Oct 15, 2024  
ACE Catalog - Volume 55 
  
ACE Catalog - Volume 55

Texas Educational Leadership Certificate


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Master’s Level Certificate

Program Description

The Texas Educational Leadership Certificate Program prepares aspiring school administrators with current scientific research, pedagogy, and instructional technology through a series of six educational leadership courses. Students are empowered to maximize school effectiveness and improve supervision and leadership skills in diverse P-12 school settings. Students will develop the strategies required to lead for learning, including creating a school-wide vision and using data to inform decision-making. The program is aligned to the Texas Principal Leadership Standards and the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) for effective leadership and is designed to create culturally aware and competent administrators.  

Program Outcomes 

  1. Collaboratively lead, design, and implement a school mission, vision, and process for continuous improvement that reflects a core set of values and priorities that include data use, technology, equity, diversity, digital citizenship, and community.
  2. Understand and demonstrate the capacity to advocate for ethical decisions and cultivate and enact professional norms.
  3. Develop and maintain a supportive, equitable, culturally responsive, and inclusive school culture.
  4. Evaluate, develop, and implement coherent systems of curriculum, instruction, data systems, supports, and assessment.
  5. Engage families, community, and school personnel in order to strengthen student learning, support school improvement, and advocate for the needs of their school and community.
  6. Improve management, communication, technology, school-level governance, and operation systems to develop and improve data-informed and equitable school resource plans and to apply laws, policies, and regulations.
  7. Build the school’s professional capacity, engage staff in the development of a collaborative professional culture, and improve systems of staff supervision, evaluation, support, and professional learning.
  8. Conduct, synthesize, and apply research to promote the current and future success and well-being of each student and adult in the school. 

Mission Statement

The mission of the certificate in Educational Leadership prepares committed, competent and ethical leaders to contribute to the professional education community. Through systematic problem solving and data-driven decision making, students create highly effective learning environments and become positive, reflective, and responsive leader practitioners.

Course List (18 Total Semester Credits)


Professional Licensure, Certification, or Endorsement 


  • This program is designed to prepare students for eligibility for principal/building administrator licensure or endorsement. 
  • This program has been approved and meets the principal/building administrator licensure requirements in the states of Texas. 
  • Prospective students are strongly advised to verify the benefit(s) for which they may be eligible upon completion with their state’s licensure agency prior to enrolling in an American College of Education degree or certificate program. 

Additional Disclosure


  • Information about ACE’s Educational Leadership program performance (pass rates) over the past five years is available on the Texas Education Agency’s website
  • Information about the effect of supply and demand forces on the educator workforce can be found on the EEP website and from Texas Workforce Commission
  • Texas Educational Leadership Students who wish to seek principal licensure in Texas will need to achieve an 80% or better on a practice examination within six months of testing approval request as outlined in the “Texas Approval to Test Policy”. 

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