Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership

The Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) is a three-year degree program that equips scholarly-practitioners with the skills needed to connect research with practice, lead high-performing organizations and contribute to students learning. The program is geared toward working professionals who want to be leaders in “metropolitan” education systems. 

Program Options

One concentration is offered that tailors to the following professional field:

• Educational Leadership K-12 (15 credits)
  

Instructional Delivery

In the fall and spring, classes are delivered face-to-face in the classroom on Saturday. Students also attend summer school.

Program Goals/Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the Ed.D. program with a concentration in educational leadership K-12 will be:

• Scholarly-practitioners able to use self-analysis, inquiry and purposeful reflection to continually improve their own practice.
• Scholarly-practitioners, who ask engaging and important questions, formulate appropriate strategies for investigating these questions, conduct investigations with a high degree of competence, analyze and evaluate the results of the investigations, and communicate the results to others.
• Scholarly-practitioners who understand the dynamics of educational systems and are able to leverage those systems in coherent, aligned strategies for educational change by creating democratic learning communities that move school systems toward meeting student achievement goals.
• Scholarly-practitioners who possess the knowledge and ability to ensure that all students are producing high quality work and achieving at optimum levels by fostering effective curricular programs, student-centered learning environments and accountable school cultures that reflect high expectations for student outcomes.
• Scholarly-practitioners who are culturally competent and advocate purposefully for equity in a diverse metropolitan society.
• Scholarly-practitioners who inspired shared vision and commitment to high student achievement informed by best practices by developing structures and processes fostering collaboration and inquiry for continuous instructional improvement.
• Scholarly-practitioners who are practitioner-researchers who purposefully engage in inquiry and construct knowledge that promotes equity in diverse metropolitan areas advancing the public good.
• Scholarly-practitioners who value the application of theory in practice and conduct systemic institutional inquiry, identifying critical issues using data to drive decision-making.
  

Program of Study

The Ed.D. at Lynn University in the Ross College of Education is a 51 credit program:

• One Foundational Course
• Four Methods of Inquiry Courses
• Two Problem Based Inquiry Research Seminars
• Three Problem Based Inquiry Field Based Courses
• Three Capstone Experience 
• Four Specialization Courses   
  

Four program themes

• Leadership
• Accountability
• Equity and Diversity
  
• Learning and Instruction
  

In the second year, students build upon the broad base of knowledge gained in the program while taking specialization courses that align most closely with the student’s career objectives. Each specialization exposes students to cutting-edge research and context-specific best practices with an emphasis on the application of theory to practice, utilizing a problem based learning pedagogical approach.

Ed.D. Program

All students enrolled in the Ed.D. program must complete the following curricular requirements (39 credits) and choose one area of concentration and corresponding number of electives (12 credits). Total credits required for degree completion equals 51. Course requirements for each of the specialization areas are listed after the general program requirements.