National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST)

Get Recognized for Your Work to Advance Equity and Excellence in Your Schools

Apply before September 14, 2020 to be considered for admission to the program and join the Fall 2020 Cohort.

Click either button below to begin your application. Fill out the PDF form and email to ncust@sdsu.edu.

National Principal Certificate for Equity and Excellence

National Principal Supervisor for Equity and Excellence

Applications for the National Principal Certificate for Equity and Excellence and the National Principal Supervisor for Equity and Excellence will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

The National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) and SDSU Global Campus are joining forces to offer Professional Certificates in Educational Equity and Excellence beginning in Fall 2020. Take part in this innovative certificate program, which seeks to recognize school district leaders from across the country who have demonstrated the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to move schools toward greater equity and excellence.

This innovative program is divided into two different certificates -- the National Principal Certificate for Equity and Excellence and the National Principal Supervisor Certificate for Equity and Excellence, each focused on a different level of educational leaders.

School leaders who apply for the program should encourage their district leaders to apply for the National Principal Supervisor Certificate, while district leaders should encourage one or more of the school leaders they supervise to apply for the National Principal Certificate, to give your schools and district the most visibility for your combined efforts to promote equity and excellence in your schools.

This program was developed, in part, with the support of the Wallace Foundation, a national philanthropic organization based in New York City that seeks to foster improvements in learning and enrichment for disadvantaged children and vitality of the arts for everyone.

About the Professional Certificate Program

Note, these professional certificate programs are exclusively for school and district leaders who supervise schools. The program prepares district leaders to apply for and earn NCUST’s National Principal Certificate in Equity and Excellence and the National Principal Supervisor Certificate for Equity and Excellence. To earn the professional certificates, each candidate must demonstrate, through measurable evidence, that they have advanced equity and excellence in one or more of the schools they supervise.

The NCUST takes a unique approach to empowering educators and community leaders to make real change in their local school communities. With two certificates to choose from, each track is tailored to the specific needs, motivations, and skills of these types of educational leaders.

Throughout the program, you’ll have opportunities to engage with district leaders who influenced the success of schools that have achieved remarkable results for every demographic group served.

Why the Professional Certificate?

In today’s increasingly busy and competitive educational world, district leaders have few opportunities to build their capacity to advance excellence and equity in the schools they supervise.

Now, more than ever, the nation needs district leaders who have the ability to dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable outcomes and generate outstanding results for every demographic group of students.

The program is based on NCUST’s research on effective district-level leadership, which is based on NCUST’s extensive study of urban schools that achieve excellent and equitable learning results and other research.

District leaders want practical approaches that have proven successful in schools where all demographic groups achieve outstanding learning results.

This professional certificate program will be different than most, in that school leaders must go through the program and demonstrate their target has been achieved in order to receive the certification.

Participants work with NCUST coaches in the first course to set an agreed-to target, along with a data profile. The project’s target ideally should be achieved in one year. The target is measured over the course of one year, and optional paid coaching if desired after the year is over.

Our program coaches have a combined decades of experience in the field of educational leadership. Executive Director Joseph F. Johnson Jr. has worked as a professor of Educational Leadership at SDSU, then dean of the College of Education, and then as the university’s interim provost and senior vice president.

Our executive coaches come from experience as lecturers, administrators, and other school roles. Students in the National Principal Certificate for Equity and Excellence and the National Principal Supervisor Certificate for Equity and Excellence will benefit from these decades of professional experience.

Learn More About the Certificate Program

Want to learn more about the Professional Certificates in Educational Equity and Excellence? Watch our informative videos to see more details and meet the team behind this innovative educational leadership certificate program.

How to Apply

Apply before September 14, 2020 to be considered for admission to the program.

Click either button below to begin your application and join the Fall 2020 Cohort. Fill out the PDF form and email to ncust@sdsu.edu.