Printer-friendly versionThe Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) is a three-year effort sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation and the Council of Academic Deans in Research Education Institutions to strengthen the education doctorate. The participating colleges and universities have committed themselves to working together to undertake a critical examination of the doctorate in education with a particular focus on the highest degree that leads to careers in professional practice. The intent of the project is to redesign and transform doctoral education for the advanced preparation of school practitioners and clinical faculty, academic leaders and professional staff for the nation's schools and colleges and the organizations that support them.
Participating Institutions
Most of the participating education schools offer both the Ph.D. in education and the Ed.D. or doctorate of education. The blurring of the distinctions between these two degrees over the past half-century invites examination of their purpose and their content. The intent of this effort is to focus on the doctorate of professional practice and to draw on recent work of the Foundation that carefully and critically examined the Ph.D. in seven fields of study (including education). Outreach to academics in other fields (psychology, audiology, urban planning, design, pharmacology, engineering and physical therapy) who are engaged in a similar exploration will occur, but this initiative is intended to help participating education schools better distinguish between the two highest degrees offered with the intent of strengthening both. The goal of preparing better scholars and more skilled practitioners is a shared aspiration of the participants, but the specific focus of CPED is the education doctorate leading to highly skilled leadership in school and college settings and in the organizations that support them.
- University of Connecticut
- Duquesne University
- University of Florida
- University of Houston
- University of Kansas
- University of Kentucky
- University of Louisville
- University of Maryland
- University of Missouri-Columbia
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Northern Illinois University
- University of Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania State University
- Rutgers University
- University of Southern California
- University of South Florida
- University of Vermont
- Vanderbilt University
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
- Washington State University
Learn more about the activities of these institutions on the Project Updates page.
Framework
The education schools which have been selected to participate in this initiative are committed to working together over the coming three years to strengthen every facet of their current doctoral programs—from candidate selection to the "capstone" experiences for advanced candidates, from the assessment procedures used in the program to the curriculum that is offered. Participants will be guided by recent work of the Carnegie Foundation that has focused on pursuit of excellence in doctoral education and professional preparation.
Participants will frame their work with an emphasis on:
- The scholarship of teaching
- The identification of a "signature pedagogy" to guide the work
- The creation of "laboratories of practice" in which future practitioners experiment and undertake "best evidence analyses"
- New "capstone" experiences in which future practitioners can work together to produce outstanding demonstrations of their proficiency
The goal of CPED is to reclaim the education doctorate and to transform it into the degree of choice for the next generation of school and college leaders.
