop.ed trend now is a doctorate.
The question is what do you want to really do, and whats the entirety of your professional growth pathway?

First, parsing the metrics, a Harvard certificate of this nature would be far more marketable than a comparable certificate from a non-global ivy.
If your goal is, 'Im an IT, Id like to relatively soon start to edge into leadership, and the biggest concern breaking into it, and Im willing to make significant sacrifices to do so', in that scenario, yeah there are ISs (lower third tier ISs) that will want to capitalize on your association with Harvard that would create opportunities that would not otherwise be available to you. Masters degrees, even in Ed.Ld arent rare in IE, lots of ITs have Masters degrees in various fields of edu, and there isnt anything setting them apart from other in terms of leadership potential. So yes a Harvard certificate, even being much less than a Masters has utility.
Much like a PGCEi though, you are going to come up against a wall as you climb tiers and transition positions, at a certain point your going to meet resistance and see diminishing opportunity based solely on this certificate.

If your goal though is 'I need to start somewhere, and this Harvard certificate while its a minor certificate allows me to take advantage of the Harvard association early, will put me in a position to better purse a full advanced degree from some none global ivy in the future', that certificate will align and compliment further work and studies as you move through leadership, than yes thats a very strong pathway.

If however your ask is 'can I save a bunch of time and resources and just use this Harvard certificate as the entirety of my leadership portfolio', than yes you can for a while at the early and lower stages of your career, and if you really build a solid and marketable reputation than you might never need anything else, but my coin would be against you. Whats going to happen is you might get the keys, with ownership thinking youll help get their kid, or some of their more prominent kids into Harvard, and then at the end of the year hen thats not going to happen, you better have added some real significant value elsewhere.
Can you say "Harvard" and have it do something for you, yes, but then you have do get the work and job done.

Re: Harvard Certificate in School Management and Leadership?

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:49 am
by jdurey
Thanks PsyGuy for the very helpful and well thought-out response. I will attempt to use the certificate to provide a foundation on which to build (perhaps landing an admin role at a lower-tiered school), and eventually hope to pursue an EdD, which will hopefully allow me to move into something more sustainable.

Re: Harvard Certificate in School Management and Leadership?

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 4:13 pm
by TeacherGal
I have a Master of Educational Leadership from the American College of Education. I do love teaching and do not have any experience whatsoever working in a school other than strictly as a teacher. I am undecided but may want to move into leadership or administration in a few years time. Would taking this Harvard Certificate now be a waste of time if I did not accept a leadership or administration position until a few years from now? Should I wait?

Reply

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:36 am
by PsyGuy
@TeacherGal

Whats your timeline look like, how much experience do you have?

Opinions on the matter vary, on one end you have contributors who feel if a leader doesnt have a decade or more of classroom experience (or less experience than them) than they arent respectable as a leader. On the other side you have contributors who feel that the tasking of leadership is so different from that of a classroom IT that you dont need a lot of classroom experience. A lot of leadership started with nothing but classroom experience and learned the non-academic tasking while on the job.
This certificate is only 4 courses, you can stretch it out over several years if you wanted to, but the sooner you get the certificate the sooner you can start posting to your professional timeline leadership activities that are post your leadership certification, you can start making statements "Ive been certified in leadership management now for X years", and then spin that however you want to or can. It might be a deciding factor at some point, that youve never thought of. I dont see much of a rational to wait, unless of course you have one.

Re: Harvard Certificate in School Management and Leadership?

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2019 3:35 am
by speedracer
It seems like it would be just as valuable as PTC. (at a much lower cost)