The program places a great deal of emphasis on the importance of teaching and learning in the classrooms of urban schools. Each of the following two-unit courses are offered over four Saturdays during the fall and spring of the first two years. These courses are uniquely designed around Friday evening Socratic seminars that provide students with an opportunity to engage literature focused on leadership, teaching, and learning practices, and urban education. Students and their advisers meet independently to design a research agenda linked to a specified set of strategies. Each assignment is based on strategies that can enhance the viability and sustainability of urban schools.
Students produce studies based on real-life situations that exist at their sites.
Learning to use short-term planning strategies. Developing strategies around the protocols of examining student results, performance, and products. Following the completion of 48 units of course work, the student is required to demonstrate competency in at least two research methods. Research tools for each individual are determined on the basis of the course of study and the interests of the student. Written and oral qualifying examinations are scheduled after the completion of the candidate's first two years of study.