OVERVIEW

In the fall of 2007, the University of Kentucky’s Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, in collaboration with the Department of Educational Leadership Studies, will offer an Ed.D. with an Emphasis in Community and Technical College Leadership.  This doctoral program is designed to prepare a group of thoughtful, focused, and creative individuals for key administrative and leadership posts in Kentucky’s two-year institutions.  It will be offered to a cohort of 18-25 qualified applicants.  As the Commonwealth seeks to expand dramatically the number of its citizens with postsecondary education and to improve the quality of its higher education institutions, the Kentucky Community and Technical College (KCTCS) institutions will play an increasingly important role.  The program faculty associated with this degree are committed to providing a rigorous, applied doctoral education experience to selected students who can help shape these institutions over the coming decades, amidst changes in technology, the economy, and society.

PROGRAM MECHANICS

The Ed.D. with an Emphasis in Community and Technical College Leadership is designed to be completed in a minimum of four academic years, and will have numerous operational features:

• It will be delivered on the “executive doctorate” model, meaning that all students will gather at one central location with faculty once per month during each semester for face-to-face class sessions, which will usually run Friday afternoon and evening and all day Saturday.  In between these monthly meetings, students will be responsible for other assignments and ongoing class discussions that will be organized through distance means, usually via web-based methods.  Students will also gather for two-weeks in the summer in a residential setting for coursework, additional learning, and project activities.  Most student meetings will be held at KCTCS locations in the central part of Kentucky.
  

• The program will also use a cohort approach, meaning that the individuals selected for fall 2007 will proceed through coursework, exams, and doctoral projects together as a group.  This is the most effective method of moving students steadily through the degree requirements.

• The program will involve three years of coursework (see matrix below), with students enrolling in the equivalent of two regular courses each semester and one in the summer for each of three years.  The first two years focus on core courses in which all students partake, and the third year of coursework allows students to specialize in academic or organizational matters involving community and technical colleges. 

• Students will be required to pass comprehensive exams, which will be separated into two components.  During the summer after the second year of coursework, students will be required to pass the core component comprehensive exams, and after the third year of courses students will complete specialty area exams.  These exams have two purposes.  First, they allow students to demonstrate their ability to work with the concepts, theories, analytic tools, and information contained in their coursework.  And second, they allow program faculty to determine if students are competent to complete a dissertation.

• Because these courses will be delivered within an executive model program, and due to curricular design issues, some of the required courses will be provided in a “modular” format.  This means that multiple faculty members might teach and supervise different components of the work within a single course.  In addition, courses will be delivered by regular faculty members from UK, by adjunct faculty with experience in two-year institutions, and by guest presenters with knowledge and skills pertinent to the program.

• The doctoral dissertation projects will be negotiated between individual students and faculty committees.  As an “applied” degree, this Ed.D. program anticipates dissertation projects that will be action research projects.  They will reflect firm conceptual and methodological grounding on the part of students, and will focus on the application of knowledge and analytic skills on practical operational, instructional, or curricular problems of two year institutions. 

• Tentative Class Meeting Dates

PROGRAM CONTENT AND EMPHASES

The curricular content for this degree program has been developed collaboratively by program faculty from the University of Kentucky, representatives of the KCTCS system office, and adjunct faculty with experience in two and four year institutions in Kentucky and other states.  Program planners view community and technical colleges as institutions that sit in the nexus of the K-12 education system, four year universities and colleges, and the labor force.  The program therefore seeks to educate students (1) to work resourcefully and imaginatively in the current environment of their home institutions, and (2) to lead community and technical colleges into a future wherein K-12 and postsecondary institutions will increasingly function as part of a single, integrated “P-20” educational system.

The program of study will therefore be informed by five themes, which will manifest themselves in all courses and projects:

• Innovation and change—how institutions have evolved over time and how they might shift to adapt to new technologies and socio-economic circumstances.
• Students—who they are and what they need from formal and informal educational opportunities.
• Postsecondary curriculum—what is to be learned, who decides, and how is it taught.
• What constitutes effective leadership.
• How two-year institutions address issues of social justice and diversity.

In addition, the program faculty have organized the curriculum into four major components, and all course offerings will reflect one or more of these categories:       

• Community and Technical Colleges within the P-20 education landscape
• Organizational Practice
• Teaching and Learning
• Applied Research and Decision Analysis

After the first two years of coursework, students will move into one of two areas of intellectual focus.  The Academic Leadership track will concentrate on issues of teaching and learning within both the formal and informal curricula of campus.  This track will consider in greater depth the academic, developmental, and extracurricular lives of students on campus, and on the faculty, staff, and program mechanisms that support institutions.  This track will be particularly attentive to questions of diversity and engagement.  The Organizational Leadership track focuses on issues of administration and organizational structure, function, and change within community and technical colleges.  The topics to be studied will include policy formation, implementation, and evaluation, fiscal and legal concerns, and personnel.

The course matrix below represents the program faculty’s current plan for covering the curriculum of the degree program.  These courses are subject to change and modification over the next three years depending upon the availability of faculty members to work with them and upon cohort interests.

Ed.D. Program Course Matrix

REQUIREMENTS

Application guidelines are available separately (as a Word document), but the following parameters pertain to the cohort sought to begin the program for Fall 2007:

• Applicants must be faculty, administrators, or staff within KCTCS.
• Applicants must already hold a masters degree.
• Applicants must be admitted both to the Ed.D. program at the College of Education and to The Graduate School at the University of Kentucky.
• Applicants must receive approval at some level within KCTCS for participation, as this program will require considerable time commitment beyond regular duties for the four years involved.
• Applications for Fall 2007 admission are due March 15, 2007.

CORE PROGRAM FACULTY

L. Bjork, K. Bradley, S. Clements, T. Ferrigno, B. Goldstein, J. Jensen, S. Scollay, Eric Reed
(Additional faculty will be added as they are identified.)

CONTACT INFORMATION

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Stephen Clements
Director, KCTCS Ed.D. Program
Institute for Educational Research
University of Kentucky
105 Taylor Education Building
Lexington, KY  40506-0001
Stephen.Clements@uky.edu
859-257-4176

Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Updated on June 8, 2007 14:16 by the Webmaster - Content by Dr. Beth Goldstein