Educational Leadership (Ed.D.)
Degree Requirements
Doctor Of Education Program in Educational Leadership
The Educational Leadership Executive Ed.D. program is an intensive 60 credit hour, cohort-based program designed for educators who wish to earn a terminal degree in educational leadership. The Ed.D. program allows students to keep their current full-time jobs while also studying full-time.
The program is aligned with the recommendations of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (http://cpedinitiative.org/) to redesign the Ed.D. to make it a stronger and more relevant degree for the advanced preparation of school practitioners and clinical faculty, academic leaders, and professional staff for the nation’s schools and colleges, and the learning organizations that support them. The program is intended to train an emerging generation of senior educational leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary to connect research, theory, and practice in leading high performing learning organizations to manage resources strategically, engage in evidence-based decision-making, promote continuous improvement, and encourage innovation.
The program includes courses in educational leadership, program assessment and evaluation, finance, ethics and legal issues, global education, and various research strategies. The dissertation process is structured and systematic, unfolding from the first course throughout the curriculum to make it possible to complete a dissertation study by the end of the program. The research courses in the curriculum are designed to build the expertise needed not only to complete the dissertation, but also to supervise, evaluate, and apply research to the management of complex educational organizations.
Because the program is explicitly designed to prepare educational leaders who can use research and theory to create change by solving a problem of practice, students complete a dissertation that is addressed to a specific practical management challenge appropriate to their work setting.
The Doctor of Education degree has two concentrations. One area of focus is for K-12 practitioners, the other for aspiring Higher Education administrators. For information contact Dr. Susan Santoli, Department of Leadership and Teacher Education. The program accepts applications each March 15th for yearly cohorts starting the following May.
Upon admission, practicing K-12 administrators who hold an Educational Specialist degree in Educational Leadership may request coursework from their Specialist degree be considered for transfer credit into the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program.
A 3.25 program and institutional GPA is required at graduation. Courses over 10 years old cannot be used in the program.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Common Core | ||
| To be taken for Higher Ed and K-12 options | ||
| EDL 695 | Mentoring Leadership (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| EDL 689 | Quantitative/Action Research | 3 |
| EDL 699 | Research Project (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| EDL 694 | Dir St and Research | 3 |
| EDU/IDE 692 | Research Proj Seminar (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| IDE 615 | Assess & Eval for Leaders | 3 |
| IDE 631 | Intro Qual/Mixed Methods Res (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| Higher Ed Concentration | ||
| To be taken only for Higher Ed option | ||
| EDL 720 | Global Education | 3 |
| HED 611 | Human Relations in Higher Edu | 3 |
| HED 621 | Program and Curriculum Develop | 3 |
| HED 631 | Sem Higher Ed Mgt Skills | 3 |
| HED 701 | Adv Org Theory for Higher Edu | 3 |
| HED 702 | Higher Ed Finance | 3 |
| HED 703 | Adv Leadership for Higher Ed | 3 |
| HED 707 | Multiculturalism and Organizational Change in Higher Education | 3 |
| HED 732 | Ethics and Law for Higher Ed | 3 |
| EDL 607 | Lead Schs/Multicultural Soc (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| EDL 694 | Dir St and Research (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| EDL 611 | Human Relations Skills (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| EDL 621 | Sem Prog Curriculum Dev (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| EDL 631 | Sem Ed Management Skills (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| EDL 701 | Adv Organizational Theory | 3 |
| EDL 702 | School Finance | 3 |
| EDL 703 | Adv School Leadership | 3 |
| EDL 732 | Ethics and Law for Ed Leaders | 3 |
| EDU 650 | Instructional Techniques (see footnote table below) 1 | 3 |
| Dissertation Hours | ||
| To be taken for Higher Ed and K-12 options. | ||
| (If dissertation is not complete in 12 semester hours, student must register for 1 hr of EDL 799 each semester until dissertation is complete. | ||
| EDL 799 | Research/Dissertation | 3 |
| EDL 799 | Research/Dissertation | 3 |
| EDL 799 | Research/Dissertation | 3 |
| EDL 799 | Research/Dissertation | 3 |
| Total Hours | 90 | |
Footnote
- 1
Required courses for Ed.S. Instructional Leadership