Kelley School to Offer MBA in Education Leadership: MBA News

Indiana University (IU) Kelley School of Business is joining an initiative that aims to increase educational standards in the US by providing fellowships in education leadership that will enable leaders at school and district level to gain an MBA qualification.

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation aims to narrow the gap between the US’s best and worst-performing schools, as well as ensuring that the nation’s top schools can compete with the very best in the world. 

The Kelley School becomes the sixth institution across the states of New Mexico, Indiana and Wisconsin to join the fellowship scheme and will launch its program, to be known as the MBA for Educators, in the summer of 2016. 

Education leadership can benefit from ‘transferrable business strategies’

The Kelley School’s dean, Idalene Kesner, said that the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation’s belief in the value of business training to education leaders matched that of the school’s Effective Leaders Academy, formed in collaboration with the School of Education at IU.

“This is a wonderful next step in sharing transferrable business strategies and working to improve education for Indiana’s future leaders,” Kesner said in a press release.

The 18-month program will put the Kelley School’s high standing in online education to good use in its delivery. However, summers will see participants take classes on IU’s Bloomington campus.

Roughly a fifth of the 48-credit-hour program will be taken by faculty attached to the university’s School of Education. However, management professor, John Wisneski, says that the new program, which he is to direct, will differ from the School of Education’s existing offerings in education leadership.

“This is an additional opportunity for aspiring leaders in school systems to get the training they need to be successful…For those who feel they lack skills in managing others or leading large-scale improvement initiatives, this should be the perfect opportunity,” Wisneski explained.

Interested parties must be nominated by a colleague or local leader in education to become eligible for the fellowship, which provides stipends that reimburse all MBA program fees and expenses. Participants must also commit to remaining in education leadership positions within their state of study for a period of three years post-graduation.

Setting new standards is goal of Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation’s goal is to give tomorrow’s heads of schools (principals) and district superintendents the tools they need to implement new approaches and innovations that can improve the country’s school systems. In addition, the Foundation’s president, Arthur Levine, said that the success of individual teachers in the US rests heavily on the shoulders of those in school and district leadership positions: 

“Joining the other institutions, IU and Kelley will help set a new standard for principal and superintendent education across the nation.” Those other institutions are New Mexico State University’s College of Business (COB), the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management, Milwaukee School of Engineering, the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) and Indiana State University’s Scott College of Business.

Columbia Business School has also moved into the education leadership space. Last fall, the school announced a two-year dual MBA/MA program in collaboration with Teachers College, Columbia University – the US’s oldest graduate school of education.