education policy phd programs online

Online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership

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The online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership (EdD) program at American University is proudly part of The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). The vision of the CPED is to inspire all schools of education to apply the CPED framework to the preparation of educational leaders to become well-equipped scholarly practitioners who provide stewardship of the profession and meet the educational challenges of the 21st century.

Join Our Alumni Network: Advance with Our Online Doctor of Education Program

American University’s School of Education believes education shouldn’t just focus on what students learn—it should provide students with an opportunity to reach their full potential and be a force for positive social change. Education should give students hope. Antiquated policies and structures have made hope hard to find in modern education, and the United States needs a new approach to education leadership and policy to bring hope and action to its schools.

The online Doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership (EdD) is a response to this need, empowering education leaders who have the practical experience and theoretical knowledge to effect widespread, progressive change in education. Whether they pursue opportunities in educational instruction, senior learning specialist jobs, organizational leadership, or policymaking, EdD graduates will be better prepared to change education for every student.

Required Credits

40 credits beyond an approved master’s degree

Estimated Time to Completion

Less than three years

Practitioner-Focused Coursework and Research

Resulting in a dissertation of practice

Three On-Campus Residencies

In terms 1, 4, and 6

Online EdD Program Pillars

Graduates of the online EdD program are equipped with the skills every education leader needs to be effective, including strategic budgeting, collaborative inquiry, talent management, partnership building, learning science, and program evaluation. We strive to hone students’ knowledge and develop their skills and beliefs in the following four domains:

Systems Change

Personal leadership, social justice and antiracism.

Policy and Research

These domains serve as the backbone of our program and live out in each course, module, and residency experience our students engage in. After completing their coursework and problem of practice dissertation, students will have the policy, leadership, and research skills necessary to serve in senior positions in school district central offices, independent schools, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, advocacy organizations, senior learning specialist jobs, and more.

In our program, students bring research interests across all sectors of education, and some even seek to research business, nonprofit, or government institutions. … Together, each class can build a community of research support that can prepare students across divergent areas of interest to do remarkable work in their dissertations of practice. Amaarah DeCuir, EdD Senior Professor Lecturer, CTRL Senior Inclusive Pedagogy Fellow, and AUx Faculty Fellow (SOE Faculty)

The Doctorate of Education Online Cohort Experience

Peer learning and a sustained learning network are essential hallmarks of the online EdD program. As a result, students will progress through the program as part of a cohort, taking the same courses and accomplishing program milestones together. We intentionally build a diverse cohort of students to contribute to the dynamic learning environment in the program. Learning will occur through robust dialogue, shared learning experiences, and presenting current professional work and doctoral research.

I chose American University’s doctorate in education policy and leadership program because I want to apply my understanding of how to influence and change systems to produce research that highlights the steps for enacting policy changes that produce equitable outcomes for young children and the educators within this system. I want to continue to foster my skills in policy and research to be able to evaluate progress toward systems change. Shayna Cook Senior manager at education policy firm from Washington, DC

EdD in Education Policy & Leadership Career Opportunities

The American University online EdD in Education Policy & Leadership prepares you for roles in policy, consulting, superintendency, and nonprofits. The following is a sample of educational leadership roles and their median annual wages per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024):

Median Annual Salary

Instructional coordinator

Postsecondary teacher

Postsecondary education administrator

School principal

Top executives (e.g., school superintendents and college or university presidents)

Training and development manager

Synchronous

Live online classes with remote students in your cohort attended according to a specific schedule.

Asynchronous

Self-paced courses or work completed according to your schedule.

Assignments

Homework, projects, research, etc.

14-16 Hours

Total Hours Weekly

Hours are estimates and subject to change per term course.

EdD Domains & Competencies

Personal Mastery

Social Justice / Antiracism

System Thinking

Doctorate of Education Residency

Students will participate in a residency, enabling them to interface with peers and faculty. The program will include three (3) required DC residencies, encapsulated in the EDU-798 course.

Residency #1 Term 1 4 Days (Thurs to Sun) Washington, DC This residency will provide students with the engagement and opportunities to connect and build a strong cohort and professional network. Presentations from academic resources and supports offered throughout their program will assist students with navigating the tools needed to be successful as an online doctor of education student. During the residency, students will participate in a public narrative workshop and begin to forge relationships with faculty they may partner with in the future.

Residency #2 Term 4 4 Days (Thurs to Sun) Washington, DC This residency will include an opportunity for education system leaders to present their own problem of practice to graduate students and faculty, demonstrating their commitment to antiracist research. Students will have time to engage with their committee chair for their dissertation. Students will be in DC and across cohorts and able to engage with each other. Multiple cohorts will be in attendance, allowing students to engage in cross-cohort interaction.

Residency #3 Term 6 4 Days (Thurs to Sun) Washington, DC This residency will include an opportunity for education system leaders to present their methodological approaches and pilots from a critical race lens to their colleagues and faculty. Breakout sessions will include a review of research methodologies, designated time to prepare for Internal Review Board (IRB) clearance, and preparation for students’ defense of their proposals.

40 Credits | 3 Required DC Residencies

Antiracism, Systems Thinking, Policy, Research

In order to be effective educators, practitioners, and administrators who are committed to fostering equitable, inclusive, and antiracist educational environments, it is important to be engaged in discussions on these topics on a regular basis. Having a clear understanding of equity, inclusion, and antiracism in the context of education as well as its limitations is only a starting point for engaging in more deeply involved issues related to achieving social justice and equity for all who participate in education. This course serves as a venue through which students act as both learners and teachers, requiring them to think deeply about their own positionality, understand the unique processes by which students develop across multiple social identity dimensions, and recognize the challenges and opportunities educational organizations face when enacting commitments to equity, inclusion, and antiracism. Usually Offered : fall, spring, and summer. Grading : A-F only. Prerequisite : EDU-702.

Personal Mastery, Antiracism Systems Thinking

Collaborative Inquiry through Systems Thinking is about systems thinking and change—building knowledge of some key frameworks and applying the frameworks to cases and to our own personal contexts, including ourselves, the organizations we work in, and our doctoral cohort. Systems thinking involves the capability to conceptually examine the whole, the sum of parts, rather than the individual parts separately. And systems thinking propels thinkers and leaders to be able to act with a view of both the current reality and the future.

During this course, we will explore many of the concepts that undergird the entire doctoral program: organizational change, social justice, personal leadership, and policy research. We will focus with a strong emphasis on the first three (organizational change, social justice, personal leadership) in this course, and systems thinking and change will serve as a springboard into our doctoral program in education policy and leadership.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Build conceptual knowledge of systems thinking frameworks, including Senge’s five disciplines, Heifetz’s technical and adaptive leadership approach, and Bolman and Deal’s Four Frames
• Apply systems thinking frameworks to your current organizational context and your own personal reflection
• Utilize systems thinking to generate proposals for shared case analysis

Research, Personal Mastery, Antiracism

School of Education system leaders present their problem of practice to students to demonstrate the variety of disciplinary and methodological approaches to educational inquiry. The course also reviews research and statistical methodologies.

Personal Mastery, Antiracism

Leading in today’s educational context necessitates practitioners embrace and deploy the highest versions of their whole self while engaging in the practice of leadership. Exercising this type of leadership requires a deeper consciousness of self and the roles our identity, emotions, and adult development play during the leadership process. Practicing conscious leadership balances the “being and doing” of leadership by honoring and releasing a more healed educational practitioner ready to take on the most complex education issues of our times. This course uses blogs, reflective papers, self-assessments, journals, and executive coaching to serve as the “mirror” for diagnosing students’ leadership defaults, strengths, and blind spots. Supplementing the mirror, this course utilizes diverse research, texts, and ways of knowing to provide students with a robust toolkit of self-reflective frameworks, practices, and inclusive tools that shifts mindsets, behaviors, and practices (internal and external) on behalf of creating a more just education system for all.

At the completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Explain current issues and practices of leadership development in order to formulate a holistic view of today’s educational context
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of your personal leadership style, including default behaviors
• Apply conscious leadership concepts, practice, and theories to personal leadership strategy
• Examine personal change toward conscious leadership to continue enhancing leadership potential
• Demonstrate an ability to exercise conscious leadership within your educational context to facilitate meaningful change
• Recognize the role that power, identity, mindset, emotional awareness, adult development, and equity play during the leadership process

Policy, Systems Thinking, Strategy, Antiracism

This course will offer you the opportunity to learn and apply policy analysis tools and management science to develop and successfully implement education policy. You will analyze historical and present-day education policies from intent to implementation. The course will begin with an exploration of policy basics and frameworks, then continue an intentional path through problem identification and problem-solving to case studies and policy analysis. You will learn how policy at the federal, state, and local levels influences and impacts American PK-12 education and the issues and challenges that educators face as a result of these policies. Several policy authors will offer insight into their own experiences through guest speaker sessions.

The EdD in Education Policy and Leadership domains are: Systems Thinking, Personal Leadership, Social Justice and Antiracism, and Policy and Research. Although this course touches on all the identified domains, Education Policy and Change will place an emphasis on Policy and Research. Additionally, the competencies for the EdD program are:

• Personal Awareness and Mastery: The ability to understand one’s self—one’s strengths, one’s reasoning, and one’s ability to connect with others. Ability to build a learning community.
• Commitment to, Practice of, and Fostering in others Antiracist and Social Justice Beliefs and Action: The ability to engage in authentic conversations and action around personal, organizational, and systemic social justice and antiracism.
• Systems Thinking, Organizational Change and Organizational Learning: The ability to diagnose, observe, and act with knowledge of systemic variables and thinking. Ability to lead and manage systemic change efforts and learning.
• Research Methods, Practice, and Knowledge: Skill and competence with qualitative, developmental, and quantitative methods, analysis, and research design methods.
• Policy Writing, Implementation, and Navigation: Knowledge and skill of policy history, policy implementation, and political navigation.
• Strategy: Skill to create organizational strategic direction with a clear understanding and view of internal and external dimensions.

This course emphasizes competencies 3-6.

Systems Thinking Antiracism, Research

Within this course, we will dig into the creative process of exploring various focus areas for your practitioner research. This foundational course will equip learners with the virtual and physical environments to creatively explore, use design thinking and design research, and create multiple pathways for students’ personalized study and focus. This course will enable learners to narrow their interests and identify a focus area for the duration of their doctoral studies.

We will employ a disruptive innovation lens, a design research approach, design thinking principles, and an antiracist framework to identify and narrow our emerging problems of practice. Learners will experiment with potential problems of practice and narrow their practitioner-oriented research to guide their studies. Within your third semester as doctoral students, you will experiment and build your skills, frameworks, and questions to solidify your study.

The course will include a mix of creative exercises, reading, presenting, academic research, practitioner research, writing, and writing peer groups.

Personal Mastery, Systems Thinking, Antiracism

This course will explore the fundamentals of building a team culture and learning culture within an organization. We will explore the alignment and synergy between learning and efficacy; diagnose and assess the culture within our organizations; create plans for deepening a culture of learning and growth within an organization; and explore the connections between growth culture and equity. This course is meant to support the leadership development of students, provide them with theories and tools to employ in their current and future roles; and engage students in thinking about how individual and team learning intersect. Within the course, students will write reflective essays, engage in group learning simulations, and explore the ideas within their existing roles and organizations.

Through the course, students will engage in real-world teaming experiences with their EdD cohort colleagues, and they will have the opportunity to focus on applied projects within teams, supporting national organizations on existing challenges. We will also spend time during our residency weekend focused on teaming dynamics and project launch.

Research, Antiracism, Systems Thinking

This course falls as the mid-point course in a three-semester continuum, where doctoral learners build their skills as scholarly practitioners with an antiracist lens. Learners enter the course having identified a problem of practice for their scholarly research. And within EDU 710, learners will build their toolkit of practitioner research methods and approaches to support their general knowledge and to consider how to possibly apply toward their problem of practice. Within the course, learners will explore improvement science, participatory action research, ethnography, developmental, qualitative, and quantitative methods. During the course, students will learn about the methodological approaches and apply them in small-scale ways toward their problems of practice.

Antiracism, Strategy, Systems Thinking

This course surveys what education leaders need to know about learning sciences and provides an overview of approaches to administration, analysis, and interpretation of student-level, classroom-level, school-level, and system-level learning outcomes, attending specifically to issues of equity and educational opportunity. Students develop skills in implementation science as applied to problems of practice.

Personal Mastery, Antiracism, Strategy

In this course, students explore speechwriting, public speaking in victory and crisis, communicating from values, and working with social media and the news media. Students learn how to make every communication a dialogue, how to advance their goals and those of listeners, how speaking from the best of yourself gives confidence, and how to distill a message into one memorable sentence that captures listeners’ attention, moves your ideas forward, focuses the problem, and helps achieve your goals.

This course is the third in a series following EDU 703 and EDU 710. This course will begin with a bit more tool sharpening with participatory action research, qualitative methods, and developmental methods with an antiracist lens. Learners will explore a potential matrix of methods that they may employ for their own scholarly research. Learners will work with their doctoral committees and their peer support networks to solidify a scholarly practitioner approach to apply to their problem of practice. Students will gain practice in developing and piloting survey instruments as well as interview and observation protocols focused on the practices and experiences of education stakeholders. Students will also become familiar with strategies for drawing response samples. Finally, students will learn systematic approaches to, and tools for, qualitative data coding and analysis.

Systems Thinking, Antiracism, Policy

This course provides a structured environment for students to explore partnerships between educational institutions and community organizations, families, government agencies, businesses, and non-profit organizations. Existing structural and institutional barriers make collaborative partnerships between schools/education settings and community groups difficult to attain, particularly when leaders lack the skills and competencies to bridge the gap. The course incorporates literature, case studies, and problem-based learning exercises and encourages students to consider assumptions of community stakeholders, to clarify and challenge their own assumptions, and to explore the opportunities and risks associated with cross-sector collaboration and partnerships.

Systems Thinking, Policy, Research, Antiracism

The budget for any organization offers a glimpse into what efforts will be prioritized over a given period of time. The pursuit of excellence through equity in school systems may meet barriers in the budgeting process, as leaders allocate resources to best achieve district or system goals. Therefore, it is crucial that system leaders be able to strategically budget a district’s resources (time, money, and people). This course focuses on the tools, research, and best practices to help leaders be good stewards over an organization’s resources and deploy those resources to protect and maintain focus on district/system goals.

Select one of the following:

• Students are introduced to concepts and principles of social science research design. Observation, interview and survey design, literature reviews, development of problem statements and research questions, surveys of quantitative and qualitative data analyses, and formative and summative evaluation techniques are emphasized. Students demonstrate their competencies by engaging in a small-scale research study.
• Students examine organizational change and leadership in educational organizations, including K-12 schools, federal and state agencies, school districts, and charter school management organizations. Students analyze theories and approaches for management, strategic planning, decentralization versus centralization, organizational learning, stakeholder engagement, and personal leadership.
• Students learn how to use economic principles, such as productivity and return on investment, to evaluate education policies and programs. They apply these economic analytical approaches to education policies and programs such as value-added assessments, teacher compensation, early childhood education, and class-size reduction. Students also examine basic resource allocation and education finance, including costing-out models, school-district budgeting, Title I funding, and weighted-student formulas.
• Students examine major public policy issues and theories in American education through the three-phase lens of policy design, policy adoption, and policy implementation. They learn to describe tensions in federal, state, and local education policies with reference to historical and international comparisons, as well as to evaluate the use of various education policy tools. Policy issues considered include standards and accountability, whole-district reform, school choice, teacher quality, and college and career readiness.
• Students examine legal issues relating to reforming elementary and secondary education through an analysis of federal and state court cases. They identify important legal standards/rules and explore how legal precedents could be applied to different situations across the country. Students also analyze institutional reform litigation such as school finance and voluntary desegregation; federal and state educational authority, including civil rights enforcement; local educational authority, including school boards and collective bargaining agreements; and legal conditions for school improvements.
• Working in small groups, students serve as consultants to an educational organization on a pressing issue of policy or practice. During this field-based project, they apply skills developed through their program of study in education policy and leadership. Students learn approaches to project management, client relations, analytical design, and project presentation, as well as receive support for transitions into policy and leadership careers.
• Students learn about how educational organizations, including schools, school districts, and state agencies, implement education programs and policies. Students learn approaches to program management, including how to use data to set performance targets, make strategic improvement decisions, assess programs, and prioritize changes. Students are also introduced to basic grant writing and administration, including enforcement, monitoring, and support for education grants.
• Topics vary by section. Repeatable for credit with different topic.

Antiracism, Systems Thinking

While the EdD program is designed to be completed online, students are required to attend three (3) residencies at American University. Taking place over one weekend in Terms 1, 4, and 6, the residencies allow students to broaden their connections with faculty and advising staff, familiarize themselves with the various academic and professional resources American University offers, and deepen the relationships they have forged within their cohort through face-to-face interactions with one another. Students will also participate in workshops, dialogues, and in-person class sessions that will contribute to the development of their dissertations of practice and assist in the practical application of the knowledge gained through their studies.

Research, Antiracism, Personal Mastery, Systems Thinking, Policy, Strategy

May be taken by doctoral students who are advanced to candidacy with the approval of the faculty supervising the dissertation (or designee). It is a 9 credit course, but tuition is assessed at the 1 credit rate. The course is graded SP/UP and students will be deemed full-time. The Office of the Registrar must be notified when a student has advanced to candidacy.

Technology fee

Research, Anti-Racism, Personal Mastery, Systems Thinking, Policy, Strategy

Technology Fee

I was drawn to the program at AU because of the location, the emphasis on policy and leadership, and the entire application process, from the first information sessions to the individual and group interviews. I like how we meet as a cohort for virtual face-to-face sessions in addition to the asynchronous content we work on.

Brian Reilly

Special education administrator from Massachusetts

EdD Faculty Members

Cecily Darden Adams

Alida Anderson

Sarah Irvine Belson

Samantha Cohen

Amaarah DeCuir

Antonio Ellis

Annice Fisher

Reuben Jacobson

Anne Karabell

Edit Khatchatryan

Stefan Lallinger

Brian McGowan

Hannah Park

Carolyn Parker

David Rease

Kelvin Roldan

Robert Shand

Michele Shannon

Robert Simmons

William Thomas

Key dates & deadlines, connect with us, speak to an enrollment advisor.

Email:  [email protected] Call:  202-807-6173

Online Events

Check back soon for more upcoming events.

Schedule a School Tour

Our online students, as well as prospective students, are always welcome to tour our campus. Email: [email protected]

This program is designed for working PK-12 leaders who want to connect policy to practice and gain the practical knowledge and skills to transform their organizations and education systems.

Students will participate in a residency, enabling them to interface with peers and faculty.

The program will include three (3) required DC residencies encapsulated in the EDU-798 course.

1st Residency: The first residency will occur from Thursday to Sunday in Washington, DC, during the first month of Term 1. This residency will provide students with the engagement and supports needed to commit to their problem of practice and the program. This begins with the opportunity to work face-to-face with their professors and peers, specifically in their first-term courses. Presentations from academic resources and supports offered throughout their program will assist students with navigating the tools needed to be successful in their composition of a dissertation. The end of the residency will conclude with a presentation of their problem of practice.

2nd Residency: The second residency will occur from Thursday to Sunday in Washington, DC, during the beginning of Term 4 and will include an opportunity for education system leaders to present their problem of practice to graduate students to demonstrate the variety of methodological approaches to educational inquiry. Breakout sessions will include a review of research methodologies, designated time to prepare for Internal Review Board (IRB) clearance, and preparation for students’ defense of their proposals.

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Doctor of Philosophy in Education

Additional Information

• Download the Doctoral Viewbook
• Admissions & Aid

The Harvard Ph.D. in Education trains cutting-edge researchers who work across disciplines to generate knowledge and translate discoveries into transformative policy and practice.

Offered jointly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Ph.D. in Education provides you with full access to the extraordinary resources of Harvard University and prepares you to assume meaningful roles as university faculty, researchers, senior-level education leaders, and policymakers.

As a Ph.D. candidate, you will collaborate with scholars across all Harvard graduate schools on original interdisciplinary research. In the process, you will help forge new fields of inquiry that will impact the way we teach and learn. The program’s required coursework will develop your knowledge of education and your expertise in a range of quantitative and qualitative methods needed to conduct high-quality research. Guided by the goal of making a transformative impact on education research, policy, and practice, you will focus on independent research in various domains, including human development, learning and teaching, policy analysis and evaluation, institutions and society, and instructional practice.   

Curriculum Information

The Ph.D. in Education requires five years of full-time study to complete. You will choose your individual coursework and design your original research in close consultation with your HGSE faculty adviser and dissertation committee. The requirements listed below include the three Ph.D. concentrations: Culture, Institutions, and Society; Education Policy and Program Evaluation; and Human Development, Learning and Teaching . 

We invite you to review an example course list, which is provided in two formats — one as the full list by course number and one by broad course category . These lists are subject to modification. 

Ph.D. Concentrations and Examples

Summary of Ph.D. Program

Doctoral Colloquia  In year one and two you are required to attend. The colloquia convenes weekly and features presentations of work-in-progress and completed work by Harvard faculty, faculty and researchers from outside Harvard, and Harvard doctoral students. Ph.D. students present once in the colloquia over the course of their career.

Research Apprenticeship The Research Apprenticeship is designed to provide ongoing training and mentoring to develop your research skills throughout the entire program.

Teaching Fellowships The Teaching Fellowship is an opportunity to enhance students' teaching skills, promote learning consolidation, and provide opportunities to collaborate with faculty on pedagogical development.

Comprehensive Exams  The Written Exam (year 2, spring) tests you on both general and concentration-specific knowledge. The Oral Exam (year 3, fall/winter) tests your command of your chosen field of study and your ability to design, develop, and implement an original research project.

Dissertation  Based on your original research, the dissertation process consists of three parts: the Dissertation Proposal, the writing, and an oral defense before the members of your dissertation committee.

Culture, Institutions, and Society (CIS) Concentration

In CIS, you will examine the broader cultural, institutional, organizational, and social contexts relevant to education across the lifespan. What is the value and purpose of education? How do cultural, institutional, and social factors shape educational processes and outcomes? How effective are social movements and community action in education reform? How do we measure stratification and institutional inequality? In CIS, your work will be informed by theories and methods from sociology, history, political science, organizational behavior and management, philosophy, and anthropology. You can examine contexts as diverse as classrooms, families, neighborhoods, schools, colleges and universities, religious institutions, nonprofits, government agencies, and more.

Education Policy and Program Evaluation (EPPE) Concentration

In EPPE, you will research the design, implementation, and evaluation of education policy affecting early childhood, K–12, and postsecondary education in the U.S. and internationally. You will evaluate and assess individual programs and policies related to critical issues like access to education, teacher effectiveness, school finance, testing and accountability systems, school choice, financial aid, college enrollment and persistence, and more. Your work will be informed by theories and methods from economics, political science, public policy, and sociology, history, philosophy, and statistics. This concentration shares some themes with CIS, but your work with EPPE will focus on public policy and large-scale reforms.

Human Development, Learning and Teaching (HDLT) Concentration

In HDLT, you will work to advance the role of scientific research in education policy, reform, and practice. New discoveries in the science of learning and development — the integration of biological, cognitive, and social processes; the relationships between technology and learning; or the factors that influence individual variations in learning — are transforming the practice of teaching and learning in both formal and informal settings. Whether studying behavioral, cognitive, or social-emotional development in children or the design of learning technologies to maximize understanding, you will gain a strong background in human development, the science of learning, and sociocultural factors that explain variation in learning and developmental pathways. Your research will be informed by theories and methods from psychology, cognitive science, sociology and linguistics, philosophy, the biological sciences and mathematics, and organizational behavior.

Program Faculty

The most remarkable thing about the Ph.D. in Education is open access to faculty from all Harvard graduate and professional schools, including the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Learn about the full Ph.D. Faculty.

Jarvis R. Givens

Jarvis Givens studies the history of American education, African American history, and the relationship between race and power in schools.

Paul L. Harris

Paul Harris is interested in the early development of cognition, emotion, and imagination in children.

Meira Levinson

Meira Levinson is a normative political philosopher who works at the intersection of civic education, youth empowerment, racial justice, and educational ethics. 

Luke W. Miratrix

Luke Miratrix is a statistician who explores how to best use modern statistical methods in applied social science contexts.

Eric Taylor

Eric Taylor studies the economics of education, with a particular interest in employer-employee interactions between schools and teachers — hiring and firing decisions, job design, training, and performance evaluation.

Paola Uccelli

Paola Ucelli studies socio-cultural and individual differences in the language development of multilingual and monolingual students.

View Ph.D. Faculty

Dissertations.

The following is a complete listing of successful Ph.D. in Education dissertations to-date. Dissertations from November 2014 onward are publicly available in the Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) , the online repository for Harvard scholarship.

• 2022 Graduate Dissertations (265 KB pdf)
• 2021 Graduate Dissertations (177 KB pdf)
• 2020 Graduate Dissertations (121 KB pdf)
• 2019 Graduate Dissertations (68.3 KB pdf)

Student Directory

An opt-in listing of current Ph.D. students with information about their interests, research, personal web pages, and contact information:

Doctor of Philosophy in Education Student Directory

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Program Highlights

Explore examples of the Doctor of Philosophy in Education experience and the impact its community is making on the field:

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Education Policy PhD

Doctor of philosophy in education policy.

In the rapidly changing and increasingly complex world of education, a crucial need exists for better knowledge about how schools and school systems, higher education, and early childhood education can be organized and led most effectively. We need to reach deeper understandings of how policies, politics, and the law can advance the twin goals of excellence and equity, how educational institutions and systems can best acquire and use resources, how leaders can support teacher development and student achievement, and how education policymakers and leaders can make best use of information from student assessments, program evaluations, and analytical research. This knowledge should be based on thoughtful reasoning and solid evidence; it should be theoretical in scope but also have clear implications for education practice.

The campus-based Ph.D. degree in Education Policy responds to these knowledge demands by focusing on the scholarly study of education policy. This degree program provides the opportunity to develop expertise in many interconnected subject areas and preparation for careers in academic research and teaching or in applied policy development and research. Graduates of the Ph.D. program are able to build new knowledge, teach new leaders, and craft new policies.

In the Education Policy program, students will consider how laws and policies impact the reform of educational systems and how they support or impede improvements in curriculum, teaching, and student achievement. Furthermore, students will analyze the political, social, economic and legal dynamics that affect policy development and implementation.

The program may be completed in 75 credits, of which up to 30 credits may be transferred from another graduate institution. In addition to study in education policy, the program requires extensive preparation in quantitative and qualitative research methods and in one of the cognate social sciences offered by the University, for example, Political Science, Sociology, Economics, or Law. For information, please contact Gosia Kolb at  [email protected] .

Doctoral Student Profiles

Career Outcomes

Study Guides & Worksheets

Admission Information

Displaying requirements for the Spring 2025, Summer 2025, and Fall 2025 terms.

Doctor of Philosophy

• Points/Credits: 75
• Entry Terms: Fall
• Enrollment Formats: Full-Time Campus-Based

Application Deadlines

Select programs remain open beyond our standard application deadlines , such as those with an extended deadline or those that are rolling (open until June or July). If your program is rolling or has an extended deadline indicated above, applications are reviewed as they are received and on a space-available basis. We recommend you complete your application as soon as possible as these programs can close earlier if full capacity has been met.

Application Requirements

For admission-related inquiries, please contact [email protected] .

Application Guidelines and Required Documents

The faculty members of the Education Policy Program collectively make admissions decisions for our Program. We are committed to a holistic review of applicants’ materials and to creating a diverse and inclusive doctoral cohort and learning community. In the application materials, the Statement of Purpose is particularly important. We strongly recommend that applicants describe their intellectual and applied interests in education policy and why they believe our program is a good fit for them given their background, past experiences, and future plans. It is helpful to mention particular specialization areas they’re interested in and/or faculty members they would like to work with. Applicants are also encouraged to describe any personal circumstances that have impacted their prior education and their plans for the future. Doctoral study culminates in a research dissertation, and while applicants are not expected to enter our program with a fully conceived research plan, it would be helpful to know about prior research experience and current general thinking about an eventual topic area. While we ask for GRE scores, they are not the decisive factor and we do not have any particular cut-off point for admission. Regarding letters of recommendation, we ask for three letters, at least one (1) of which should be from a professor or another academic source who can speak to the applicant’s academic interests and strengths.

Requirements from the TC Catalog (AY 2024-2025)

Displaying catalog information for the Fall 2024, Spring 2025 and Summer 2025 terms.

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In the rapidly changing and increasingly complex world of education, a crucial need exists for better knowledge about how policies can support early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, and higher education while advancing the goals of efficiency, excellence, and equity. The Ph.D. degree in Education Policy responds to these knowledge demands by focusing on the scholarly study of education policy. This degree program provides the opportunity to develop expertise in many interconnected subject areas as preparation for careers in academic research and teaching or in applied policy development and research. 

The degree program may be completed in a minimum of 75 points. Up to 30 points of eligible coursework  may be transferred from another accredited graduate institution. In addition to study in education policy, the degree program requires extensive preparation in quantitative and qualitative research methods and in one or more of the social science disciplines, including economics, history, law, political science, and sociology. Students must complete a doctoral certification process and a research dissertation.

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Teachers College, Columbia University Zankel 212

Contact Person: Imani Collins

Phone: (212) 678-3751 Fax: (212) 678-3589

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Doctorate in Education Policy & Leadership (EdD)

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Prepare to advance your career and join a network of American University faculty, students, and alumni who are transforming education in the United States.

American University’s School of Education believes education shouldn’t just focus on what students learn—it should provide students with an opportunity to reach their full potential and be a force for positive social change. Education should give students hope. Antiquated policies and structures have made hope hard to find in modern education, and the United States needs a new approach to education leadership and policy to bring hope and action to its schools.

The Online Doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership (EdD) is a response to this need, empowering leaders in education who have the practical experience and theoretical knowledge to effect widespread, progressive change in education. Whether they pursue opportunities in educational instruction, organizational leadership, or policymaking, EdD graduates will be better prepared to change education, for every student.

The Cohort Experience

Peer learning and a sustained learning network are essential hallmarks of the Online EdD program. As a result, students will progress through the program as part of a cohort, taking the same courses, and accomplishing program milestones together. We intentionally build a diverse cohort of students to contribute to the dynamic learning environment in the program. Learning will occur through robust dialogue, shared learning experiences, and presenting current professional work and doctoral research.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to complete.

Typically the program can be completed in less than three years.

Who is the online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership program intended for?

This program is designed for working PK-12 leaders who want to connect policy to practice and gain the practical knowledge and skills to transform their organizations and education systems.

What are the pillars of this program?

Graduates of the Online EdD program will be equipped with the skills every education leader needs to be effective, including strategic budgeting, collaborative inquiry, talent management, partnership building, learning science, and program evaluation. We strive to hone students’ knowledge and develop their skills and beliefs in the following four domains:

Systems Change

Personal leadership, social justice and antiracism, policy and research.

These domains serve as the backbone of our program and live out in each course, module, and residency experience that our students engage in. After completing their coursework and their Problem of Practice dissertation, students will have the policy, leadership, and research skills necessary to serve in senior positions in school district central offices, independent schools, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, advocacy organizations, and more.

May I continue to work full-time while completing the program?

Full-time work while taking the program is normal. Students will participate in a residency enabling them to interface with peers and faculty, so they need to visit Washington, DC for three (3) required residencies in terms 1, 4, and 6 from Thursdays through Sundays, encapsulated in the EDU-798 course.

When are applications due?

Applications are due each December for placement in the cohort the following fall.

Is this program part of CPED?

The Online EdD program at American University is proudly part of The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). The vision of the CPED is to inspire all schools of education to apply the CPED framework to the preparation of educational leaders to become well-equipped scholarly practitioners who provide stewardship of the profession and meet the educational challenges of the 21st century.

Have questions? Send us an email at  [email protected]  or call us at (202) 885-3720.

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