Educational Leadership & Policy Studies (ELPS)
Lead for a better future. Our Educational Leadership & Policy Studies (ELPS) program gives you the tools to tackle challenges at all levels within an educational system, whether you are an aspiring principal, district leader or policymaker.
Build critical skills through intensive academic and field-based experiences. You will benefit from cutting-edge content and clinical/practice-based/in-context/practical experiences that integrate leadership, systems and design thinking, policy, and research. Our programs (CERT/M.A., Ed.D. and Ph.D.), faculty and clinical experiences will empower you to think like an entrepreneur and build leadership capacity for continuous improvement and demonstrable results that impact all students and communities.
A unique component of our program is our focus on transformative and turnaround leadership, which is at the core of our degree programs. As an ELPS student, you will learn how to unleash and leverage self, communities and resources to change the status quo to ensure equitable outcomes for every student.
Nationally Recognized
The ELPS program at the University of Denver is one of the best of the country.
- In 2021, the ELPS program was ranked 25th by U.S. News and World report for top Education Administration programs in the nation.
- In 2016, U.S. News and World Report ranked the ELPS program one of the top 20 Educational Administration and Supervision programs in the nation.
- In 2015, the Colorado Department of Education approved the ELPS M.A. program as a Turnaround Leadership Development Program.
- In 2014, the University Council of Educational Administration awarded the ELPS program the Exemplary Educational Leadership Preparation Program Award.