Educational Leadership, Ed.D.

Educational Leadership for Social Justice Doctoral Program

Program Description

The mission of the Educational Leadership for Social Justice (ELSJ) Doctoral Program is to prepare educators and other school personnel to assume positions of executive leadership. A primary objective of the program is to guide educators and educational professionals to become bold, socially responsible agents of change and transformation. Graduates of the doctoral program will be able to contribute to closing opportunity gaps that exist between White students, students of color, and students marginalized by gender, sexuality, class, and disability.

The program provides theory, research, and practice in a learning community in which students develop a deeper understanding of themselves as educators, leaders, information producers, policymakers, and policy advocates. Students also develop the knowledge, skills and habits of mind necessary to improve the quality of learning for all students. 

Career Opportunities

Graduates with a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership serve in many different arenas that impact education. One career path for graduates is to become an executive leader in a school district or County Office of Education. Such positions include superintendents, assistant superintendents or directors of curriculum, programs or human relations. Other professionals obtaining the Ed.D. degree serve as policy makers in state and national departments of education, credentialing agencies or as staff for elected officials. Another group works with local, state or national educational foundations, school reform agencies, research organizations, or publishing companies. Others direct grants or consult with schools or districts. Finally, people with an Ed.D. may teach or serve in leadership roles in colleges and universities.

Admission Requirements

• A bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from an accredited institution with a GPA in graduate study of 3.0 or above.
• Graduate Record Examination scores within the past 5 years
• Three confidential recommendation forms
• Professional resume
• Written response to a writing prompt about school effectiveness
• Documented professional or personal commitment to equity and social justice
• Demonstrated leadership skills and abilities in education or closely related field
• Professional experiences that demonstrate problem-solving ability and an interest in critically assessing current educational policies and practices

Program Learning Outcomes 

The Ed.D. program, Educational Leadership for Social Justice, is organized around the following set of goals:

1. Reflective Practice - Develop reflective leaders who can use self-analysis, inquiry and purposeful reflection to continually improve their own practice; model and encourage these habits with staff; and create communities of practice that promote high achievement for all students.
2. Equity and Cultural Competency - Develop culturally competent practitioner-advocates who purposefully work for equity and dismantle systems of cultural and racial domination and oppression.
3. Systems Thinking - Develop skillful leaders who understand the dynamics of educational systems and are able to leverage those systems in coherent, aligned strategies for educational change by creating democratic learning communities that promote high achievement for all students.
4. Accountability for Equitable Student Performance - Develop instructional leaders who possess the knowledge and ability to ensure that all students engage in powerful, equitable learning opportunities by fostering effective curricular programs, student-centered learning environments, and accountable school cultures that reflect high expectations for student achievement and provide the requisite supports to ensure all students can meet them.
5. Instructional Leadership - Develop socially just instructional leaders who inspire a shared vision and commitment to support all students in achieving at high levels by developing structures and processes fostering collaboration and critical inquiry for continuous pedagogical improvement.
6. Leadership Capacity and Organizational Management - Develop leaders who assess, organize and allocate resources that build and sustain an equitable and socially just organizational culture fostering leadership and change processes that move school systems toward high achievement for all students.
7. Develop leaders who understand the dynamic nature of school systems and educational politics in order to influence politics and policies at multiple levels in ways that support goals of inclusion and equity for all constituents, especially underrepresented groups.
8. Research - Develop leaders who are practitioner-researchers that  purposefully engage in inquiry and construct knowledge that promotes social justice and equity in education and advances the public good.
9. Effective Communication - Develop leaders who are powerful communicators in multiple genres and able to promote equity to multiple audiences, including academic, policy makers, and educational stakeholders.  Tied to principals of social justice 1, 4, and 6.

Ed.D. Degree Requirements

1. The degree requires a minimum of 60 semester units of approved doctoral-level coursework, including EDLD 780 and EDLD 799, all to be completed within a three-year period. Students must take classes at a Cal State East Bay facility for no less than two semesters each year of the program.
2. A 3.0 GPA or better in all 60 semester units offered as satisfying the requirements of the degree.
3. Satisfactory performance on two qualifying examinations and approval of dissertation prospectus.
4. Completion and oral defense of a dissertation.

Academic Residence

At least 42 semester units shall be completed in residence at California State University at East Bay in order to meet requirements for obtaining an Ed.D. degree.

Transfer of Units

Six semester units of advanced level coursework (beyond the Master’s degree) as a matriculated student from an accredited institution may be transferred into the doctoral program, subject to the approval of the Director of the ELSJ Program. The coursework must be deemed equivalent to ELSJ coursework. Students must have earned a grade of B or better in the transferred course. Transfer courses may not have been taken more than 7 years prior to anticipated graduation from the ELSJ Program.

Other Graduate & Post-Baccalaureate Degree Requirements

In addition to departmental requirements, every student must also satisfy the University requirements for graduation as described throughout this catalog. These include the 70% unit residence requirement; the five-year rule on currency of subject matter; the minimum number of units in 600-level courses; the “C” minimum grade for each graduate course; and the 3.00 cumulative grade point average.

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