K-12 and Higher Education Leadership and Policy (Ed.D.)

Bridge the divide between theory and practice while working closely with educators from across the country in an innovative, cohort-based program designed to meet the needs of mid-career K-12 and higher education professionals.

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Program Overview

Our intensive Ed.D. program allows you to pursue a doctorate while continuing your full-time work through one of two academic concentrations:

  1. K-12 Education Leadership and Policy
  2. Higher Education Leadership and Policy

The program culminates in a year-long capstone project in which you will bring to bear the analytic abilities, professional understanding, contextual knowledge, and teamwork skills you'll accrue and more closely mirrors the challenges of contemporary education practice.

Program Facts

Program Director: Marisa Cannata
Admissions Coordinator: Rosie Moody
Admission Term: Summer
Credit Hours: 84, including 30 hours that must transfer in from a prior master's degree

Application Dates

  • Application Deadline 1

    Jan 3, 2024

  • Application Deadline 2

    Feb 3, 2024 

  • Rolling Admissions

    After Feb 3, 2024*

    *Applications received after the Feb 3rd second deadline are reviewed on a rolling basis and accepted as space and funds allow.

Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Students explore K-12 and higher education through a variety of perspectives, including the social, economic, legal, and historical contexts that shape our current educational system and the ways the system may reinforce or disrupt patterns of inequality. The program provides a deep understanding of the relationship among schools and society; democracy, local control, and education; equal protection under the law; systemic inequalities in the educational workforce; and issues of equity in postsecondary access.

Selected Faculty Research

Joanne Golann

Joanne Golann

Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Eduction,
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations

Trained as a sociologist and an ethnographer, Professor Golann seeks to understand how culture shapes educational policy and practice. Based on 18 months of fieldwork inside a high-performing "no-excuses" charter school, her book, Scripting the Moves: Class, Control, and Urban School Reform (Princeton University Press, 2021), considers what it takes-and what it costs-to equalize opportunities for low-income students of color.

Program Curriculum

As a student in the Ed.D. program you will begin your studies with a cohort of approximately 20-25 highly qualified students from around the country. Together you'll progress through a prescribed 3-year (36-month), weekend-based curriculum. Each year is divided into summer, fall, and spring semesters.

A full degree program comprises 54 credit hours, in addition to 30 transfer hours from an accepted master's degree, for a total of 84 credit hours.

Classes meet in-person on Friday evenings and Saturdays during specified weekends, allowing students to maintain their full-time professional role.

Coursework

  • Courses by Specialization

    Educational Leadership and Policy Curriculum (K-12)

    Through required courses, you'll focus on education reform, instructional leadership, educational accountability and assessment, research methods and data analysis, the social context of education, politics and governance, teachers and teaching, and resource allocation and deployment.

    REQUIRED COURSES

    Summer 1

    • EHLP 8110 Advanced Leadership Theory and Behavior
    • EHLP 8120 Advanced Learning and Performance in Organizations

    Fall 1

    • EHLP 8130 Advanced Organizational Theory and Behavior
    • ELP 8150 Leadership for School Improvement

    Spring 1

    • EHLP 8810 Decision Analysis I-Logic of Systematic Inquiry
    • EHLP 8140 Social Context of Educational Leadership and Policy

    Summer 2

    • EHLP 8851 Decision Analysis II-Quantitative Analysis
    • ELP 8210 Resource Allocation and Deployment

    Fall 2

    • EHLP 8820 Decision Analysis III-Qualitative Analysis
    • ELP 8220 Educational Accountability and Student Assessment

    Spring 2

    • ELP 8230 Politics and Governance in Education
    • ELP 8240 Education Law

    Summer 3

    • EHLP 8830 Decision Analysis IV-Program Analysis and Policy Evaluation
    • ELP 9330 Teachers and Teaching

    Fall 3

    • EHLP 9340 International Comparative Issues in Education
    • EHLP 9992 Capstone Experience

    Spring 3

    • ELP 9500 K-12 Seminar
    • EHLP 9992 Capstone Experience

    Higher Education Leadership and Policy Curriculum

    Through required courses, you'll focus on colleges and universities as organizations, the college student experience, research design and data analysis, the academic profession, public policy and higher education, history, finance, and higher education in international contexts.

    REQUIRED COURSES

    Summer 1

    • EHLP 8110 Advanced Leadership Theory and Behavior
    • EHLP 8120 Advanced Learning and Performance in Organizations

    Fall 1

    • EHLP 8130 Advanced Organizational Theory and Behavior
    • HLP 8230 Advanced Nature and Function of Higher Education 

    Spring 1

    • EHLP 8810 Decision Analysis I-Logic of Systematic Inquiry
    • EHLP 8140 Social Context of Educational Leadership and Policy

    Summer 2

    • EHLP 8851 Decision Analysis II-Quantitative Research
    • HLP 9310 College and University Finance 

    Fall 2

    • EHLP 8820 Decision Analysis III-Qualitative Research
    • HLP 8250 Advanced Postsecondary Access

    Spring 2

    • HLP 8220 Public Policy and Higher Education 
    • HLP 8240 The College Student: Advanced

    Summer 3

    • HLP 8210 College and University Management
    • EHLP 8830 Decision Analysis IV-Education Policy and Program Evaluation

    Fall 3

    • EHLP 9340 International Comparative Issues in Education
    • EHLP 9992 Capstone Experience

    Spring 3

    • HLP 9500 Education Law
    • EHLP 9992 Capstone Experience

Faculty

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