Master of Education in Independent School Leadership

Vanderbilt’s Peabody College has launched a new blended (online and in-person) Master's of Education in Independent School Leadership, building on the strong foundation of our previous summer-intensive Independent School Leadership program. This new chapter of our M.Ed. program is specifically designed for working professionals who bring at least two years of relevant independent school work experience. The ISL graduate degree program will strengthen the invaluable skills you’ve already developed and give you the tools to propel yourself to new leadership opportunities and to even greater impact.

Our 15 month, part-time program consists of a diverse cohort of independent school professionals like you — leaders who are advancing in their careers, and who bring important perspectives grounded in real-world challenges. Our program is a blended learning model conducted online throughout the school year, and in-person through two 8-day on-campus summer experiences, where you'll meet your cohort in person, work with world-class Vanderbilt faculty, and build community on our beautiful Nashville campus. Our online learning experience combines self-directed asynchronous curricula with weekly synchronous sessions, where cohort members build community and actively engage in discourse related to relevant theory and practice within independent school systems.

This blended Master's of Education in Independent School Leadership offers a distinctive Peabody experience — including deep engagement and interaction with Vanderbilt’s faculty and independent school scholar practitioners, as well as a lifelong professional network — within an intentionally designed curriculum and robust opportunities for mentorship and action research design. The program is career-embedded — so you can immediately apply what you are learning, in real time, to the work you are doing on the ground in your independent school.

Unofficial transcripts are accepted for the application process. You should include transcripts from all previous post secondary work (bachelor's and master's studies) with your application. The GRE is optional for admission to master's programs. For the Ed.D. program, it is strongly recommended. Two letters of recommendation are required, and three are preferred, for our master's degree programs. Three letters of recommendation are required for our Ed.D. programs. An official score report sent directly from the testing agency is required. Our TOEFL institutional code is 1871, and there is no department code. The minimum recommended TOEFL score is 100. There is no institutional code for the IELTS. A minimum recommended score is 7.0 for the composite score with no individual band score below 6.5.