Curriculum & Courses

Current Program of Study

The program of studies, i.e., the courses and curriculum for the Ph.D. in Education, Policy, Leadership and School Improvement (PLS), is a minimum of 61 credit hours, made up of 4 parts:

• 16 credit hours of Required Core Courses for the Ph.D. in Education;
• 18 credit hours of Required Core Courses for the PLS Research Strand;
• 15 credit hours of Research Core Courses;
• 6 credit hours of Selectives;
• 6 Dissertation credits.

Ph.D. Core Courses

The following 19 credit hours are required for all Ph.D. candidates. As these are intended to be foundational courses for the rest of the program, you should plan to take them in your first, or at the latest second, year of coursework.

• EDUC 710: Statistical Analysis of Educational Data (or prerequisite), 4 hrs
• EDUC 825: Development and Learning, 3 hrs
• EDUC 830: Field Techniques in Educational Research, 3 hrs
• EDUC 867: Issues in Ed Policy and Research, 3 hrs
• EDUC 876: Histories of Schooling: Culture, Curriculum, and Change, 3 hrs
• 1 advanced research methods course, any type (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, mixed), 3 hrs

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PLS. Core Courses

• EDUC 930: Economics of Education, 3 hrs
• EDUC 866: Policy to Practice, 3 hrs
• EDUC 902: Sociology of School Improvement, 3 hrs
• EDUC 832: Politics of Education, 3 hrs
• EDUC 934: Leadership for School Improvement and Reform

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Research Core Courses

• Pro Seminar I
• Statistics I
• Statistics II
• Research Design
• Field Techniques
• Secondary Data Analysis
• Program Evaluation & Policy Analysis
• Advanced Research Selective

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Selectives

Advanced Research Selectives

Mixed Methods
Advanced Panel Data Methodology
Applied Measurement Theory for Education
Statistics III
Multi Level Modeling
Advanced Quantitative Methods: Causality / Causal Inference
Advanced Qualitative Analysis and Interpretation
Case Study Methods

PLS Selectives

Culture and Politics in Second Language Education
Schooling of Latinos
School Law
Gender, Race and Class Issues in Education
Critical Race Theory
Social and Educational History of the United States
Design-based Research
Any Doctoral Seminar in Education Policy (e.g., Special Education Policy)
or any Advanced Research Selectives listed above

They may also include courses outside the SOE, including, for example
Public Policy Seminar (Public Policy)
Graduate Seminar on Agenda-Setting (Political Science)
Ethnicity, Race and Education (Sociology)
Politics, Institutions & Public Policy (Political Science)
Poverty in America (Sociology)

Dissertation Course

• EDUC 994: Doctoral Research and Dissertation, 6-9 hrs

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