Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership

EDL 601 · Educational Governance and Law · 3 credits · Fall

Examines how school boards, state agencies, and college governing bodies make decisions, and the constitutional, statutory, and contract law that limits them. Students analyze cases from their own institutions.

EDL 605 · Education Policy Analysis · 3 credits · Fall

Covers how education policy is written, funded, implemented, and evaluated at the federal, state, and local levels. Students write a policy brief on a current issue in their own district or college.

EDL 610 · Organizational Change in Education · 3 credits · Spring

Studies theories of organizational culture and change in schools, districts, and colleges. Students plan a change initiative for a real setting and work out how to gain support for it and measure its results.

EDL 615 · Equity and Inclusive Leadership · 3 credits · Fall

Looks at how funding, discipline, admissions, and staffing practices produce unequal outcomes for students. Students audit an equity gap at their own institution and propose a response.

EDL 620 · Leading Teaching and Learning · 3 credits · Spring

Focuses on how leaders support instructional quality through curriculum decisions, teacher evaluation, and professional development. Students analyze evidence of learning at their own school or college.

EDL 625 · Education Finance and Resource Leadership · 3 credits · Fall

Covers school and college budgeting, funding formulas, bond and tuition revenue, and staffing decisions. Students build and defend a budget scenario under a reduction in enrollment or state aid.

EDL 640 · Leadership Residency I: Problem of Practice · 6 credits · Summer

Combines an on-campus residency intensive with online work in which each student defines a problem of practice at their own institution. The cohort reviews each problem statement in small seminar groups.

EDL 641 · Leadership Residency II: Leading Improvement · 6 credits · Summer

Combines an on-campus residency intensive with online work on designing and testing an improvement plan for the student's problem of practice. Students present the plan to faculty and peers for critique.

EDL 650 · Quantitative Methods for Educational Leaders · 3 credits · Spring

Introduces descriptive and inferential statistics, regression, and the use of institutional data sets in educational settings. Students analyze data from their own school or college using statistical software.

EDL 651 · Qualitative Methods for Educational Leaders · 3 credits · Fall

Teaches interviewing, observation, document analysis, and coding for research inside educational organizations. Students complete a small fieldwork study and write it up.

EDL 652 · Improvement Science and Program Evaluation · 3 credits · Spring

Covers improvement cycles, logic models, and mixed-methods evaluation of programs in schools and colleges. Students design an evaluation of an existing program at their own institution.

EDL 653 · Research Design for the Dissertation in Practice · 3 credits · Fall

Guides students through framing a research question, reviewing literature, and choosing methods for a dissertation on a problem of practice. Students finish with a draft proposal.

EDL 690 · Dissertation Research I · 6 credits · Fall, Spring, Summer

Independent research on the dissertation in practice, supervised by the student's chair and committee. Students collect data at their own institution and meet regularly with the chair.

EDL 691 · Dissertation Research II · 6 credits · Fall, Spring, Summer

Continued dissertation research, analysis, and writing, ending with the public oral defense. Students revise the dissertation to committee and Graduate School requirements.