The EdD prepares skilled and knowledgeable academic leaders. By integrating core managerial and leadership skills with best practices in education, the EdD builds on Northeastern University's commitment to practice-oriented education and to inclusion and community building from urban and global perspectives. The content and format of the program reflects the changing role of education leaders, the necessity for distributed leadership in education, and the need for access, opportunity, and empowerment in all education communities.

EdD Specializations include:

• Curricular Leadership
• Education Leadership (K-12)
• Higher Education Administration
• International Education
• Jewish Education Leadership
• Organizational Leadership

Designed for working professionals with demanding careers, the program is structured so that candidates may complete their coursework and doctoral projects in as little as three years. Classes meet evenings, on weekends, intensively during the summer, and online. Degree requirements include a collaborative doctoral project that focuses on a significant challenge facing educators in the U.S. or around the world.

Summer 09 Course Schedule

Structure and Logistics

The EdD degree is designed to build on a master's degree. Candidates entering the EdD program must first complete an appropriate master's (such as an MEd in curriculum and instruction or education leadership) or equivalent in a related field (such as a JD or an MS in science). Candidates take 13 three-credit courses and complete a six quarter hour doctoral project — for a total of 45 quarter hours.

All the EdD strands are designed to be completed in three years by candidates who are also employed as education professionals. Candidates complete their coursework in the first two years and their doctoral projects in the third.

The three-year program includes:

• Four foundational courses in current trends in education including multicultural and international perspectives
• Five core courses in education administration and leadership
• Five courses in one of the specializations
• A collaborative doctoral project that addresses a significant curricular, policy, or management problem confronting K-12 or higher education

Each of these milestones: the group qualifying paper, proposal defense, and project defense — coupled with an annual review of academic standing — allows the faculty to assess candidate progress. These milestones may trigger remedial measures for candidates not making adequate progress, or they may serve as exit points from the program.

Admissions

To apply to the EdD online, submit a completed application form, official undergraduate and graduate transcripts, three letters of recommendation, and a personal statement.  We prefer that one letter of recommendation be from your current employer/supervisor. Admission also requires at least three years of professional experience in education or a closely related field. GRE exam scores are not required. Individuals for whom English is not the primary language must submit TOEFL or IELTS scores, or complete an assessment test administered by Northeastern University’s English Language Center.

Apply Now

Doctoral Projects

Doctoral projects provide candidates with an opportunity to apply their knowledge, understandings, and insights, as well as their analysis, synthesis, problem solving, and team-work skills.  The theme of each project will be a significant curricular, policy, or management problem confronting public or higher education in the U.S. and/or other countries.  Within those themes candidates will identify more focused issues that have particular urgency to their state, region, district, or institution.

Doctoral projects involve extensive reviews of the literature, and in-depth analysis of current and past policies, procedures, and management systems.  Candidates are expected to interview experts within and outside the university, particularly innovative professionals who have developed successful strategies upon which candidates may model their own approaches. Candidates are expected to draw on published data banks reporting on, for example, candidate scores on standardized tests, and both make meaning of the data and compare it with similar data from their home districts and institutions.

As stated earlier, initial project work, including the qualifying paper, will be performed collaboratively by project groups. Project proposals will be in two parts. The first will contain the results of each group’s efforts to frame their education problem/issue in historical and political terms, and to collectively assess the state-of-the-art as it relates to the major theme of the group. There will be as many second parts as there are members of the project group. In these parts each candidate will submit their plan to build from the group work using existing data, additional literature, and/or interviews with experts, to focus on a specific application or issue.

Final doctoral project reports are presented to the faculty in the last quarter in which a candidate is in residence. Candidates are expected to identify those components of their projects which were the result of group efforts and those based on individual investigation and analysis.  Final project reports should also include an implementation plan, analysis of challenges, and predicted outcomes that are situated in a particular district or institution.

Summer 09 Course Schedule: 

The courses listed below are appropriate for all Ed.D. students participating in an online or hybrid program on the Boston Campus.