HTH GSE offers a Master’s of Education degree (M.Ed.) with two concentrations: School Leadership, for individuals who wish to lead a small innovative school, and Teacher Leadership, for experienced teachers who aspire to deepen their practice and broaden their leadership capacity at their school.  

OUR APPROACH

Leading with Innovative Practice
Like the HTH K-12 schools, the HTH GSE is committed to providing its graduate students with learning experiences that are personalized, authentic, and relevant. Our graduate students create personalized learning plans, pursue a project-based curriculum, explore their own questions through action research and other forms of inquiry, and develop digital portfolios to demonstrate their learning. HTH GSE programs lead with practice and provide ample opportunities for students to apply theory to real-world teaching and learning contexts. Just as we expect surgeons to have hands-on experience in their residencies, HTH GSE provides its graduate students with hands-on, practical experience in the real world of effective, innovative schools. 

Challenging Common Assumptions
For over 75 years the American high school has followed three critical operating instructions that are so ingrained in the culture by now as to seem natural:

• Segregate students by class, race, gender, language ability, or perceived academic ability.
• Separate academic from technical teaching and learning.
• Isolate adolescents from the adult world they are about to enter.

High Tech High schools overturn these tenets by grouping students heterogeneously, integrating the curriculum, and placing students in the adult world of work and learning. In turn, the GSE prepares educators both to design and to assume leadership in such programs, driven by a commitment to equity, rigor, and relevance for all students.

A Total-Immersion Adult Learning Community
With a graduate school of education embedded within its K-12 schools, the entire High Tech High community is a powerful group of learners all working towards the same mission: to prepare K-12 students for postsecondary success and thoughtful citizenship. HTH GSE students learn and work alongside HTH teachers, administrators and students. They learn as the best teachers do—from their students and each other—by examining what works and what does not, by inviting feedback, and by assessing their own effectiveness in terms of student outcomes. As a community of learners, HTH serves as a laboratory of teaching and learning for all its members.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Teaching and learning at HTH schools are based on the design principles of personalization, adult world connection, and common intellectual mission. HTH GSE students will become experts in the application of these principles in three dimensions:

Inquiry and Design

• Develop curricula, policies, and learning environments based on the HTH design principles.
• Draw upon students’ diverse backgrounds and learning styles to enhance teaching and learning.
• Conduct scholarly inquiry that enriches practice and contributes to the larger educational community.

 Leadership

• Serve as effective coaches, mentors, and critical friends to colleagues.
• Work with colleagues to build and sustain adult learning communities focused on teaching and learning.
• Share work with colleagues and the broader educational community.

Reflection

• Connect theory and practice so that each informs the other.
• Take action and reflect on that action to improve teaching and learning.
• Develop and articulate a personal philosophy grounded in the HTH design principles.

These dimensions—inquiry and design, leadership, and reflection—form the foundation of the M.Ed. curricula. They inform the guiding questions, learning goals, activities and assignments in each course syllabus.

TUITION and FELLOWSHIPS

HTH GSE tuition is $12,500 per year for the two-year program of study, or $25,000 total for each program. However, through the generous support of The Amar Foundation, the Ronald M. Simon Family Foundation, and the James Irvine Foundation, students accepted to our programs for Fall 2010 are eligible to receive fellowship funds for both years of study, significantly reducing the cost of the program to the student. If you are interested in applying for a fellowship, please note this in your application cover letter.

In addition, students may apply for part-time tutoring or instructional aide positions in our HTH schools to subsidize their graduate study and further immerse themselves in our learning community.