UF joins effort to revamp Ed. D. degree, seeks faculty input

The educational doctorate or Ed.D. is the professional doctoral degree in the field of education much like the J.D. is the professional degree of law and the M.D. is the professional degree in medicine.

UF’s College of Education is joining a high-profile group of universities to rethink the Ed.D. degree, to better differentiate it from the Ph.D. and to better serve the educational needs of students who plan to be practicing educators.

UF is one of 20 highly respected education colleges tapped by the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (or CPED) for a three-year effort to review and revise the terminal degree for practitioners in education.

“The purpose of the Ed. D. degree is not widely understood and hence the degree has suffered a reputation problem,” said Professor Linda Serra Hagedorn, chair of the Department of Educational Administration and Policy. “Academics sometimes question whether Ed. D. programs offer the proper focus and training on research while practitioners may question whether the research focus prepares them for their practice.”

Hagedorn is working with a team of UF College of Education faculty to examine its own Ed.D. program, to address curricular questions, and to build an Ed.D. program with a more highly respected reputation. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council of Academic Deans from Research Education Institution (CADREI) began working on issues surrounding the Ed.D. two years ago, in response to input from researchers and educators around the nation. CPED is the result of that collaboration.

The CPED project is not a grant, but a collaborative effort between universities. Participating institutions will conduct reviews of their own Ed. D. programs, implement changes where necessary, and share their results with peer institutions. These reforms could spark similar efforts at universities across the country, Hagedorn said.

“This is our chance to reshape the Ed. D. to meet the needs of the 21st century,” Hagedorn said.

The college is seeking input from faculty on the project. Faculty are invited to discuss CPED at a meeting to be held March 21 from noon until 1:30 p.m. in the Terrace Room. Lunch will be served at the meeting – please RSVP to Jodi Mount at jmount@coe.ufl.edu by 5 p.m. Monday if you wish to eat.