CLU offers first Central Coast program

Educators can earn master's degree in leadership

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Program Director Victoria L. Kelly has extensive experience working with local districts and researching ways administrators can improve academic acheivement. Photo: Brian Stethem

(SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Nov. 9, 2011) California Lutheran University is launching a new master's degree program in educational leadership on the Central Coast.

This is the first time that the Thousand Oaks-based university has offered classes north of Ventura County. Pending approval from the Western Association of Schools & Colleges, the innovative Educational Leadership program will begin in May at the new Central Coast Learning Center, which is located in the administrative office of the Orcutt Union School District.

Through the accelerated one-year program, students can earn a master's degree in educational leadership and a preliminary administrative services credential while working full-time. Students will take classes on the Orcutt campus on weekends and online during four 11-week terms.

The CLU Graduate School of Education has established partnerships with Central Coast school districts to provide students with field experience. Assignments will require students to identify and research solutions for actual challenges faced by districts. The program will focus on implementing creative solutions to the problems administrators encounter daily.

Faculty with experience in the field and local school administrators will serve as mentors. Moving through the program with a cohort, students will also benefit from developing relationships with fellow working professionals.

The program will train students to serve as assistant principals, principals, directors, assistant superintendents and superintendents as well as in leadership positions in teaching, higher education and nonprofit administration.

Victoria L. Kelly, who holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of California, Santa Barbara/California State University, San Luis Obispo Joint Doctoral Program, is the program director. She has extensive experience working with local districts and researching ways administrators can improve academic acheivement.

CLU already offers the Educational Leadership Program on its main Thousand Oaks campus. The selective university also has centers in Oxnard and Woodland Hills for graduate courses and its Adult Degree Evening Program. With an enrollment of 4,100 students, CLU offers 36 undergraduate majors and many graduate programs within the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Management and Graduate School of Education. Doctoral degrees in educational leadership, higher education leadership and clinical psychology are also offered. Members of the CLU student body come from across the nation and around the world and represent a diversity of faiths and cultures.

Applications for the first cohort are currently being accepted. For more information, visit http://www.callutheran.edu/education/orcutt or contact Kelly at vkelly@callutheran.edu or 805-938-8931.

 

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