MLFTC education doctorate receives international honor

At the spring 2018 convening of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate, the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Doctor of Education degree in Leadership and Innovation was named the CPED Program of the Year. The ASU EdD shares the honor with the Education Doctorate in Professional Educational Practice at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

CPED includes more than 100 public and private colleges that “... work together to undertake a critical examination of the doctorate in education through dialogue, experimentation, critical feedback and evaluation.”

The EdD program at MLFTC was developed beginning in 2004 and welcomed its first students in 2006. More than 170 students have graduated with the degree. The EdD is designed for practicing educator-leaders who want to transform their practice and create better learning opportunities for students of all ages. EdD students enter the program as accomplished teachers and teacher leaders, principals, superintendents, and professionals in higher education and other education contexts. The coursework, offered in face-to-face and online formats, allows students to deepen their abilities to lead change and implement innovation in their local educational organizations.

Associate Professor Craig Mertler, who directs the EdD program, says the award is a significant honor. “Our program was recognized as exemplary by this international consortium whose collective work raises the stature, rigor and reputation of education doctoral programs,” Mertler says. “Our EdD has been part of the consortium for more than 10 years, and to receive this type of recognition validates the innovative components of our program and its high level of academic rigor. All of our faculty, staff, students and alumni deserve thanks for their contributions to our program over the years.”

CPED, which is based at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, was founded in 2007 with the support of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Its members believe that a doctorate in education prepares educators for the application of appropriate and specific practices, the generation of new knowledge and for the stewardship of their profession. The Program of the Year award identifies institutions whose CPED-influenced programs show themselves to be distinctive, inventive and useful to other CPED members.

Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College will host the fall 2018 convening of CPED.

Learn more about the Doctor of Education degree in Leadership and Innovation.