Ed.S. Instructional Leadership and Schoo...
Advance Your Leadership and Become a Principal
Program Overview
The 30-hour Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) in Instructional Leadership and School Administration is designed for licensed educators who already hold a master’s degree and are ready to move into school leadership. If you do not yet hold a master’s degree, Bellarmine’s MAEd in Teacher Leadership provides a pathway to earn your master’s and principal certification.
This program combines a research-based curriculum with practical field experience to prepare you for the demands of leading today’s schools. Graduates earn an Educational Specialist degree while completing requirements for Kentucky principal certification.
Need to maintain your certification? Bellarmine also offers the six-credit sequence required for Level II principal certification.
Prepare to Lead Schools
Bellarmine’s principal certification program prepares educators to lead in today’s accountability-driven school environments. Through a focus on instructional leadership, data-informed decision making, and school improvement, you’ll develop the skills needed to support teachers, strengthen school culture, and improve student outcomes.
Mentorship and Field Experience
Apply what you learn in real school settings through structured leadership field experiences. Throughout the program, you’ll complete performance-based coursework and gain hands-on experience while working alongside a dedicated university mentor who supports your growth from start to finish.
“Bellarmine’s Ed.S. program is top notch. Through the program, I have obtained the skills and knowledge to be a principal that positively impacts students, teachers, parents, and our community.”
Brandy Howard, Instructional Coach
1:1
Faculty Mentorship
240+
Field Experience Hours
2
Pathways to Principal Certification
Program Highlights
Bellarmine’s principal certification advanced program, with its theme “Educator as Reflective Learner,” places high priority on educators ready to lead in an environment of school accountability and to face the challenges of 21st century schools.
Reflective educators use their knowledge of content, practice, and pedagogy; knowledge of the learner; knowledge of self; skills in leadership and guiding the change process; and management of educational logistics and facilities to personally evaluate their effectiveness.
Field Experience
This ongoing process provides school leaders with a basis for self-evaluation of how well the acquired knowledge base relates to their current practice. The student will engage in constant performance-based evaluation through coursework and leadership field experiences across the program.
Faculty
Grant Smith, Ph.D. is Chair of Doctoral Programs and Assistant Professor of Research Design and Statistics. Grant spent over 20 years in the private sector working in operations management, mergers and acquisitions, and the design and execution of feasibility research and process improvement studies. His research interests include accountability measurements and the relationship of educational outcomes and economic opportunity. He received a B.A. from the University of Florida, a Ph.D. in measurement and statistics from Florida State University, and is currently completing postdoctoral studies at Harvard University where he works with the National Center for Teacher Effectiveness at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. At Bellarmine, Grant teaches courses in statistics, research methods, and evaluation.
Will Wells, Ed.D. is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Leadership and School Administration. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Louisville in Educational Leadership and School Administration. Before joining the faculty at Bellarmine in 2016, Dr. Wells was Superintendent in the Oldham County Schools. His experience as a successful assistant superintendent, school principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor, and middle school teacher in both urban and suburban districts provided him a broad base of experience and expertise. His current research interests are systems, structures, and policies that improve teacher quality and professional learning.
Rosie Young, Ed.D. serves as the Advanced Education, Graduate Programs Chair at Bellarmine University. She worked in the Jefferson County Public Schools for 38 years, including 28 years as an elementary school principal, before coming to Bellarmine in 2013 as the Field Placement Coordinator. She also served as chair of the Ed.S. Program before assuming the chair of Graduate Programs.
Career Outcomes
Candidates in this program are assigned a university mentor who will work with the candidate through the duration of the program. Completers of the program will be eligible to serve as a principal or assistant principal, grades P–12.
Catalog Information
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