Educational Leadership (Ed.D.)

In the south Puget Sound region, many educators find themselves in administrative positions requiring not only teaching expertise, but leadership skills, policy knowledge, and the ability to affect positive organizational change, often without the background and experience to be successful and confident in such roles.

These individuals are frequently experts in their professional disciplines; however, today’s leaders are required to exhibit skill sets and knowledge bases that extend beyond the professional master’s degree. Today’s leaders must  possess experience and expertise in employing research to improve organizational outcomes, to ensure quality teaching for diverse learners, to effectively assess programs, and to lead local and national accreditation and accountability processes. They must be effective political advocates, and informed fiscal and human resource managers. These leaders must demonstrate emotional intelligence necessary to successfully lead a diverse workforce, as well as professional expertise and high standards of legal, moral, and ethical behavior.

The University of Washington Tacoma addresses these needs with its new practice doctorate degree, the Doctor of Education (EdD) in Educational Leadership, with three non-transcripted study options:

• P-12 Educator (with Superintendent Certification) Leadership
• Nursing Educator Leadership
• Higher Education Leadership

Program design

This is a 97-credit, three-year, cohort-based program. For those who wish to earn the P-12 Superintendent Certificate, six additional credits are required in order to meet all state competencies; therefore, 103 credits will be required.

Conceptual Framework

The program is designed to address conceptual issues of the roles educational leaders play in leadership, management/administration and political advocacy. In addition, we will help you develop strength in the dimensions of leadership, diversity, accountability and learning.

Interdisciplinary Learning

The program is designed with a belief in interdisciplinary learning about educational leadership. The cohort of the whole will study collaboratively in areas in which the content knowledge is common, and in which students may learn from cross-disciplinary scholarly discussions, such as the leadership courses focused on systemic change, diversity, and instructional leadership. In areas where more specialized knowledge does not overlap, the groups will break into study options for courses or parts of courses, such as educational law or finance, which are quite different in law and policy for P-12 and higher education