Home > Programs & Degrees > SSPEP > Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies (POLS) (MA)
Degrees Offered: MA, JD/MA
POLS Master's Program website
POLS Master's Program Overview
 American educational institutions exist within increasingly
complex and entrepreneurial environments. Growing recognition
that the traditional educational system has failed to meet
the needs of a diverse population together with public demands
for educational choice, quality, and accountability have stimulated
a nationwide quest for better schools and learning opportunities
for all children. These forces have given rise to a complex
web of federal, state, and local policy initiatives as well
as a variety of non-traditional educational organizations,
many of which are aimed specifically at meeting the needs
of under-served communities. It is within this complex and
dynamic environment that educational leaders must now operate,
and they do so from an expanding array of roles, ranging from
educational entrepreneur to policy administrator to community-based
organizer.
Drawing upon an interdisciplinary knowledge base, the Program
in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies (POLS) emphasizes
the organizational and policy context of education – and the knowledge and skills leaders need to be effective
in such a complex environment. 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.
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, and school design.
In addition, the design of the program enables students to
benefit from the resources and course offerings of the University.
POLS is a nine-month program designed to be a rigorous and
flexible curriculum framed around a set of core 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 implementation
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 will be subsumed throughout
the core and elective courses of the POLS program in order
to provide an integrative framework for thinking about and
performing policy making and leadership tasks in complex educational
organizations and systems.
Students in the program are typically:
- Recent graduates who would like to develop their knowledge
in the area of policy development, implementation, and analysis,
and who are interested in working in district, state, or federal
bodies involved in education or education policy;
- Students who have worked or plan to work in an educationally-oriented
business, non-profit, social service, or community-based organization,
and who want to develop a background in education and their capacity to act as effective leaders and agents of change
in any of these contexts;
- Educational entrepreneurs who want to start a charter
school or occupy leadership roles in a traditional or non-traditional
school or school system;
- Holder of a bachelor’s degree who wishes to enter
the field of higher education administration, who wishe to
learn more about the field of higher education and to develop
their skills as effective organizational analysts and participants.
Curriculum
The POLS program emphasizes the policy and organizational context of education and educational leadership. The curriculum
treats cultural diversity as a central condition, challenge,
and opportunity of all educational institutions. The curriculum
consists of a set of core course requirements that build a
foundational knowledge base and elective offerings that give
students the flexibility to tailor their program to match
their substantive and institutional interests. Students have the option to specialize in Higher Education or the Education of Linguistic Minorities (ELM) through the strands of the program.
Required Courses
Students take required core courses in History of Education, Policy Analysis and Organizational Behavior in addition to a number of courses in four thematic clusters:
- Teaching and Learning
- Organizations and Leadership
- Policy Systems
- Inquiry and Assessment
POLS students are also required to participate in a core integrating seminar.
Elective Courses
Electives are chosen from a menu of possibilities within the School of Education. Students can elect to take a limited
number of courses outside of the School and will be guided to courses relevant to their intended area of specialization.
For MA program requirements, please see the Master's Degree Handhook.
Nereyda Salinas is the director of the POLS Master’s program.
| New! Interested in becoming an urban public school principal? A new program combines the Stanford Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies (POLS) Master’s degree with the administrative credential program developed by New Leaders for New Schools (New Leaders). |
Building on our shared vision and beliefs, New Leaders and Stanford’s School of Education have developed an innovative partnership. Together, they offer a program that combines a top-rate educational Master’s experience at Stanford with the rigorous curriculum, ongoing support, and a preliminary administrative credential for urban school leadership from New Leaders.
WHAT: Interested candidates must apply to both New Leaders and the POLS program at Stanford’s School of Education by the first deadline of each respective program. If a candidate is admitted into BOTH programs, New Leaders will grant early admission to the residency program starting in 2009. Prior to matriculating into the joint program, candidates will sign a formal contract with New Leaders, committing to start the residency the following year. Accepted candidates will enter the Stanford POLS program in the fall of 2008 and begin New Leaders Summer Foundations and Residency in the summer of 2009.
WHO: This partnership ONLY exists for New Leaders New Schools California’s Bay Area, New York City, and Washington, DC program sites. Candidates applying to other New Leaders for New Schools program sites are NOT eligible for early admission for future years
WHEN: In order to participate in this program, participants must complete their New Leaders for New Schools application by the priority deadline: OCTOBER 25, 2007. Applicants applying to the final deadline will not be eligible to participate in this partnership. IF INVITED TO A FIRST ROUND INTERVIEW, YOU MUST LET THE INTERVIEWER KNOW THAT YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE PARTNERSHIP.
IMPORTANT DATES: http://www.nlns.org/NLWeb/resources/NLNS_Partnership_Stanford_Univ_Policy.pdf
For more information, contact Margot Lowenstein, Manager of National Partnerships (mlowenstein@nlns.org, 646.792.1054) or Nereyda Salinas, Director of Leadership Degree Programs at Stanford’s School of Education (nereyda.salinas@stanford.edu) or visit www.nlns.org and suse-pols.stanford.edu.
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