Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership

Ed.D. in Educational Leadership Requirements

The Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership degree requires 44 credits of coursework. Students will ordinarily complete the graduate program within three years full-time. However, students may choose to complete the program part-time in four to five years.

All students will participate in a residency (three full days, held at the beginning of their program and at the start of year II, offered both on-ground and remote/synchronously). These non-credit residencies will prepare students for collaborative engagement with peers and faculty, introduce them to key resources for their doctoral journey, and engage them in community development activities. 

Required Courses (taken by all students)

• EDL 8010: Proseminar in Doctoral Research I – This course, the first in the program’s five course research series, will socialize students into the identity of doctoral-level researcher, including preparing them to use existing literature and evidence to inform question development, understanding the landscape of educational research both broadly and specific to their field, and developing a community approach to research program definition and execution. The course will be held in the first term of a student’s enrollment and will include four synchronous meetings spread throughout the semester in which students will revisit the foundational concepts and structures introduced during the first residency. The focus of the pro seminar will include establishing a transformative leadership model, defining problems from a transformative angle, and building their capacity for advanced literature research and evidence collection.
• EDL 8020: Transformative Leadership: Theory to Practice – What does it mean to lead transformatively? This course will engage students in answering that question through a systematic and rigorous review of leadership theories, leadership practices in 21st century educational and clinical settings, and through an introduction to case-based leadership study in education. Students will develop familiarity with leadership theories grounded in equity and inclusion, collaborative and collegial leadership models, and models drawn from both familiar and non-western settings.
• EDL 8030: Holistic Leadership: Building Transformative Networks – 21st century leaders face unprecedented demands in navigating complex challenges that impact educational institutions and related community settings. This course will examine and explore networked leadership and investigate the potential and power of collaborative and community-centered change. The case model will explore exemplars of collaborative, connected initiatives centering multiple stakeholder engagement, providing tools and strategies for developing successful change within students’ home institutions.
• EDL 8040: Qualitative Research Design – This course, the first in a series of two methodologically focused courses, will introduce students to advanced methods of qualitative research design, including interview research, focus group research, ethnography, and construction and design of case study. Students will learn the theories, principles, and foundations of sound qualitative research practice, and design an exemplar study based on a case from the previous three courses. The course will familiarize students with the rationale and purposes of qualitative research approaches, and the fundamentals of a qualitative method-grounded DP.
• EDL8050: Quantitative Research Design – This course, the second in the two-part series of methodologically focused courses, will introduce students to quantitative research design and practice. Students will learn foundational concepts and approaches to measurement and assessment, including survey design, program outcomes assessment, and longitudinal study design. Additionally, students will learn analytical skills, including relevant statistical formulas, and engage in design, implementation, and analysis of a survey related to a case from the previous required course sequence.
• EDL8060: Proseminar in Doctoral Research II – This course is designed to engage students in development of the proposal for the DP. Students will identify and refine their research question, develop appropriate methods for measurement and assessment of the research question, and conduct a thorough literature review as foundational evidence for the importance of the problem. This course will include a particular focus on defining and developing research questions with direct relevance to real-world practice in educational and community settings, grounded in utilization of directly relevant leadership theories and strategies. The culminating project for this course will be the completed DP Proposal.
• EDL 8500: Proposal Defense Credits – These credits are allocated for preparation of the introduction, literature review, and methods (CH. 1-3), and defense of the proposal.
• EDL 8600: Dissertation Credits – Two credits per semester: This course is for students who have defended their proposal and are completing the dissertation, including securing IRB approval, planning for data collection, and collecting data, analyzing, and writing up results.
• EDL 8601: Dissertation Completion and Defense Credits – Two credits: This course designation is for those who are completing and defending their dissertation in practice.

Electives by Concentration

Organizational Development Electives:

• EDL 8100: Building Dynamic Organizations -Leadership in organizations is a challenging and multi-level undertaking, one that requires individuals to possess a strong sense of understanding themselves as leaders and the complexities of the context in which they are leading. This course will introduce students to current theories of organizational development that center dynamism, and transformative change. students will study and explore the intricacies of dynamic organizations through case examples, and will construct a dynamic organization model drawn from integrated sources
• EDL 8110: Organizational and Team Development – This course will build on and continue the learning from EDL8100 and will engage learners in creating a multi-level solution space to an organizational challenge drawn from the real world. Students will use research methods to rigorously investigate the contours of a specific organizational challenge and provide evidence-based solutions to the institutional client in question. The emphasis of this course will be on application, refinement, and assessment of organizational development strategies.
• EDL 8120: Ethics in Organizational Leadership – Advancing organizational effectiveness requires leaders to be diligently focused on creating cultures of deep respect, mutual encouragement, and practices grounded in both accountability and beneficence. Inevitably, ethical challenges present themselves when leaders undertake innovative and creative approaches, and using the case method, this course will explore contemporary ethical challenges common to both educational and community organizations. Additionally, students will devise a code of ethics and engage in a collective process of discernment related to inspiring ethical leadership and trust at all levels of an organization.

School Leadership Electives

• EDL 8400: Education Law and Policy – In this course, students will consider the legal aspects of schools and education. Laws governing religious freedom, free speech, due process, students’ and parents’ rights, and privacy laws will be examined. Attention will be given to the American Disabilities Act, Special Education Laws, harassment, and equity regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Laws concerning general school operations, the dissemination of information, permissions, and safety of the preschool, elementary, middle, and secondary levels will be examined.
• EDL 8410: Advanced Leadership and Policy in Education – In this course, students will examine the principles, values, and beliefs that inform contemporary educational leadership and look critically at the contextual factors that influence how leaders’ function in schools and school districts. Students will consider the social, economic, historical, and political forces that shape school environments and review the changing impact of Federal policy and national strategies on local educational settings.
• EDL 8420: School Finance and Operations – This course is designed to provide students with an overview of school finance and operations. Topics include roles and responsibilities of administrators and school committees, financial management (budgeting, fund types, financial reporting, internal controls, procurement law, and requirements), infrastructure and support services, and human resources (payroll and benefit considerations). Participants will learn how these elements relate to the vision, mission, values, and culture of schools as organizations.

Leadership in Applied Mental Health Electives

• EDL 8300: Ethics, Law and Policy in Clinical Practice and Supervision – This course will examine law and policy from local, state and federal lawmakers and constituency groups relevant to contemporary mental health program delivery and oversite. The intersection of ethical standards, duty of care, autonomy, patient confidentiality, and professional behavior will be covered both in application and legal ramifications. Development of ethical practices and strategies for programmatic delivery will be central to the course through case studies and practical application.
• EDL 8310: From Vision to Action: Strategy, Planning and Implementation (AMH) – Effective leadership is grounded in one’s ability to envision a better future for one’s community while building a collaborative vision alongside multiple stakeholders. Understanding the critical components for effective planning, development, implementation and assessment will be examined in depth. Case models for mental health and social service delivery in schools, community organizations and institutional settings will be a primary component in the development of key competencies to lead change initiatives and conduct effective program evaluation.
• EDL 8320: Leadership and Supervision in Mental Health – Practice Effective supervision is contextually specific and requires significant levels of emotional intelligence and adaptability. This course will examine predominant theories in supervision, including emergent models such as feminist, anti-racist, and appreciative supervisory leadership. Established experts in supervision will lead students through rigorous self-analysis as a means of generating solutions to challenging supervisory scenarios. The legal and ethical landscape of supervision in educational, clinical, and community settings will also be explored.

Innovative Curricular Leadership Electives

• EDL 8500: Teaching to Transform: Advanced Facilitation and Pedagogy – Teaching well requires attention to individualized learning practices while also attending to the experience of the collective. This requires a sophisticated and advanced understanding of pedagogical effectiveness, the art and science of facilitation, and the design and implementation of effective assessment methods. This course will lead students through course design, assessment, and execution of individualized learning experiences, with specific attention to equity and transformational learning. Learners will achieve learning outcomes through a collaborative peer-based model of instructional design and equity-minded assessment.
• EDL 8510: Strategic Resource Leadership – Alongside the practice of transformational teaching, the allocation of instructional resources, both human, technological and material, has the potential to make or break the effectiveness of a teaching and learning unit. This course is designed to familiarize curricular leaders with models of resource allocation, including fiscal management and budgeting, human resource deployment, and implementation of technological advances for learning transformation. Case studies engaging curricular leaders in the complexity of resource decisions will be engaged and students will build a representative multi-level resource plan for their unit.
• EDL 8520: Law and Policy of 21st Century Education – What is free speech? What are ‘reasonable’ accommodations? What is a school’s responsibility related to preventing sexual harassment? These and other legal issues, typified by battleground ideological differences, are the focal point of emergent policy from local, state and federal lawmakers and constituency groups, and the terrain is nowhere near settled. This course will examine the current landscape of these shifts, providing educational leaders with an advanced understanding of the impact of law and policy on schools and colleges in the 21st century. Case studies will enable deep learning about relevant precedent, and areas of contested jurisprudence.