Lynn University

CPED-Influenced Program

Ed.D. Educational Leadership

Scholar-Practitioner Doctorate

Major influences impacting program development

1. Consultation with experts in the field of doctoral professional preparation-Educational Leadership:

• Dr. David Imig, University of Maryland
• Dr. David Marsh, University of Southern California
• Dr. Lee Shulman, President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
• Dr. Chris Golde, Fellow Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
• Dr. Ellen Goldring, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University

2. Review of key literature on professional preparation and educational leadership.

3. Review of program descriptions from exemplary programs nationally including:

Peabody College, Vanderbilt University

University of Southern California

4. Consultation with critical friends through the CPED initiative.

School/Department where the Program is Housed

Lynn University

Donald and Helen Ross College of Education

Educational Leadership Dept.

Program Description

Program of Study The Ed.D. Educational Leadership scholar-practitioner doctorate at Lynn University in the Ross College of Education is a 51 credit program. All students enrolled in the Ed.D. program must complete curricular requirements (39 credits) and choose one area of specialization and corresponding number of electives (12 credits). Each class scaffolds on previous class learning. The program offers students practical experiences related to concepts of measurement, instrument design and implementation.

1 Foundational Course

4 Methods of Inquiry Courses

2 Problem Based Inquiry Research Seminars

3 Problem Based Inquiry Field Based Courses

3 Capstone Experiences

4 Specialization Courses

Learning objectives are organized around four program themes:

1. Leadership

2. Equity & Diversity (E & D)

3. Accountability

4. Learning and Instruction (L & D)

In the second year, students build upon broad based knowledge gained in the program while taking specialization courses that align most closely with their 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.

Foundation
EDU 701 Leadership, Policy and Context

Methods of Inquiry
EDU 702 Methods of Inquiry i: Policy and Program Evaluation
EDU 704 Methods of Inquiry ii: Quantitative/Qualitative Analysis
EDU 706 Methods of Inquiry iii: Analyzing the Data
EDU 708 Methods of Inquiry iv: Research Critique

Problem-Based Inquiry
EDU 703 Problem-Based Inquiry Seminar #1
EDU 711 Problem-Based Inquiry Seminar #2
EDU 705 Problem-Based Inquiry: Field-Based Class #1
EDU 707 Problem-Based Inquiry: Field-Based Class #2 Leadership in a Metropolitan Context
EDU 709 Problem-Based Inquiry: Field-Based Class #3 Social, Psychological and Philosophical Issues in Education

Capstone
EDU 801 Part I: The Problem
EDU 802 Part II: The Gathering of Evidence
EDU 803 Part III: Findings/Report/Outcomes

SPECIALIZATION-EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP K-12
EDU 726 #1 Instructional & Curriculum Leadership
EDU 727 #2 Public School Law
EDU 728 #3 Student Motivation & Cognition
EDU 729 #4 Planning & Management in School Funding and Facilities

SPECIALIZATION –TEACHER EDUCATION/HIGHER EDUCATION
EDU 730 #1 Research on teaching and teacher education
EDU 731 #2 Higher Education Law
EDU 732 #3 Adult Learning & Instruction
EDU 733 #4 Higher Education Economics & Finance Policy.

The Ed.D. program includes a requirement for completion of the program in three years. When new graduates are admitted to the program, they convene for an initial 2 day orientation. There are two summer institutes that satisfy the residency requirements.

Philosophy and Mission

Educational Leadership Department Mission Statement

Educational Leadership faculty, at Donald and Helen Ross College of Education, Lynn University, primary aim in all its programs, to provide students the knowledge, dispositions, skills, and understanding necessary to exercise visionary leadership in diverse and dynamic environments. The professional preparation provided by faculty stresses strategic planning, collaborative problem solving, interpersonal and inter-group functioning, technological proficiency and effective communication. In our view, the ultimate mission of the department is to prepare students to create organizational cultures that lead with the head, hand, and heart.

Ed.D. Educational Leadership Program Mission Statement

To prepare educators for the application of appropriate and specific practices, the generation of new knowledge, and for the stewardship of the profession.

We support the CPED Charter:

The professional doctorate in education:

• Frames learners around questions of equity, ethics, and social justice to bring about solutions to complex problems of practice.
• Prepares leaders who can construct and apply knowledge to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals, families, organizations, and communities.
• Provides opportunities for candidates to develop and demonstrate collaboration and communication skills to work with diverse communities and to build partnerships.
• Provides field-based opportunities to analyze problems of practice and use multiple frames to develop meaningful solutions.
• Grounds and develops a professional knowledge base that integrates both practical and research knowledge, that links theory with systemic and systematic inquiry.
• Emphasizes the generation, transformation, and use of professional knowledge and practice.

Admissions Requirements

The admission process consists of two stages:

Stage 1- General screening via published material

• Official transcripts of all post-secondary work
• GRE to be completed prior to graduation (scores not to be more than 5 years old)
• TOEFL scores if native language is not English
• Two letters of support from current employment
• Writing sample:

1. General application and introduction letter.
2. Professional Practice Statement (1,000 words approx) should identify your professional goals and contain an explanation of how this program will help you attain them.

Stage 2 - Interview & presentation by finalists who progress through stage 1.

• Interview & presentation addressing an identified problem/issue from their school or school district, and an extemporaneous writing sample.

Description of each year of the Program — number of courses, credits, time frame; core, specializations, dissertation/capstone

All classes are 3 credits.
Two semesters - 13 weeks plus Summer Institute (varied calendar to meet personalized needs of cohort).

Year One

EDU: 701 Leadership, Policy & Context
EDU: 702 Methods of Inquiry I, Policy and Program Evaluation
EDU: 703 PBI Seminar #1
EDU: 704 Methods of Inquiry II, Quantitative/Qualitative Analysis
EDU: 705 PBI: Field Based Class #1, Educational Reform in a Metropolitan Context
EDU: 706 Methods of Inquiry III, Analyzing the data

Year Two

EDU: 707 PBI Field Based Class #2 Leadership in a Metropolitan Context
EDU: 708 Methods of Inquiry IV Research Critique
EDU: 709 PBI Field Based Class #3 Social, Psychological, and Philosophical Issues in Education
EDU: 730 #1 Teacher Education- Research on Teaching and Teacher Education
EDU: 726 #1 Educational Leadership K-12-Instructional and Curriculum Leadership
EDU: 711 PBI Seminar #2
EDU: 731 #2 Teacher Education-Higher Education Law
EDU: 727 #2 Educational Leadership K-12- Public School Law

Year Three

EDU: 732 #3 Teacher Education-Adult Learning & Instruction
EDU: 728 #3 Educational Leadership K-12-Student Motivation & Cognition
EDU: 733 #4 Teacher Education- Higher Education Economics & Finance Policy
EDU: 729 #4 Educational Leadership K-12-Planning & Management in School Funding and Facilities

Capstone Seminar (9 credits)
EDU: 801 Capstone Seminar, Part I, The Problem/Profile
EDU: 802 Capstone Seminar, Part II, The Gathering of Evidence
EDU: 803 Capstone Seminar, Part III, Findings/Report/Outcomes, Viva

Milestones Employed in the Program — comprehensive/qualifying exams, papers, or products necessary for graduation

Student Assessment

Performance in the program will be assessed in several ways. Conventional individual course performance measures (grades & electronic professional portfolios-LifeText) are reviewed; i.e., mastery, synthesis, and application of knowledge and skills gained during the Ed.D. Program’s first two years are coupled with mid-semester and two annual reviews by program faculty who provide performance feedback.

A framework for the benchmarks to assess student performance is summarized below.

• Semester reviews
• Annual reviews
• Portfolio (LifeText) review
• Complete capstone proposal

Educational Leadership faculty members will assess student progress and provide formative and summative feedback throughout the program. Faculty determination of unsatisfactory progress will result in a corrective action program (CAR) being implemented with additional faculty mentoring. Students will provide feedback to each other formally and informally. As reflective practitioners, students will assess their progress in the program based on their experiences, peer and faculty feedback received. Faculty members will also consider students’ peer evaluations completed in various classes when completing their evaluation rubric. The portfolio (LifeText) assessment of learning will serve as a comprehensive exam. Student portfolio work will be judged rigorously in order for the student to move forward into the capstone experience.

Program's Support Structure

Beginning in fall 2009, Lynn University offered practicing school administrators, and educational leaders involved with a variety of agencies a unique opportunity to obtain a scholar-practitioner doctorate degree in Educational Leadership or Teacher Education.

Lynn University’s journey towards a new and innovative Ed.D. program has been conducted in conjunction with the Carnegie Foundation Project on the Education Doctorate. The help and support of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and our critical friends in the project has been invaluable. The outcome being that we have a national focus on our program.

About the program:

• A three (3) year doctoral program
• Two concentrations are offered that tailor to the following professional fields: Teacher Education and K-12 Leadership.
• The core and specialization curriculums (Teacher Education and K-12 Leadership) have common syllabi, and students take courses in a specified sequence.
• A learning community with a cohort of approximately twelve (12) students per year.
• The cohort meets Saturday(s) (9:00am-5:00pm) throughout the fall and spring semester and attend a Summer Institute.
• Students complete the practitioner-doctorate degree with a capstone experience.

The foundation for the Ed.D. program is the scholar-practitioner model; blending instruction, theory, research knowledge and concepts, as well as applied analytic and communication skills. These are nested within an authentic clinical context, illustrating problems faced by practicing education professionals.

The program's scholar-practitioner philosophy assumes:

• Theoretical knowledge is authentic.
• Doing things right needs to be balanced by doing the right things.
• Engagement with faculty at Ross College of Education is professionally valuable.
• Scholar/practitioners should be informed by and be able to comprehend and critique research findings.
• Engagement in the program enhances and develops educational leadership to motivate an organization under the umbrella of education to the better good.

Signature Pedagogy

Problem Based Instruction (PBI) Problems of practice and issues of the field will be the vehicle around which students examine the four overarching Themes that guide and are embedded as foundational skills and competencies in the program.

The themes serve as critical competencies throughout the program and are threaded into the core curriculum, seminars, case studies and research conducted.

Lynn’s doctoral program’s signature pedagogy incorporates these assumptions as part of Problem Based Learning (PBL) through the use of field studies starting in the first year of the program aligned with foundational coursework in PBL, inquiry, gathering evidence and research methods of evidence. The PBL field study will also complement and align with the Capstone of the program implemented in the third year of the program.

Laboratories of Practice

Because Problem Based Learning (PBL) uses case studies and real situations it allows faculty and students in the program to be introduced to real world problems or field studies throughout the program. We can also construct intensive internships in complex learning environments. Bridges and Hallinger (1995) have presented a PBL model for leadership development which states that knowing and doing are important outcomes for learners. More importantly PBL activates prior knowledge and allows for the incorporation of new knowledge; learners are provided numerous opportunities to apply knowledge (laboratories of practice) and assimilate it in the context it will eventually be used.

Inquiry Courses

Program Components

Inquiry components

• 4 Methods of Inquiry Courses
• 2 Problem Based Inquiry Research Seminars
• 3 Problem Based Inquiry Field Based Courses

As scholar-practitioners, graduates of this program will be inquiry-driven education leaders. They will be self-reflective, and skilled in the systematic collection of data, analysis and reporting of new data. They will be able to bring multiple inquiry skills to bear on their learning organization.

The inquiry strands of this Ed.D. focus on issues of research literacy, methods of systematic inquiry and how leaders can identify and analyze data effectively -- with the primary goal of building the requisite skills leaders need to use research outcomes for decision-making. Students learn to evaluate the evidence from research and explore the implications of this evidence for policy and practice implementation. Students gather quantitative and qualitative data within an applied context, analyze the information, and present results in verbal and written forms.

Capstone

The Consultancy Model (CM)

Problems of practice articulated by field organizations will be topics for study. Students will work in groups on these problems of practice in a collaborative endeavor that requires them to understand the problem as posed, analyze the issue from a number of perspectives, and respond with policy and practice.

Clients request for assistance description of a project will include:
(1) A context statement; (2) the problem to be addressed; (3) the expectations of the client; (4) the data sources that will be made available (5) the agreed timeline for data to be collected; (6) the expectations regarding communication and reports; and (7) the expectations for the final report.

Students will “bid” on the project on which they wish to work. Mentoring faculty will be assigned a team in accordance with his or her area of expertise and current research agenda. Once a student team has selected a project, the team will present a scope of work memo to the client and the mentoring Educational Leadership faculty that defines the scope of the project, including key questions; specifies the analytical focus and data collection strategies; develops a timeline and task completion schedule; and assigns team members. The final project will be a report of the analysis undertaken, including a description of the literature which informed the topic, a description of the data used, and the policy and practice recommendations. The project will be presented to both faculty reviewers and client reviewers. Using procedures outlined by critical friends in CPED institutions Implementing this type of capstone, structures will be in place to ensure individual accountability for work products.

The capstone is begun in fall of the 3rd year, continued in the spring semester and presented in the final semester of the program i.e. summer of the 3rd year.

Syllabi

TBA

Key Contact Person

Dr. Valerie A. Storey
Email: vstorey@lynn.edu

Cost Structure

Program Links

Educational Doctorate of Practice

Educational Doctorate Flyer (PDF)