Dear Prospective Ed. D. Applicant:

 

 

Thank you for your interest in the Educational Doctorate (“Ed. D.”) in

Educational Leadership offered jointly by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette

and Southeastern Louisiana University.  The program will be administered by a

Consortium Committee comprised of individuals from both campuses.  We are

veryexcited about this new program and look forward to receiving your completed

application.  Candidates admitted to this program will embark on an exhilarating

adventure that will benefit not only the candidate, but also the school district in

which she or he is employed.  The doctorate is designed to produce practitioners,

with an applied emphasis that distinguishes it from a doctor of philosophy degree.  

Initial candidates for the program will include educators with master’s degrees,

who are preparing for school district leadership or high-level policy-making

positions.  The curriculum concentrates on four areas:  research; educational

leadership and management; instructional leadership; and specialization.  

Course work and dissertation research will total a minimum of 60 hours of study

beyond the master’s degree.  Courses will be offered in the fall, spring and summer semesters.     

 

The Ed. D. program has several components that are of special importance.  First, the program is designed to enhance educational leadership at the district, state and national levels by offering courses and seminars that address district, state and national issues relative to education.  The program has a change theory component to help educational leaders recognize when change is necessary and how to successfully change an organization to improve student achievement.  Second, the program is being offered by two institutions and most courses (excluding the research courses) will be offered to students from both campus.  The courses will be delivered utilizing distance education techniques and strategies including, but not limited to, compressed video, web-based action, face-to-face meetings, weekends and other techniques as deemed appropriate.  Please be sure that your computer has at a minimum the following:  MSWORD; Excel; PowerPoint; and Statistical Program for the Social Sciences (“SPSS”).  Third, each candidate will be required to satisfactorily complete a Qualifying Paper (with oral defense) before being admitted to candidacy and allowed to continue in the program.  Each candidate will begin working on a Qualifying Paper during their second research course.  The Qualifying Paper generally becomes Chapter 2 of the candidate’s dissertation.  Fourth, each candidate must prepare and successfully defend a dissertation prior to obtaining the degree.  The dissertation committee must have at least one member from the non-resident campus faculty.   Fifth, the two institutions offer a summer school program that will provide opportunities for motivated candidates to complete substantial portions of their program.  Sixth, the University of Louisiana is closely associated with the Center for Child Development that has as its overarching goal to generate high-quality research, use of research-based findings to guide public policy and practices and dissemination of best practices models to practitioners, public agencies and the general public.  We anticipate that the Center for Child Development will assist the program with dissertation research projects as well as other valuable research opportunities.

 

The Consortium holds an initial meeting of all doctoral students at the Baton Rouge campus of the Consortium located in the SELU Nursing building each semester.  At this meeting, complete details regarding the doctoral program are discussed, and many of the faculty members who will be teaching in the doctoral program are introduced.      

 

Thank you for your interest in the Ed. D. in Educational Leadership and if you have any questions you can contact me at (337) 482-5264 or by e-mail at nroberts@louisiana.edu or the Ed. D. Program Coordinator Dr. Robert Slater at (337) 482-1513 or by e-mail at ros6279@louisiana.edu.  We look forward to receiving your application.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Nathan M. Roberts, J.D., Ph.D.

Interim Department Head

Educational Foundations and Leadership

University of Louisiana at Lafayette