Harvard Graduate School of Education

The Principals' Center

Chicago Leadership Institute

A transformative, Harvard faculty-led learning experience, designed to elevate your leadership and drive rapid and sustained school improvement.

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The Principals’ Center at Harvard Graduate School of Education is coming to Lake County! This specialized three-day institute is designed to build your capacity to lead high-quality schools and teacher teams, no matter the challenges you face. Working alongside Harvard faculty and experienced practitioners, you’ll sharpen your leadership essentials and leave with actionable strategies and an improvement plan tailored for your own school context.

Institute Details

  • Date: March 4 - 6, 2026
  • Location: Lake County Regional Office of Education, IL
  • Tuition: $3,500 per person
  • Priority Deadline: January 5, 2026
  • Final Application Deadline: January 21, 2026

Featured Topics

School Turnaround Leaders

School Turnaround & Transformational Leadership

Learn how to drive fundamental shifts in school culture and instructional practice for immediate and continual gains. Develop and refine an actionable school improvement plan tailored to your setting.
Personal Leadership

Personal Leadership & School Culture

Grow your authentic leadership and foster a positive, ambitious school environment. Learn proven methods to inspire a thriving school culture and build resilience for effective change.
Instructional Quality

Instructional Quality & Adaptive Strategy

Learn how to set a vision for high-quality instruction, support teacher growth, drive improvement, and respond adaptively to challenges. Use data to assess progress and fuel improvement cycles.
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What To Expect

  • Faculty-led seminars based on research and proven practice
  • Case studies and real-world scenarios of school turnaround
  • Pre-program survey to tailor content to your needs
  • Post-program evaluation to ensure actionable outcomes

Who Should Attend

Our programs welcome interest and registrations from all practitioners in the field. Content is tailored for education professionals working in the following capacities:

  • Principals and assistant principals
  • Department heads, deans, and other school level leaders
  • District leaders hoping to support school-based leaders

Faculty Chair

Katherine K. Merseth

Katherine K. Merseth

Senior Lecturer, HGSE

Katherine Merseth's work concentrated on charter schools, teacher education, mathematics education, and the case-method of instruction. At Harvard, she founded the Harvard Children's Initiative, a university-wide program focusing on the needs of children as well as the School Leadership and the Teacher Education Programs at the School of Education. In mathematics education, she was the principal investigator of the Mathematics Case Development Project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Massachusetts Math and Science Partnership working with middle school mathematics teachers using classroom based cases; she also served as co-principal investigator of the Teacher Education Addressing Mathematics and Science in Boston and Cambridge Project. Her book, Windows on Teaching Mathematics: Cases of Secondary Mathematics Classrooms (Teachers College Press), represents work in mathematics education and the case method while her involvement as a case method teacher of school administrators exists in her Cases in Educational Administration (Longman).

"The School Turnaround Leaders institute at Harvard was by far the most impactful professional development I have ever had the chance to take part in. With purpose and intentionality, the Harvard staff gave me the opportunity to speak and network with educational professionals from many different areas around the country. I felt valued and heard while learning from leaders in the field."
Haley Jones, Assistant Principal
Fort Worth Independent School District

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