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

Mission Statement

The mission of the Educational Leadership/Administration program is to develop and enhance dynamic, high-performing leadership for the renewal and improvement of schools and school systems. Our program is designed to help those in leadership roles provide effective leadership for teaching and learning. Our program philosophy is informed by democratic values, including respect for individual rights and responsibilities, participatory and public decision-making, pluralism, accountability, and organizational integrity.

Our faculty improves leadership for present and future schools. We value reflective, practice-oriented research and inquiry by faculty and students. We promote the leadership qualities of honesty, dynamism, creativity, competence, challenge, and respect for diversity. We value high-quality and action-oriented leadership and endorse a participatory and shared leadership style. The Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership/Administration degree designed to:

produce a scholar-practitioner knowledgeable about the field of Educational Leadership/Administration who also possesses superior knowledge in at least one specific content area, in addition to also having in-depth knowledge of a variety of complementary leadership areas.
prepare individuals for careers in which they will provide leadership focused on P-12 instruction at departmental, school, district, regional, and state levels.

The Ed.D. degree program includes a focused curriculum, yet individual programs of study are tailored to develop and enhance the competencies required to fulfill the student's career goals.

Upon completion of this degree, graduates will have mastered a comprehensive body of knowledge related to the subject matter field of Educational Leadership/Administration and particular content areas. Graduates will have demonstrated knowledge and competence in using analysis and synthesis in disciplined inquiry, and the leadership skills associated with the ethical management and administration of schools and educational systems.

Admissions

An applicant for admission to the Ed.D. program must hold a Master¡¦s degree from an accredited institution and meet the following GPA requirements: (1) a GPA of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale for the last two years of undergraduate study; (2) a GPA of 3.5 or better on a 4.0 scale for a Master¡¦s or Specialist degree, and; (3) a competitive score on the GRE¹. ¹ The mean combined verbal and quantitative GRE sub-score for Ed.D. students in Educational Leadership/Administration degree program from Spring 1996 to Fall 2006 was 926.

Admission to the doctoral program is highly selective and meeting minimum requirements is no guarantee of admission. Additional factors relevant to admission include: (1) teaching, management, and/or leadership experience; (2) outstanding written and oral communication skills; (3) high motivation to achieve personal and professional goals; and (4) evidence of conceptual ability to conduct independent research.

Residency

The intent of the residency requirement is to ensure that doctoral students contribute to and benefit from the complete spectrum of educational, professional, and enrichment opportunities provided on the campus of a comprehensive university. When establishing residency the student should interact with faculty and peers by regularly attending courses, conferences, or seminars, and utilize the library and laboratory facilities provided for graduate education.

After having finished thirty (30) semester hours of graduate work or being awarded the master¡¦s degree, the student must be continuously enrolled on The Florida State University Tallahassee campus for a minimum of twenty-four (24) graduate semester hours of credit in any period of 12 consecutive months. In cooperative degree programs involving two or more universities, residence requirements may differ from the foregoing only with the approval of the graduate policy committee and the Dean of Graduate Studies. Students in such programs should check residence requirements with their departmental chairs or program leaders.

NOTE: EdD students may, if they so desire, complete their residency requirement by registering for thirty (30) credits during a 16-month period. Students are encouraged to discuss this option with their academic advisor.

Doctoral Program Overview

Temporary Advisors and Major Professors

Upon admission, each student will be assigned a temporary advisor who will assist the student in the early stages of program planning and will oversee the diagnostic examination. Early in the doctoral program, the student should consult with the chair of the department and with the professors under whom the student may be interested in working and from whose area of competency a dissertation topic could be selected. The departmental chair will appoint the major professor who must be a member of the graduate faculty with doctoral directive status and have special competence in the student¡¦s proposed area of concentration. The appointment must be mutually agreeable to the student, the major professor, and the departmental chair.

Diagnostic Examination

The student who has been admitted to work toward the doctoral degree may, before the end of the second semester of post baccalaureate study, be required to take a departmentally administered diagnostic examination. It will be designed to appraise the student¡¦s ability to pursue the doctor of philosophy degree in the field and to facilitate counseling in the development of the student¡¦s program of studies.

The department will notify the Office of the University Registrar if the diagnostic examination is failed and the student¡¦s program is to be terminated. No preparation is necessary for this examination; it is a closed-book, fixed time, analytical exercise. Assessment results will be evaluated as a pass, pass conditionally, or fail.

Supervisory Committee

Ed.D. students generally select a major professor and supervisory committee after completing 12 to 15 hours of coursework. The supervisory committee consists of a minimum of four professors including the major professor and a professor from outside the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies department, who should be in the instructional area of specialization. Three of the four must have doctoral directive status including the major professor and the outside member.

Program of Study

A Program of Study must be filed with the College of Education listing coursework leading to the completion of a degree program. The Program of Study is a student's anticipated timeline for the award of a doctorate. A student's temporary advisor will help begin the planning for a Program of Study, but it is completed and approved by the major professor and supervisory committee.

Ed.D. Degree Coursework Requirements²

Required Leadership Core (12 hours) EDA 5931 Seminar in Leadership Theory EME 5941 Designs for In-Service Personnel EDA 6193 Leading Learning¹ EDA 5931 Policy to Practice	12
Required Research Courses (7 hours) EDF 6475 Qualitative Methods in Education EDF 5400 Descriptive & Inferential Statistics	7
Instructional Specialization (18 hours)* The purpose of the instructional specialization is to help students gain deep knowledge and expertise in a focused instructional area. The Instructional Specialization should be developed by the student in consultation with the advisor and advisory committee. The following examples are intended to suggest some possible Instructional Specializations:	18
Language Arts Instruction (example) LAE 5064: Reader Response Theories and Research for Teachers of Secondary Eng LAE 5736: Written Comp Theory and Research for Secondary Teachers of English LAE 5932: Special Topics: Teaching Reading in the Secondary English Classroom LAE 5637: Issues and Trends in Secondary English Ed. LAE 5940: Field Laboratory Internship Reading Instruction (example) RED 5147: Foundations in Developmental Reading RED 4335: Reading in Secondary Schools EDA 5422: Applied Data Analysis and Assessment for Educational Leaders RED 5337: Supervision and Instruction in Secondary School Reading RED 5947: Seminar & Practicum in Reading and Language Arts Science Instruction (example) SCE 6395: Teaching and Learning Science SCE 6145: Curriculum in Science Education SCE 6395: Science Teacher Education SCE 5895: Nature of Science SCE 6761 Research, Recent Developments and Current Issues in Science Education Other examples include, but are not limited to: Mathematics Instruction; Special Education Instruction; Secondary Instruction; Elementary Instruction; Educating Adult Learners; Physical Education; Measurement and Statistics; Learning and Cognition; Program Evaluation
Research Methods Electives (6 hours) Students will select six additional hours of research methods courses, in consultation with their advisor. These could be in methodology pertinent to particular instructional specialization, in qualitative methods, quantitative methods, mixed methodology, program evaluation, etc.	6
Additional Electives (13) Selected in consultation with advisor	13
Required Dissertation Hours	24

80 hours

² The course numbers and/or titles of some these courses are under revision at this time. Students are urged to contact their advisors for up-to-date information regarding these courses.

A student wishing to obtain Florida Educational Leadership Certification is required to take the following courses:

EDA 5503 The Principalship	3
EDA 5422 Data Analysis and Assessment for Educational Leadership	3
EDA 5423 Data Oriented Educational Research	3
EDA 5232 Legal Aspects of Public School Administration	3
EDA 5242 School Finance	3

Specialist or doctoral degree students who seek Florida Educational Leadership Certification may substitute required advanced courses for core certification courses as follows:

EDA 6930 Leadership Theory for EDA 5192 Educational Leadership
EME 5941 Designs for In-Service Personnel for EDA 5222 Personnel Administration in Education
EDA 6193 Leading Learning for EDA 5504 Instructional Leadership

Preliminary Examination

At or near the completion of the program of study, a preliminary examination is required of all students. The preliminary examination is designed to test scholarly competence and knowledge and to afford the examiners the basis for constructive recommendations concerning the student¡¦s subsequent formal or informal study. Clearance for the preliminary examination must be completed by the College of Education. Clearance is only given if the student has met the following requirements: an overall GPA of 3.2 for all graduate work completed; an approved supervisory committee; an approved Program of Study; and completion of the diagnostic examination. The preliminary examination is generally taken near the end of the student's Program of Study. The exam is prepared by the student¡¦s supervisory committee and takes place over the course of several days. The first two days consist of a number of questions that are designed to provide the student the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to analyze and synthesize pertinent knowledge in educational leadership while addressing significant problems and issues in their field. This component is administered under supervision and without the aid of texts or related materials. The third day may consist of a take-home component that requires the student to prepare a mini-prospectus on a research topic that could be expanded into a dissertation. The Preliminary Examination is submitted to the student¡¦s supervisory committee and is evaluated by means of an oral defense.

Admission to Candidacy

A student who has passed the preliminary examination and has been certified to the Office of the University Registrar (on an admission to candidacy form) is considered a candidate for the doctoral degree and is eligible to register for dissertation credits.

A student must be admitted to candidacy at least six months prior to the granting of the degree. The purpose of this requirement is to ensure a minimal lapse of time for effective work on the dissertation after acquisition of the basic competence and after delineation of the problem and method of attack. More realistically, the student should expect to spend a year or more of work on the dissertation.

Prospectus

After passing the preliminary examination, the student may be required by the department to submit to the major professor, supervisory committee, and departmental chair a prospectus on a research project suitable for a doctoral dissertation. Upon receipt of the appropriate approvals, a copy of the completed Prospectus Approval Form must be submitted to the Dean of Graduate Studies. If a department does not require a prospectus, the Prospectus Approval Form will serve as the substitute, signifying approval of the student¡¦s research plan and appropriate Institutional Review Board (IRB) endorsement.

Dissertation

A doctoral dissertation must be completed on some topic connected with the major field of study. To be acceptable it must be an achievement in original research constituting a significant contribution to knowledge and represent a substantial scholarly effort on the part of the student. The manuscript must be prepared according to the style and form prescribed by the department. Formatting and clearance guidelines for the final electronic submission copy may be accessed from the Office of Graduate Studies Web site, http://www.gradstudies.fsu.edu, or by contacting the manuscript clearance adviser.

A student who has completed the required course work, passed the preliminary examination and submitted an Application to Candidacy form to the Office of the Registrar, and continues to use campus facilities and/or receives faculty supervision, but has not made a final dissertation submission shall include in the required full-time load of twelve (12) semester hours a minimum of two (2) dissertation hours per term. Those with underload permission must register for at least two (2) hours of dissertation credit per term. Underloads must be approved by the academic dean. Before registering for dissertation hours, the student must consult the major professor as to the proportion of time to be devoted to dissertation work. The number of hours listed will show the proportion of time to be devoted to the dissertation (with twelve [12] semester hours as an indication of full-time status). For example, OCE 6980, four (4) semester hours, will indicate that the student expects to devote one-third of the time to dissertation. The number of hours should not only reflect the effort of the student, but should take into account the use of campus facilities/resources and faculty interaction/supervision.

The minimum number of dissertation hours for completion of a doctoral degree shall be twenty-four (24) semester hours.

For more specific information on final-term registration, see the residency requirements listed above. Final approval of the dissertation by the entire supervisory committee is prerequisite to the awarding of the degree. This is true no matter how many hours a student has completed in dissertation or what grades have been recorded for the dissertation hours.

As a condition of undertaking a dissertation program, the student agrees that the completed dissertation will be archived in the University Libraries system. The student will make the electronic dissertation available for review by other scholars and the general public by selecting an access condition provided by the Office of Graduate Studies.

Examination in Defense of Dissertation

The defense of dissertation will be oral. Responsibility for suggesting the time, designating the place, and presiding at the examination rests with the major professor. The examination must be completed at least four weeks prior to the date on which the degree is to be conferred.

Academic courtesy requires that a preliminary draft of the dissertation be submitted to each member of the supervisory committee at least four weeks before the date of the oral examination. The supervisory committee, the chair of the major department, and such other members of the faculty as may be appointed by the academic dean will conduct the examination. All members of the graduate faculty are invited to attend. At least two weeks prior to the date of the examination, the student or major professor will present an announcement of the dissertation title and the date and place of the examination to the Office of Graduate Studies. Consult the Registration Guide for the deadline dates.

The content of the abstract of the dissertation should be submitted to the supervisory committee at least one week before the date of the defense examination for approval. The abstract should conform to appropriate examples in Guidelines and Requirements for Electronic Thesis, Treatise, and Dissertation Writers.

The oral examining committee will certify in writing to the academic dean of the major department the results of the examination: passed, failed, or to be reexamined. The report of results following a reexamination must indicate the student either passed or failed.

A written critique of the conduct of the examination in defense of dissertation should be submitted by the representative-at-large from the graduate faculty to the appropriate academic dean and the Dean of Graduate Studies within one week after the date of defense.

After approval by the oral examining committee, the student should submit the final manuscript electronically to the manuscript clearance advisor. A manuscript processing fee is charged.

Graduation

A student must be admitted to candidacy for at least six months prior to the granting of the doctoral degree. An application for a diploma must be made in the Office of Records and Registration, Graduate Section, 2352 University Center, the first two weeks of the semester in which graduation is planned. A Final Term Clearance Form will be given to the student to complete per instructions. The booklet, Guidelines and Requirements for Electronic Theses, Treatises, and Dissertations, which contains graduation forms, should be obtained from the Final Clearance Advisor, 408 Westcott. Students must be registered for a minimum of two hours of dissertation credit in the semester in which they apply for graduation.

Registration for Final Term

For doctoral students and master's students in a thesis-type program, registration shall be required in the final term in which a degree requiring a thesis, dissertation, or treatise is granted, in accordance with the policies stated in the 'Thesis' and 'Dissertation' sections of this chapter.

If a student does not make the manuscript final submission deadline for a given term, but completes all degree requirements before the first day of the next term, it is possible to waive the registration requirement. To be eligible for this registration exemption, all degree requirements, including manuscript clearance, must be completed prior to the first day of the next term. The Office of Graduate Studies [(850) 644-3500] can provide information on this procedure. International students should contact the International Center for information on registration requirements related to immigration/visa status.

If a non-thesis student needs only to complete the comprehensive examination in a term and did not register for the examination in the previous term, registration must be requested from the Office of the University Registrar stating the department and the name of the examination. The student must pay the "examination only" fee.

If the student has not been enrolled for the previous two terms, readmission is required before registration.

Clearance for Degrees

Guidelines and Requirements for Electronic Thesis, Treatise, and Dissertation Writers may be accessed from the Office of Graduate Studies website, http://www.fsu.edu/gradstudies or by contacting the manuscript clearance advisor.

During the first two weeks of the term in which a candidate expects to receive a degree, application should be made for a diploma at the Office of the University Registrar. If a candidate previously filed for a diploma but did not receive the degree, the application procedure must be repeated.

At the Office of the University Registrar a candidate will receive a ¡§Final Term Degree Clearance Form,¡¨ which provides space for certification by all parties concerned that all requirements for the degree have been met. For a candidate in a course-type (non-thesis) program, the form must be completed and submitted to the academic dean. For a thesis, dissertation or treatise-writing student, the form must be completed and submitted to the manuscript clearance advisor in the Office of Graduate Studies. No candidate is eligible for the degree until this requirement has been met.

After the defense, a master¡¦s or doctoral candidate must submit to the manuscript clearance advisor the completed "Final Degree Clearance Form;" the electronic thesis, treatise or dissertation; one original signed signature page; the "Electronic Access Agreement Form;" the "Student Information Form;" and one copy of the manuscript title page. For additional requirements related to master¡¦s and doctoral students, and for a complete list of materials to submit to the Office of Graduate Studies, students may access the Office of Graduate Studies website, http://www.fsu.edu/gradstudies, or contact the manuscript clearance advisor. Consult the Registration Guide for the deadline dates.