WKU News & Events

Doctoral Program Builds On WKU's Tradition Of Education

February 26, 2008

Bowling Green, Ky. - A new Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership builds on Western Kentucky University’s tradition of training teachers and education professionals.

For the past 100 years, WKU has been a leader in preparing Kentucky’s educational personnel and consistently ranks No. 1 or No. 2 in the number of teachers and administrators certified annually.

WKU has offered master’s level training for 75 years and has produced numerous leaders of Kentucky education, including former Education Secretary Laura Owens, other Kentucky Department of Education officials, superintendents, principals and teachers. For more than a decade, WKU has been involved in a cooperative doctoral program with the University of Louisville that has resulted in 42 degree recipients produced at WKU.

Building on that tradition, WKU’s doctorate in educational leadership is designed to meet the increasing demand to take P-20 education in Kentucky to new levels.

WKU’s program, approved Tuesday by the Council on Postsecondary Education, will be offered in four specialty areas:

P-12 Administrative Leadership, primarily designed for public/district administrators.
Teacher Leadership, primarily designed for educators serving in quasi-leadership roles related to areas such as Lead Teacher, Grade Coordinator, Curriculum Coordinator, Resource Teacher and Staff Developer.
Postsecondary Education Leadership, primarily designed for leaders in postsecondary, teachers/staff in two-year and four-year institutions including KCTCS colleges;
Organizational Leadership, designed to prepare leaders in education-related organizations or in education-related positions within the private and public sectors that are not classified as schools, colleges, or universities.

An appropriately tailored Ed.D. - the doctorate of the practitioner – is the best way to address the needs these individuals have to positively impact their organizations. Assessment skills, the ability to collect and analyze relevant data, and developing the ability to translate findings into actions that improve student learning are the foundation of WKU’s program.

The doctoral program is the next milestone for fulfilling WKU’s evolving mission for (a) seamless career development, (b) complementing the total program offerings, (c) utilizing the strong technological infrastructure for delivery, and (d) enhancing economic growth in the Commonwealth through the emergence of advanced educational degrees.

The WKU educational leadership doctoral degree program:

Encourages participants to become practitioner scholars by promoting skills and knowledge in practice-based settings and to gain scholarship and experience in applied behaviors;
Provides opportunities to explore a range of career specialties in various settings so that participants can make sound career choices;
Models interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration through the program’s management and accountability structures;
Provides participants with leadership capacity to bring about changes that enhance student learning;
Provides interdisciplinary research preparation focused on contextually based problems central to future global competitiveness.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Jeanne Fiene at (270) 745-2942.

-WKU-
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