Instructional Leadership
Rolling Admissions
While the priority application deadline has passed, applications for the 2026 cycle are still being accepted. Please contact Program Director Dr. Sylvia Bagley for more information about applying.
What you can earn
Duration
Credits earned
Format
Time commitment
Upcoming deadline
Equity-focused teacher-leaders start here
The Instructional Leadership graduate certificate or masters program is geared towards K-12 educators, equipping you for impactful teacher leadership roles within your school and district. You will learn how to nurture professional inquiry and collaboration through engaging in dialogue, investigation, reflection, and action.
These programs are tailored for educators seeking advanced knowledge in leadership and classroom practices, enhancing your capabilities both as a classroom educator and a leader committed to fostering inclusivity and excellence. Jobs or positions our alums take on include instructional coach, mentor, grade level or content area lead, committee chair, curriculum developer, and much more.
- Graduate Certificate
Designed for experienced educators ready to expand their impact, our 15-credit Graduate Certificate equips professionals with the essential skills to lead teaching and learning at the classroom, school, or district level. This flexible program allows participants to build expertise through five master’s-level courses, offering a streamlined pathway to strengthen leadership capacity. Ideal for educators with a master’s degree or graduate students seeking a leadership edge, the certificate provides recognized, practical preparation to advance instructional excellence and drive meaningful change.
- Master’s Program
The Instructional Leadership Master’s program is designed to fit the life of working teachers. Our flexible, hybrid format allows you to balance your full-time teaching commitment with the pursuit of your M.Ed. in two years or less. The program includes an immersive two-week summer program, fostering connections within your cohort. Throughout the two academic years of your program you will continue your coursework through a blend of online and evening on-campus courses. Additionally, you will return to campus monthly for a reflective seminar, building on your leadership and inquiry skills. Program curriculum blends teacher leadership coursework, content-specific learning, and inquiry-focused leadership practice. At the end of a second year, after completion of a culminating project, you will have achieved your M.Ed. in just two years, marking a transformative step in your career as an empowered and skilled educator.
Curriculum
Overview
These programs are organized around four strands of instructionally-focused teacher leadership:
- Equity-driven educational leadership
- Connecting educational policy, organizational and leadership theories with teachers
- Teaching and school renewal
- Understanding moral and ethical leadership
- Building cultural competencies and practices
- Content-focused instructional leadership
- Demonstrating deep knowledge of selected focus content area
- Strong knowledge of common core standards, instructional frameworks and content-specific instructional practices
- Differentiated instruction
- Assessments of student learning
- Teacher leadership and professional learning
- Practicing teacher leadership in the context of school renewal
- Facilitating inquiry-based learning in professional communities and teacher study groups
- Coaching and mentoring adult learners
- Leading data-based instructional conversations
- Inquiry-focused teacher leadership
- Conducting and leading inquiry in classroom, school, and district settings
- Prepare to identify job-embedded problems of teaching and leadership practice
- Pose impactful inquiry questions
- Collect and analyze related data
- Reflect on and interpret findings
- Share inquiry outcomes with local and non-local audiences
- Take action steps to improve professional work
Courses
Graduate Certificate:
Students in the Instructional Leadership Graduate Certificate program will take a total of five out of the six courses listed below for a total of 15 credits:
- EDC&I 525: Exploring Teacher Leadership in Today’s Schools (3 credits)
Introduction to the literature and practices surrounding instructional teacher-leadership, which promotes shared responsibility for ensuring that every child receives an equitable, inclusive, culturally responsive education in P-12 systems and beyond. Students will:
- Become acquainted with research on instructional leadership, educational leadership, and theories of action for educational change and improvement.
- Engage in self-reflection and personal assessment by exploring their personal educational journey toward teacher leadership. (portfolio item)
- Build a framework for understanding what teacher-leaders do and what contextual factors support teacher-leaders in their work.
- Begin to consider inquiry as a professional stance and develop leadership skills related to practitioner inquiry.
- Conduct an analysis of their educational setting along several dimensions related to teacher leadership and professional learning and develop a related action plan. (portfolio item)
- EDC&I 526: Building Authentic Professional Community in Schools (3 credits)
Examines different perspectives on professional communities in schools, drawing from work of researchers and practitioners to explore practical tools for enhancing collegiality and supporting teachers in adopting an inquiry stance towards their craft. Students will:
- Define the characteristics of a thriving, equity-driven professional learning community. (portfolio item)
- Articulate research-based implications of teacher collaboration and collaborative learning (positive, negative, and ambiguous);
- Critically read practitioner, theoretical, and empirical literature pertaining to teachers’ professional learning communities;
- Apply research findings to their personal work contexts. (portfolio item)
- EDC&I 552: Coaching and Mentoring Adult Learners (3 credits)
Provides a foundation in coaching, mentoring, and other forms of peer-driven professional development in educational settings, grounded within research on adult professional learning and socio-cultural theories. Students will:
- Articulate basic knowledge about adult professional learning.
- Explore and interrogate the salience of our complex identities as both coaches and coaching “clients”.
- Examine different coaching and mentoring models, and articulate rationale and benefits for each one. (portfolio item)
- Plan and implement inquiry-based, respectful, equity-centered cycles for coaching and mentoring individual teachers and teams. (portfolio item)
- Develop and practice coaching strategies (e.g. ways to form coaching relationships, setting agreements for coaching, observing and responding to instruction, designing appropriate coaching goals and strategies, assessing coaching progress).
- Articulate tensions (including power dynamics and logistics) inherent to the role of coaching and other forms of peer-driven professional development (PD) in a district’s plan for teacher development.
- Advocate for improved delivery models of equity-centered coaching, mentoring, and peer-driven PD. (portfolio item)
- EDC&I 535: Education Policy for Teacher Leaders (3 credits)
Students investigate key educational policy issues as they relate to teachers, teaching, and the achievement of equitable opportunities and outcomes for students. Introductory course for teachers and teacher leaders to develop strategies for understanding, critiquing, and sharing information about the various policies that affect schools and communities. Students will:
- Build knowledge of key educational policy issues as they relate to historical and current opportunities for diverse students in American schools.
- Practice disciplined inquiry into how policy initiatives impact equitable and culturally responsive teaching and learning processes.
- Develop greater knowledge of educational systems to represent and advocate for the profession outside of the classroom. (portfolio item)
- Reflect on their personal growth as an education policy advocate, and their understanding of equitable education policy as a pillar of teacher leadership. (portfolio item)
- EDC&I 553: Collecting, Interpreting, and Using Data for School Improvement and Student Thriving (3 credits)
Examines current trends in data use for school improvement. Explores the role of data in supporting and constraining equity in schools; current research on how teachers interact with data; essentials of data literacy; opportunities for teacher learning through data use; and organizational structures found to support or constrain data use in schools. Students will:
- Identify the purposes for effective use of data in school improvement efforts.
- Digest, critique, and report upon current empirical work on assessment and data use in education, including shifts towards more culturally responsive and holistic forms of assessment. (portfolio item)
- Articulate a theory of action for collection, interpretation, and use of data at their site.
- Design a structure, system, or protocol for facilitating colleagues’ understanding and use of data. (portfolio item)
- Engage in thoughtful, interactive online discussions around issues related to data and assessment in schools.
- EDC&I 572: Action Research in Education (3 credits)
Introduces students to action research, a form of self-reflective, systematic inquiry by practitioners. Topics include identifying problems to investigate, selecting appropriate research methods, collecting and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions from research. Students will:
- Distinguish among several traditions of action research (e.g., teacher-research, collaborative research, and school-wide action research) and understand action research as an approach to educational problem solving and professional development.
- Identify and define a researchable problem of their educational practice. (portfolio item)
- Conduct a literature summary that supports the purposes of an action research project. (portfolio item)
- Design and conduct a mini-action research project including gaining permissions; data collection through observing, interviewing, and artifact collection; and systematic data analysis.
- Develop and present a written report of the inquiry, findings, and action implications. (portfolio item)
- Offer constructive feedback on colleagues' work and incorporate feedback into one’s own work.
Master’s Program:
Coursework in our Instructional Leadership Master’s program is highly flexible. The following sequence is only an example of a common cohort schedule:
- Summer (only during odd years)
- Orientation one evening in May
- Intensive two week summer institute in June/July
- Meets daily from 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m
- Usually taken in first year but can be taken in second year
- Courses taken:
- EDC&I 525: Situating Teacher Leadership in Today's Schools (hybrid on-campus/online, 3 credits)
- EDC&I 526: Building Authentic Professional Community (hybrid on-campus/online, 3 credits)
- First academic year
- Fall quarter
- EDC&I 552: Coaching and Mentoring Adult Learners (online, 3 credits)
- EDC&I 572: Action Research in Education (hybrid, 3 credits)
- Monthly evening seminars (1 credit)
- Winter quarter
- EDC&I 535: Educational Policy for Teacher Leaders (online, 3 credits)
- EDC&I 503: Foundations of Curriculum and Instruction (4 credits)
- Monthly evening seminars (1 credit)
- Spring quarter
- EDC&I 553: Collecting, Interpreting and Using Data for School Improvement (online, 3 credits)
- Elective or foundations (3 credits)
- Monthly evening seminars (1 credit)
- Fall quarter
- Second academic year
- Fall quarter
- Elective or foundations (3 credits)
- Monthly evening seminars (1-2 credits)
- Winter quarter
- Elective course (as needed) (3 credits)
- Monthly evening seminars (1-2 credits)
- Spring quarter
- Content area course (3 credits)
- Monthly evening seminars (1-2 credits)
- Fall quarter
Fieldwork
Master’s Program: Throughout this program you will be asked to apply what you are learning into your workplace setting. For example, in the course "Coaching and Mentoring Adult Learners" you will select a colleague and practice your coaching skills with them throughout the quarter. You will also craft a final action plan for implementing or modifying a coaching cycle in your workplace.
Completion
Graduate Certificate: During the quarter in which students are taking their fifth required Graduate Certificate course, students will complete a culminating e-portfolio consisting of the following items: a) copies of major assignments from each course (see descriptions in ‘Courses’ tab; b) a completed self-rating rubric from the Teacher Leadership Competencies (2019) with listed evidence provided as justification for each self-ranking; and c) a reflective essay describing both the student’s growth in teacher leadership skills and dispositions across the five courses, and their specific teacher leadership aspirations for the future.
Successful completion of the five courses and submission of the culminating portfolio will complete the student’s work. If a student is unable to complete the culminating portfolio during their final quarter of classes, they may choose to enroll in 1-2 credits of independent study in a later quarter to complete this requirement and earn their Graduate Certificate.
Master’s Program: In addition to 37 credits of academic coursework, you will complete 8 credits leading to a job-embedded, inquiry-based culminating project. Program faculty will provide you with the support and knowledge needed to complete your project, along with an action research course.
Your project will be grounded in a problem of practice in your own school or district. You will present your project during a public event that is scheduled in the last quarter of your program. Core faculty and advisors will attend the public presentations, review students' completed project reports, request revisions and provide final evaluation and approval.
Admission requirements and process
Materials
- Application Fee
A $90.00 application fee is required and must be paid by credit card through the online application system.
Fee Waiver: The Graduate School offers a limited number of application fee waivers to qualified applicants. Application fee waiver requests must be made at least seven (7) days before your program’s application deadline to allow time for review. Who is eligible? Application fee waivers are available to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and undocumented applicants who demonstrate financial need or hardship.
- Bachelor’s Degree from an Accredited Institution
A bachelor’s degree is required for admission to the Master of Education (M.Ed.) program. Your degree may be in progress at the time of application, but it must be completed before the program begins.
- Unofficial Transcript(s) (Minimum 3.0 GPA)
You must submit unofficial transcript(s) with your application from every college or university where you earned academic credit. The UW Graduate School requires a cumulative GPA of 3.0, or a 3.0 in your most recent 90 graded quarter credits (60 semester credits). GPA is only one part of the application review.
Applications are reviewed holistically, and we encourage you to apply even if your GPA is below 3.0. You do not need to take additional coursework to raise your GPA. Instead, focus on submitting a strong goal statement that explains your interests and how the program aligns with your professional or personal goals, along with strong letters of recommendation. You are also welcome to provide context for a GPA below 3.0.
If you are currently enrolled in a college or university and have not yet graduated, please upload a transcript showing your most recently completed term. A final transcript confirming completion of your degree will be required before the program begins, if admitted.
- Two Letters of Recommendation
During the online application process, you will be prompted to add your recommenders. Once added, your recommenders will receive an email with instructions for submitting their letters electronically.
For all applicants, we recommend choosing individuals who know you well and can speak to your strengths, skills, and potential for success in graduate study. Letters may be submitted by professional supervisors, academic faculty, or others who can speak to your qualifications.
- Resume/Curriculum Vitae (CV)
A current academic and professional resume or CV is required. This document should summarize your education, professional experience, and relevant accomplishments. Include degrees earned, work experience, and any applicable awards, publications, presentations, or other achievements.
Be sure to highlight qualifications and skills that are relevant to the program to which you are applying.
Review your document carefully to ensure it is clear, well-organized, and free of errors.
- Statement of Purpose
Your statement should describe your goals, relevant experiences, future plans, and how your specific program aligns with your interests and needs.
In your statement, address the following:
Why you are applying to this specific program
Your academic and professional goals
Areas of interest or topics you wish to explore within the field
How your interest in the field developed and how you have engaged with it
Experiences that have prepared you for graduate study
Skills or strengths that will support your success (e.g., technical skills, research experience, or other relevant abilities)
Examples of initiative, problem-solving, collaboration, and commitment to your goals
Format: Master’s statements are typically 1–2 pages. Statements must be double-spaced with 1-inch margins and use a 12-point font (Times New Roman or Calibri). Citations are not required unless you reference specific evidence in your writing.
Admissions committees review your statement alongside other application materials to assess how well your goals align with the program.
- Personal History Statement (Optional)
While optional, submitting a personal history statement can strengthen your application by providing additional context about your background and experiences.
This statement should describe your intellectual growth and development, including influences both within and beyond your academic experiences. You may address:
Your personal history, family background, or other influences on your development
How your life experiences have shaped your interests, career plans, and future goals
Statements should be no more than two pages. We recommend using double-spaced text and a clear, legible 12-point font (Times New Roman or Calibri).
Submitting
Program is open to all eligible persons regardless of race, sex or other identity.
- Gather all required documents
- Visit the Graduate School website
- Log into your account or create a new profile if you are a first-time applicant
- Complete all steps in application process and upload your documents
- Pay the nonrefundable $90 application fee
- You may request a fee waiver during the application process
- Submit your application
Below, please find instructions for listing the Instructional Leadership program as your area of interest on your application:
- Go to the 'Program Selection' tab in the application.
- From the 'Select your application type' drop-down menu, select 'Graduate.'
- From the 'Select your program' drop-down menu, select 'Education - Seattle (MEd- Curriculum & Instruction).'
- Save and continue.
- Select Autumn 2027 from the drop-down menu, check the required box, and save and continue.
- Click on 'Add Interest Area' and select 'Instructional Leadership(MIL)' from the drop-down menu.
- Save your selection.
After submitting your application, we'd love to hear from you! Send an email to Program Director Sylvia Bagley and introduce yourself.
Next Steps
International
We value and welcome applications from all people, including international students! If you are applying from outside the United States, there are additional requirements and application materials.
- Prior degree requirements
- At minimum, you must have the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor's degree (a four-year degree from an institution of recognized standing)
- Evaluation of your degree will be based on:
- The national system of education in the foreign country
- The type of institution
- The field of study and level of studies completed
- Transcripts
- If a transcript is in English, you can upload the transcript in the online application.
- If the degree is on a separate certificate, you will need to upload this as well. An evaluation from a 3rd party is not needed for this.
- All transcripts and degree conferral documents that are in a language other than English must be accompanied by certified English translation and must be in the same format as the original(s).
- English language proficiency
English language proficiency (ELP) is required for graduate study at the University of Washington. Therefore, every applicant whose native language is not English must demonstrate English language proficiency. Each prospective graduate student indicates on the graduate application whether or not the student is a native speaker of English.
Learn more about the full policy: Graduate School English Language Proficiency Requirements
- Financial ability
If you apply and are offered admission to UW, you will need to submit a statement of financial ability.
Costs and funding
Estimated Costs
We are a tuition-based program. Estimated tuition rates are based on your residency:
View the UW tuition dashboard →
Visit the Office of Planning & Budgeting →
Estimates are subject to change and may differ due to course load and summer quarter enrollment. Estimates include building fees, technology fees, U-Pass, etc. Additional program-specific fees are not included in this estimate.
If you are a state employee, you may be eligible for tuition waivers for a few classes in the program. Please contact us before applying to learn more about this waiver.
Funding & Scholarships
Federal financial aid is available for students. Visit the UW Financial Aid website for information and resources. The College of Education also provides scholarship and other funding opportunities.
If you are a state employee, you may be eligible for tuition waivers for a few classes in the program. Please contact us before applying to learn more about this waiver.
