APEX Program for School Leadership

October 5, 2026 - November 15, 2026

The work of leading a classical school in the modern age is both noble and exacting. School leaders today must navigate a host of competing pressures: preserving a coherent vision of truth, goodness, and beauty amid cultural fragmentation; supporting and retaining excellent teachers; engaging parents with clarity and compassion; maintaining academic rigor; and cultivating ordered, virtuous communities in a distracted and often disordered world. In addition to requiring managerial competence, these challenges demand moral clarity, steady judgment, and the ability to effectively communicate both a vision for human flourishing within the academy along with the practical processes for achieving it.

October 21, 2026 - November 22, 2026

In this course, we will consider a set of challenges that are unique within – or at least more focal to – a classical or liberal arts educational setting, given the distinct goals of such settings. In doing so, a first step will be to consider the goals of a liberal arts education. In taking this course, it is unlikely that you will emerge having mastered these challenges, as they are challenges that reflect the magnitude of liberal education itself. For instance, a teacher might wish to produce a lifelong learner, might even know what actions are conducive to doing so, and still have a long way to travel before having the capacity of cultivating a lifelong learner. This course aims at identifying the challenges and providing tools toward mastering them. There may follow years of attempting to apply those tools before feeling as though you have arrived at any level of mastery.

Spring 2027

Perhaps one of the most important roles a leader assumes is that of an orator. Leaders frequently deliver speeches to a variety of audiences: students, teachers, parents, colleagues, and more. This course aims to develop a leader's oration skills in style, technique, delivery, and composition. Sessions contain important readings, video demonstrations, and assignments designed to grow your abilities and confidence as an orator.

Spring 2027

This course builds upon the wisdom of the three Delphic maxims inscribed in the Temple of Apollo: “know thyself,” “nothing in excess,” and “certainty brings ruin.” It combines classical models of leadership with modern management practices. Its anchor, however, remains the medium of tragedy, the realm of truth and self-discovery par excellence. The lyric voice will also feature prominently, as the “star to every wand’ring bark,” as Shakespeare writes in Sonnet 116.

This course encourages self-reflection about such topics as leadership style and bringing the best in those whom one serves. It seeks to reveal the contours of leadership (rather than details) so as to engender an understanding of leadership as an art in the sense of the ancient Greek word techne. It does not focus on operationalizing one’s vision in a school. This course contains synchronous elements and requires a personal mentor.

Summer 2027

This course builds on Personal Leadership I and centers on Shakespeare's The Tempest, particularly the character of Prospero, to cement your understanding of who a classical leader is and what his or her work means in the context of education. The readings and assignments promote sustained intellectual engagement with Shakespeare's vision, as well as self-reflection on both your strengths and areas of growth.

Summer 2027

In this course, learners will examine Xenophon’s life and work. They will explore several themes related to leadership, including how following well is a prerequisite to leading well, what it takes to become a leader, and how interpersonal relationships evolve in the transition into leadership positions. The course concludes with an opportunity to reflect on what was learned and apply it explicitly to the practicalities of institutional leadership. Additionally, learners will participate in an open forum with Headmaster Poppleton which will allow the opportunity to ask questions about his experience in leadership in light of our study of Xenophon.

Readings include Xenophon’s Anabasis of Cyrus and a selection from Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus as well as Diogenes Laertius’ biographical essay “Life of Xenophon.”

Summer 2027

This two-part APEX course is focused on both outlining foundation principles of instructional coaching while also dedicating time to the practical work of conducting the observation and feedback process. During the first eight weeks (six sessions), we will ground the learning in several key texts and do a guided practice of the coaching cycle. For this course we will read the complete texts of Never Underestimate Your Teacher and The Coaching Habit. We will also read Plutarch’s essay “How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend” and excerpts from The Art of Coaching and Leverage Leadership 2.0. The second part, lasting eight weeks, will shift gears into a mentorship model- with the facilitators meeting individually with participants to be a thought partner as they do the work of coaching on their campus.

At Great Hearts, we value the short cycle observations as outlined in Leverage Leadership and utilize the Great Hearts Pedagogy - The Teaching Playbook: The Role and Practice of Our Best Great Hearts Teachers and its references to Teach Like A Champion in order to calibrate excellent teaching throughout the network. We also consider rubrics deployed in each region to help guide us toward excellence.

Summer 2027

This course takes participants through specific “on the ground” challenges encountered by real headmasters as they make decisions in their first year as leaders of a young school. At the same time, it is designed to encourage future school leaders to think about the meaning of education in a specific community. Ultimately, the course seeks to inculcate the vision of a school as a learning community dedicated to excellence in a way that embraces the larger communities of parents and neighborhoods.

Fall 2027

Building a Strong Student Culture uses the classical virtues as a paradigm for cultivating a healthy student body in partnership with teachers. The objective of this course is to develop your ability to integrate a consideration of virtue and an orientation toward virtue into the practical, day-to-day decision-making processes of a school teacher.

Fall 2027

As Jim Collins famously said in his best-selling leadership book, Good to Great, “It is better to first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then figure out where to drive.” Extraordinary organizations are built by leaders capable of aligning their teams around a common vision, pursued by a diverse team of competent, committed members – and hiring is crucial to that end.