The Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership brings together each year a new select and diverse cohort of 25 educational leaders to build an intensive professional learning community in an executive-style 36-month doctoral program. With a growing and active alumni network, GSE welcomed its 6th distinguished cohort in the summer of 2007.
The Mid-Career Doctoral Program offers a significant departure from most other doctoral programs in educational leadership. Our 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 evidenced-based.
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INNOVATIVE CURRICULUM
The Mid-Career Doctorate curriculum fosters a deep understanding of organizations, instruction, and learning, and their implications for schooling. Our distinctive focus on inquiry-based leadership cuts across the program’s core content areas:
INSTRUCTIONAL
LEADERSHIP
Educational leaders need to be able to grasp and negotiate the learning needs of students, both in terms of the
curriculum that suits the developmental and intellectual needs of students and the methods best used in teaching the curriculum.
ORGANIZATIONAL
LEADERSHIP
Successful leaders have many positive qualities, but one of the most important is the ability to use their power to inspire others to change and improve.
PUBLIC
LEADERSHIP
Leaders need to be engaged in productive relationships
with the various publics that form the civic context for leadership activities.
EVIDENCE-BASED
LEADERSHIP
Leaders need to be able to identify and employ a variety of quantitative and qualitative data sources and analytic methods to inform decision-making and become more able consumers and producers of analysis.
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SMART STRUCTURE
The Mid-Career Doctorate accommodates working professionals, including those at the most senior levels at districts and organizations across the region, by modeling the successful format of leading executive-level business administration programs. Students attend coursework three days each month in the fall and spring semesters and 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. In virtual learning communities, students, faculty, and adjunct instructors come together to discuss assignments, download readings, and reflect upon practice.
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UNMATCHED OPPORTUNITY
With the dissertation process imbedded in the schedule, students are able to complete their coursework, state certification requirements and dissertation within 36 months. They ground the preparation of their dissertations in their coursework and use their workplaces for data collection and opportunities for applied study, culminating in a dissertation. From the first day of the program, students spend significant time planning for their dissertations in structured and supervised settings, particularly within the applied research sequence that spans the program. Class discussions provide continuity for the applied research sequence, with students and faculty focusing their attention on issues related to research during some portion of the weekly discussions. At the end of the research sequence, students have completed a substantial segment of their dissertations. This
systematic approach to the dissertation allows students to defend in their last semester of the program. |
