Beginning in fall 2025, USC Rossier’s Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (online) will launch a new executive cohort for students who are senior K–12 leaders and aspire to become superintendents of K–12 school districts and/or CEOs or directors of charter or independent schools.
The cohort will be made up exclusively of current system leaders—assistant superintendents, superintendents or those in similarly positioned roles—and will focus on leadership strategies and techniques for fostering equity for historically marginalized students within school systems. The format for the executive cohort will be primarily online with optional in-person immersions.
“With the launch of this new executive cohort, our aim is to continue USC Rossier’s tradition of excellence in preparing superintendents and educational CEOS for the challenges of the positions they aspire to. Building on our faculty’s decades of experience—many of whom have been in these roles themselves—we want our students to walkaway fully prepared for the unique challenges of leading school systems,” said Pedro Noguera, Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of USC Rosser.
The cohort will exist within the K–12 concentration of the EDL online program, but the core curriculum of the program will be tailored to the unique needs of those leading school systems. “The curriculum will be focused on current and future issues facing educational leaders. It will include real tasks aligned with current research to solve current problems and issues in K–12 education around the nation. With our retired and active superintendent faculty, students will get the benefit of learning about strategies that worked,” said former superintendent and Profesor of Clinical Education David Cash.
During the two-year program, the executive cohort will take courses specifically designed for system leaders including classes on:
- Finance: navigating the complexities of education finance
- Organizational leadership: developing the skills required to work effectively with a range of groups including school boards, boards of education, individual schools and departments, parents and businesses.
- Curriculum, instruction and assessment: how to ensure systems are meeting the needs of diverse learners, promoting best instruction practices and integrating assessment approaches beyond those required by the state.
- Policy and politics: leading in divisive times, community development skills and ways to engage with all communities.
In addition to the newly tailored curriculum, “as a result of using the cohort model, students will have the opportunity to learn from each other as they problem solve current issues facing their educational organizations,” said Cash. The cohort will also engage with their peers alongside district leaders on real issues, via a case study approach, helping one another to solve vexing problems they are currently facing.
To request more information about the EDL online executive cohort, please complete the questionnaire.
David Cash
- Professor of Clinical Education
