Designed for busy school leaders — teacher leaders, counselors, directors, student deans, principals, assistant principals — who wish to continue working while pursuing a doctoral degree, CU Denver’s fully online EdD concentration in Executive Leadership provides a supportive learning environment focused on equity, educational access, and social justice. You will develop new tools to create long-lasting positive change in your organization and community, while addressing critical issues and challenges in education and educational leadership.

Join a cohort with students from diverse professional backgrounds who progress through coursework together followed by their Doctoral Research Project while being supported and guided by program faculty throughout your journey. Our students also have the option to pursue administrative licensure from the Colorado Department of Education.

The goal of this concentration is to prepare you to:

• Design and carry out practical research with peers and faculty members in educational settings to inform and guide improvement of programs, practice, and/or policy
• Become ethical and collaborative leaders who excel at working with students, parents, community members and leaders on identified problems of practice and policy
• Develop a professional knowledge base that integrates practical and research knowledge
• Engage in leadership, innovative program development, or evaluation that can promote systemic change and improvement

Choose CU Denver's School of Education & Human Development:

This program provides an environment that prepares students for a career as an executive leader of educational organizations. The School of Education & Human Development (SEHD) is recognized for preparing leaders of distinction who value educational excellence and social justice. Additionally, SEHD is counted among U.S. News & World Report's “Best Graduate Schools,” making us one of the top education schools in the country.

Courses

The 54-credit program begins each summer. The online cohort completes coursework in two years, followed by the Doctoral Research Project which lasts approximately one year. However, each project is unique and may extend time to completion. The curriculum includes a combination of asynchronous online courses with embedded synchronous options. Courses are scheduled in eight-week segments during the academic year and four-week segments in the summer. Students must be available to participate in online courses each semester, each year of the program, following the cohort schedule.

The curriculum includes the following elements:

• 12 hours in EdD core courses within equity, leadership, and learning core areas (four 3-credit courses)
• Nine hours in the research core (three 3-credit courses)
• 12 hours in the concentration area (four 3-credit courses)
• Six hours of elective courses (two 3-credit courses) selected by the cohort
• 15 hours in seminars and the completion of a doctoral research project

All courses and experiences strive to expose students to context-specific best practices, interdisciplinary connections, and applied research in an environment that stresses the application of theory to practice.