Each year, schools of education award more than 6,200 doctorates, accounting for 14.4% of the total number of doctorates awarded in all fields of specialization in the United States; of these doctorates in education, over 2,200 (35%) are in educational leadership (Hoffer et al., 2006). It is expected that many of these doctorate recipients will assume leadership positions and responsibility in public schools and shape the future of our children. However, the curriculum of doctoral programs in education, especially EdD programs, has been questioned and criticized in recent years. The criticism of EdD programs has been accompanied by the renewed efforts to further distinguish the EdD from the PhD in higher education in order to bring the EdD back to its original intention as a “high-level academic experience that prepares students for service as leading practitioners in the field of education” (Shulman, Golde, Bueschel, & Garabedian, 2006, p. 29).
Educational Leadership and Administration: Teaching and Program Development
Volume 26, March 2015
ISSN 1064-4474 © 2015 California Association of Professors of Educational Administration