MPA with Education Policy Specialization?

[--jawn--]

I have been searching around on this forum for information on schools that have good Ed Policy specializations. I would like to gain the general management education/experience that an MPA offers while also delving deeper into how education systems play into the larger political arena of a city/region.

 

I will have been working for ~2 years on very similar work, implementing a pilot program that supports public schools in a large urban school district. Specifically, it works towards bringing more resources into schools. I would like to add that I am interested in the Community Schools Model of structuring public education. My interests lie in strengthening this support structure, but I am also interested in the bigger picture of city management, budgeting, economic growth, etc. In the future, I would like to work on a city- or statewide level to address these topics, either within government or at an advocacy organization.

 

What programs in the past few years have been best for a specialization in education policy while also attending to the more traditional MPA themes? Would I even need to worry about having access to a strong Ed Policy school with where my interests lie?

 

Thanks in advance!

[samiam]

Michigan and Berkeley are the names I most closely associate with education policy. Another option would be Harvard Kennedy - you can take courses from the Harvard Graduate School of Education as part of their MPP or MPA.

[hopeful88]

I have been searching around on this forum for information on schools that have good Ed Policy specializations. I would like to gain the general management education/experience that an MPA offers while also delving deeper into how education systems play into the larger political arena of a city/region.

 

I will have been working for ~2 years on very similar work, implementing a pilot program that supports public schools in a large urban school district. Specifically, it works towards bringing more resources into schools. I would like to add that I am interested in the Community Schools Model of structuring public education. My interests lie in strengthening this support structure, but I am also interested in the bigger picture of city management, budgeting, economic growth, etc. In the future, I would like to work on a city- or statewide level to address these topics, either within government or at an advocacy organization.

 

What programs in the past few years have been best for a specialization in education policy while also attending to the more traditional MPA themes? Would I even need to worry about having access to a strong Ed Policy school with where my interests lie?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

The MPP program at Berkeley has lots of opportunities to engage with ed policy (check out the work of David Kirp and Jesse Rothstein in particular), but there are no official tracks. However, you can specialize as little or as much as you want depending on your selection of elective courses and project topics. Just to clarify, GSPP is very much focused on policy analysis--so there is less emphasis on management than most MPA programs. However, these courses are still present in the program as electives to some extent. Also, there is a lot of flexibility to take courses in any of the graduate schools. You may also want to check out the work of the Center for Cities & Schools on the UC Berkeley campus. They deal with a lot of the issues you've mentioned here. Based on your interests, it sounds to me like you'll want to have access to good ed policy offerings. This is important not just because of the classes offered, but also the extent to which professors, career advisors, alumni, etc. are well connected in the education community. A final thought--I also visited UCLA while checking out different programs, and they seemed to have pretty good ed policy offerings as well.