Program Details

This 10-month, fully online, executive-style program is for working administrators who want to engage in intentional and collaborative learning to deepen their understanding of child development, school leadership, and early school success.

Our approach at the University of Colorado Denver is to support working professionals in an engaging, blended format of monthly modules completed primarily through asynchronous work. The program also provides bi-monthly synchronous sessions with leading researchers and practitioner-experts engaged in innovative P-3 work.

Objectives

• Develop strong leadership skills and knowledge to ensure a high-quality continuum of learning for students across early learning and the early grades
• Learn effective strategies to link and align elementary schools with community-based early care and education (ECE) programs
• Grow abilities to effectively implement current reforms (e.g., school improvement plans, pre-K expansion, teacher evaluations, transitions to kindergarten) in ways that benefit young children and education professionals
• Advance effective strategies to involve families, teachers, and communities in closing achievement gaps early

Why Enroll

While school readiness and ready schools have always been priorities, they have become even more important as school districts, early care and education (ECE) programs, state agencies, and others grapple with the lingering effects of the pandemic and the shifting political and cultural contexts for this work. Now is an opportune time for school leaders to re-imagine and invest deeply in their skills and knowledge to design school cultures and collaborative teamwork, informed by research, that will meet the needs of young children and their families regardless of race, class, culture, or zip code.

Who Should Participate

• Elementary school principals
• School district administrators
• School board members
• Administrative leaders in early care and education (ECE)
• Teams that include leaders from both ECE and PreK-12 are strongly encouraged to enroll together

Schedule

The National P-3 Leadership Certificate program launches June 1, 2025 and concludes March 31, 2026. This 10-month, nine-module, non-degree, continuing professional education certificate paces participants to engage in one module per month. A month-long break is scheduled for September 2025.  For each of the modules, the learning format is primarily asynchronous content with two 90-minute synchronous sessions.

Program Cost

$2,500*

Teams of participants can be supported by state or district Title II-A and other sources. We have a limited number of partial, needs-based scholarships available for self-pay participants. Please contact us if you would like to discuss either of these possibilities.

_{*Costs of materials (~$100) not included}