Ed.D., Leadership

The Ed.D. degree is designed to allow you to transition into a leadership position within your professional area of expertise, or expand your professional profile and opportunities to work in teaching or leadership roles in education, business, healthcare, or training. Traditionally, the Ph.D. degree is primarily research-focused for those planning to teach and research full time.

Upon graduation from the Ed.D. in Leadership program, you’ll receive the credential of doctorate or doctoral degree. You’ll be referred to as a Doctor of Education, and your signature line can include Ed.D. after your name.

You can complete your education degree coursework in less than three years. You then move into the comprehensive exam and dissertation. You can complete the entire doctor of education program (coursework, comprehensive exam, and dissertation) in four years. Program policy requires that the full program be completed in eight years or less.

The online model follows the same curricular path as the in-person model, however, the majority of the coursework is completed online. You’ll complete most coursework during the year via full online course delivery (spring and fall semesters) and participate in three annual weekend residencies plus online coursework (summer semester).

During the spring and fall semesters, you’ll take part in fully online courses that meet using technology such as live and recorded video meetings, written or video discussions, and others.

The summer residency is four days long and is typically held over a weekend at the Minneapolis Campus in mid-July. The residency allows you to engage in a deeper sense of community and network professionally with faculty and peers during course activities, meals, and formal and informal gatherings.

Both. There will be course activities and assignments that can be completed at your leisure. You’ll also be expected to join online group work and discussions at prearranged days and times.

Examples:

• A Phenomenological Study of how Individuals Experience Re-employment After Being Laid Off
• A Comparison of Student Open-ended Written Comments in Traditional to Online College Course Evaluations: a Quantitative Content Analysis
• Differing Conceptions of Past Practice in Wisconsin Public School Contract Negotiations: a Phenomenographical Study

The comprehensive examination (comp exam) is taken at the culmination of coursework and before starting your dissertation. The comp exam is an integrative experience requiring you to demonstrate mastery of concepts studied during the core courses and apply these concepts to your profession. You’ll have 15 days to provide a written response to three question prompts. You then meet with your chair and committee members for an oral defense, a conversation about your exam responses, allowing you to provide additional context and rationale to defend your work.

Comp exam workshops are provided throughout the program to prepare you for this process.

• If you want to provide educational leadership within private, parochial, or select charter school settings that do not require administrative licensure, the Ed.D. in Leadership program would be a great fit for you. However, this program is not designed to lead to administrative licensure for K-12 public schools.

After determining your chair and committee members, you’ll work with your chair on determining your research question and methodology before moving into the Proposal Development course. 

During this course, you’ll collaborate with your chair, course faculty, and peers to emerge from the class with a proposal you are ready to defend. This process will keep you on track with your research and writing and provide a support structure of clear goals and deadlines for completion. 

Once your proposal has been accepted, your adviser and committee will support you throughout your dissertation’s data gathering, writing, and defense phases to give you the push you need to get to the finish line and graduate.

As a graduate of the Ed.D. program, you will join a network of alumni filling leadership roles at organizations across the United States, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean. Our students and alumni work in schools, postsecondary institutions, businesses, nonprofits, and healthcare institutions worldwide. Within Minnesota, our alumni are leaders in businesses such as Mayo Clinic, 3M, General Mills, Wells Fargo, and more. They also serve as administrators and educational leaders in public and private early childhood, K-12, and higher education institutions.

Yes. This variety lends to the uniqueness of our program. You’ll learn from the experiences of your peers at the same time you are learning from our faculty and the discoveries you make through your own research. Your perspective will be broadened as you examine leadership and organizational development through the lens of not only education but healthcare, government, business, non-profits, and more.

Yes! Wisconsin teachers can apply credits from select WiscAd courses toward elective requirements in both the Traditional and Executive Ed.D. programs.

The Ed.D., Leadership program specifically prepares scholars to add new knowledge to the fields of leadership and education through rigorous, original research.