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About the Education Policy and Leadership (EPoL) Master’s of Science Program
A pandemic that has heightened inequality. A renewed drive for racial and economic justice. A need for core beliefs and evidence to guide educational decision-making. A facility in a wide range of analytic methods. These are the kinds of motivating catalysts and personal characteristics of those who will thrive in the Education Policy and Leadership Master’s Program at the University of Oregon. Now is the time for an inter-disciplinary, reflective and skill-oriented education like the kind you will find in the EPoL program.
Our program is a 12-month place-based program that awards you a Master of Science degree in Education Policy and Leadership (EPoL). The program combines methodological training, theoretical grounding, and practical expertise in US education policy, evidence-based decision-making, organizational leadership, and policy-making processes. If desired, EPoL students can add on an optional specialization in data science.
What can I do with this degree?
Master’s degrees are highly sought-after degrees within the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Here are some of the kinds of jobs you will be able to tackle with confidence:
- Education data analyst in a research firm
- Education program officer in a non-profit or advocacy organization
- Policy analyst for a school district or state department of education
- Academic or student affairs dean in K-12 schools
- Social and/or community service manager
- Administrator in a college or university
- Education journalist
- Principal in public, public charter or private school (some of these roles also require an administrative license)
- System leader (e.g., assistant superintendent, associate commissioner in school district or state department of education)
- Director, founder, or program manager for private or non-profit educational organization
- School board member
If you’re considering pursuing a doctoral degree, this is a fantastic degree to prepare you for a PhD in education policy, educational leadership, political science, public policy, or another social science or quantitative methods field.
Hear from Program Director and Associate Professor Ilana Umansky in this short, informative video about EPoL!
Associate Professor Ilana Umansky discusses our one-year Education Policy and Leadership (EPoL) masters program that provides rigorous theoretical, methodological, and analytic training in a supportive cohort environment on campus in Eugene, Oregon.
Take the Next Step
Call, email, visit us. We’re here to answer your questions. Or, if you’re ready, dive in and apply to the program!
Information Session
Want to learn more? Please join us for one of our virtual information sessions with Program Director Ilana Umansky, PhD. We will share information about program structure, design, and classes – and we’ll answer your questions.
Join us!
Clicking on one of the dates listed below will open a new window where you can register for that information session.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024, 12:00 p.m. (PT), 3:00 p.m. (ET)
Wednesday, November 13, 2024 4:00 p.m. (PT), 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Make sure to download the Zoom App “Zoom Client for Meetings” (Please remember to wear headphones/earbuds during the Zoom session). After you register, we will send you a confirmation email with a Zoom link so that you can access the session. We’ll also send you a reminder the day before.
Faculty Spotlight
Maithreyi Gopalan is an Associate Professor of Education Policy and Leadership (EPoL) and Quantitative Research Methods in Education at the University of Oregon College of Education
What questions, ideas, or values are at the heart of your research agenda?
At its core, educational equity is at the heart of all three strands of research that I am engaged in. Whether it is using demographic techniques to examine and highlight key educational disparities in students’ learning opportunities or using experimental and quasi-experimental research designs to... continue reading
The Student Experience
MS-EPoL is an in-person, four-term (12 month), cohort-based program, although candidates may opt to attend part-time, extending their study plan across two years. Program cohorts start graduate coursework in July.
Candidates develop close relationships with peers and faculty, through sequential course work that brings together the strands of (1) research methods, (2) educational theory, (3) policy studies, and (4) leadership studies. Although the cohort takes a core strand of classes together, roughly half of each student’s classes are electives, allowing individual students to tailor their coursework to their own interests and goals.
Electives range from methodological skills like EDLD 652 Data Visualization, to substantive courses like EDLD Education Policy for Multilingual Students. Candidates are also able to take relevant courses outside of the College of Education including in the School of Planning, Public Policy, and Management, as well as departments such as Economics, Sociology, and Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies.
What our current students are saying...
Gehna Greenslate, '25
What have you learned during your time in the program that has helped shape your future career goals?
While I am just starting my second term in the EPoL Program, I have had the privilege to learn so much from my amazing courses and professors. I have learned about the policies that shape our current educational structure, and how to apply my passions to the...
Alumni Spotlights
Erick Njue, '23
What was your experience in the program?
I am proud to have been in the first cohort of Master of Science in Education Policy and Leadership (EPoL). I came into the program with little experience and studying EPoL was the best academic decision so far. I interacted with the best education policy makers, researchers, leaders, data savvies and cohorts. The diversity of the cohort...
Santiago Navia, '23
What were your career plans after you completed the program and how is it going?
Commitment to Social Justice and Systems Level Change
Faculty, students, and staff in the Education Policy and Leadership Program are committed to equity and justice in our own program and university, as well as in K-12 schools nationally. We believe in the potential of schools and school systems to create change toward racial, economic, linguistic, gender, and sexual identity justice. We also know that schools, including higher education institutions, do not live up to this potential, and too often exacerbate and perpetuate injustice and harm. We commit to the work of changing these deeply embedded patterns and structures both personally, as individuals and members of our larger communities, and professionally, as higher education leaders, researchers, advocates, and teachers.
Scholarships and Funding
We provide a number of scholarship and funding opportunities in an effort to offer students support in pursuing their degrees and professional futures by removing as many barriers to those goals as possible. We use one common application that will automatically enter you into consideration for any and all scholarships for which you meet selection criteria.