The Mid-Career Doctorate in Educational Leadership

Ed.D.

Each year, the Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership brings together a select and diverse cohort of 25 educational leaders to build an intensive professional learning community in an executive-style doctoral program.

The Mid-Career Doctoral Program offers a significant departure from most other doctoral programs in educational leadership. The program addresses the ongoing transformation of public and private educational organizations from a leadership perspective, focusing on the four core areas of educational leadership: instructional, organizational, public, and evidence-based. With the dissertation process and significant support embedded in the schedule, students are able to complete their coursework and dissertation within 36 months.

The Mid-Career Doctoral Program accommodates working professionals, including those at the most senior levels of districts and organizations, by modeling the successful format of leading executive-level business administration programs. Students attend coursework for one weekend each month in the fall and spring semesters and for one week during the summer. The program explicitly teaches collaboration and reflective practice, and models a collaborative learning community by forming cohorts of students and placing a high value on a student's ability to problem-solve through the creation and implementation of new ideas and educational approaches. Use of the Internet allows continuity between formal weekend program sessions so that students, faculty, and adjunct instructors can come together to discuss assignments, download readings, and reflect upon practice in a virtual learning community.

The Mid-Career Doctoral curriculum fosters a deep understanding of organizations, instruction, and learning, and their implications for schooling. A distinctive focus on inquiry-based leadership cuts across the program's core content areas:

Instructional Leadership

Educational leaders cannot lead what they do not understand; therefore instructional leadership is at the core of the program. By instructional leadership we mean the ability to know and manage teaching, learning, and performance. Students in the program explore such fundamental questions as: What does instructional leadership look like at the primary and secondary levels? Which practices do successful leaders use to improve teaching and learning in a variety of contexts? How should educational leaders, teachers and facilitators be observed and evaluated? How should educational organizations and their staff be held accountable for their contributions to learning? And most importantly, how can everyone involved in schools promote student engagement and learning?

Organizational Leadership

Professional educators cannot be effective instructional leaders without understanding the complex systems in which teaching and learning are supposed to take place. The program's approach to organizational leadership includes a focus on developing the emotional intelligence of leaders seeking to manage small groups and teams, intergroup and systems dynamics to promote learning communities. Students in the program learn about efficiently employing and creating resources to promote learning environments and managing change. The goal within this content area is to prepare students to create organizations that foster the continuous improvement of teaching and learning.

Public Leadership

Sustainable instructional and organizational leadership depends on the capacity of educators to understand and engage the ongoing support of schools' various public constituencies. Principals, superintendents, heads of school, and members of entrepreneurial enterprises are more than just public leaders and need to see themselves as advocates, brokers, and catalysts. In the process, they need to find ways to build stronger and more inclusive "publics" for their educational institutions and strengthen relations with constituents to increase broad-based support and involvement in improving instructional outcomes.

Evidence-Based Leadership

Ultimately, every dimension of school leadership is enhanced by a leader's capacity to make evidenced-based decisions. They are constantly faced with a myriad of complex decisions that are best made by accumulating, synthesizing, and analyzing data from multiple sources and in a variety of forms. Those who are prepared to recognize and utilize the wealth of information around them will invariably produce more reasoned and better-informed decisions. This area prepares education leaders to identify and employ data sources and analytic methods to inform decision-making.

The curriculum incorporates the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards for School Leaders. The program does not directly provide for administrative certification, as student and state requirements vary considerably. Students seeking administrative certification should consult with designated Penn staff in order to arrange appropriate coursework.

A master's degree is required for admission, as is prior leadership experience. Students complete a minimum of 27 course units at Penn. Participants pay a single price for the program, a flat fee per term, which includes all tuition and fees, books, materials, and meals.

Faculty

The Mid-Career Doctoral Program faculty includes a combination of standing and associated faculty from Penn GSE and other schools at the University, as well as noted practitioners and international scholars. The Steering Committee meets monthly to provide ongoing oversight and guidance.

Steering Committee

Michael Johanek,* Director & Senior Fellow, Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University

Peter Kuriloff,* Organizational Leadership Strand Leader & Professor, Ed.D., Harvard University

James Lytle,* Public Leadership Strand Leader & Practice Professor, Ed.D., Stanford University

Susan Lytle,* Instructional Leadership Strand Leader & Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Doug Lynch, Vice Dean for Continuing and Executive Education, Ph.D., Columbia University

Sharon Ravitch,* Senior Lecturer, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Jonathan Supovitz,* Evidence-Based Leadership Strand Leader & Associate Professor, Ed.D. Harvard University

Jeanne Vissa,* Practice Professor, Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University

Stanton Wortham,* Chair, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor in Education; Ph.D., University of Chicago

*Program Faculty

Program Faculty

Judy Brody, Lecturer, Ed.D., University of Pennsylvania

John DeFlaminis, Adjunct Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Oregon

Charles Dwyer, Associate Professor, Ph.D., Cornell University

Eva Gold, Lecturer, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Frederick Hess, Ph.D., Harvard University

Patricia Johnston, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Will Jordan, Lecturer, Ph.D., Columbia University

Henry May, Research Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Annie McKee, Adjunct Professor, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University

Nicholas Morgan, Instructor, M.B.A., Dartmouth College

Leslie Nabors Olah, Research Assistant Professor, Ed.D., Harvard University

Steven Piltch, Instructor, Ed.D., Harvard University

Len Reiser, Lecturer, J.D., University of Chicago

Matthew Riggan, Research Specialist, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Joseph J. Scherer, Instructor, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

Michael Schlesinger, Lecturer, Ed.D., Temple University

Katherine Schultz, Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Amy Sichel, Adjunct Associate Professor, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Harris Sokoloff, Adjunct Associate Professor, Ph.D., Syracuse University

Diane Waff, Lecturer, Ed.D., University of Pennsylvania

Elliot Weinbaum, Research Specialist, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Chris Whitbeck, Lecturer, Ed.D., Boston College

Christine Woyshner, Lecturer, Ed.D., Harvard University

Susan Yoon, Assistant Professor, Ph.D., OISE/University of Toronto

Program Contact

Martha Williams, Coordinator

The Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership
Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania
3700 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6216

215-746-6573

marthaw@gse.upenn.edu

For further information...

Please visit the program website. For any questions, please call (215) 573-0588 or e-mail midcareer@gse.upenn.edu. The application deadline is March 1, 2009, though we strongly encourage early submission.