Outcomes & Structure

Program Outcomes

Our Ed.D. program outcomes are aligned with the Carnegie Project on the Educational Doctorate (CPED) guiding principles, as follows:

The Professional Doctorate in Education:

• Is framed around questions of equity, ethics and social justice to bring about solutions to complex problems of practice.
• Prepares leaders who can construct and apply knowledge to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals, families, organizations and communities.
• Provides opportunities for candidates to develop and demonstrate collaboration and communication skills to work with diverse communities and to build partnerships.
• Provides field-based opportunities to analyze problems of practice and use multiple frames to develop meaningful solutions.
• Is grounded in and develops a professional knowledge base that integrates both practical and research knowledge, that links theory with systemic and systematic inquiry.
• Emphasizes the generation, transformation and use of professional knowledge and practice.

Program Structure

JWU’s unique program offers:

• An 8-weekend synchronous class schedule across a 16-week semester:
  • Friday evenings (synchronous, online)
  • All-day Saturday (synchronous, at the JWU Providence Harborside Campus)
  • Asynchronous online delivery between scheduled weekend sessions
• Small classes, so you can develop a relationship with professors who are leaders in the field
• Application of course learning directly to your work environment — your laboratory of practice — to provide value in real time
• Personalized advising during the dissertation phase to support on-time completion

Through your coursework, you’ll learn to:

• Define problems, ask the right questions, think beyond the obvious, develop and test several alternatives, and choose the option that maximizes the results.
• Utilize existing research, data and appropriate research methodology to develop and test alternative solutions, and choose the best course of action.
• Communicate appropriately to individuals and groups of various sizes to teach students, to persuade others, to mediate disputes and to build convincing cases.
• Structure educational environments in which leadership roles and responsibilities are shared; in which the mission, goals and work are determined collaboratively; in which evidence overrides opinion, tradition and bias; in which decisions are made in a timely manner and communicated efficiently; and in which others are motivated to do more than they thought they could.
• Think beyond common constraints, take calculated risks and advocate stretched goals in order to bring fresh perspectives to educational issues and problems and to open the way for new and potential promising solutions.
• Articulate a vision for technology utilization in order to model and promote effective uses; support teaching and learning; improve management functions; provide forward-thinking leadership and management to continuously improve organizations; and facilitate better understanding of social, ethical and legal issues and responsibilities related to a digital age culture.
• Recognize and consider the ethical and legal dimension of potential actions, practice and promote social awareness and ethical behavior, and encourage others to do the same.
• Exercise leadership to address the pressing issues of social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion in order to close achievement gaps for underrepresented populations.

JWU-PRN Partnership

JWU is proud to partner with the Principal Residency Network (PRN), a program housed in the Center for Leadership & Educational Equity (CLEE) in Providence, Rhode Island.

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Our Alumni Network

JWU’s Ed.D. program has a strong and supportive network of alumni that have gone on to make significant contributions in their chosen career paths.

Our alumni are in a variety of leadership roles, including presidents, senior leaders, deans in higher education, authors, nonprofit directors, superintendents and school leaders.

Many alumni continue to maintain strong connections to our program in the years since completing the degree and often participate as guest speakers, panel members, peer mentors, dissertation committee members and even returning as practitioner faculty. We value the continued involvement and achievements of our alum and work hard to feature their accomplishments on our various social media platforms to support on-going connections to our university, program and current students.

I use the skills that I learned in the program almost every day in my job at the Naval War College. Whether it’s doing research, writing program reviews or reviewing syllabi, I can trace those skills back to the doctoral program. Our courses were relevant and we discussed contemporary issues.

— Thomas J. Ribbons ’07 Ed.D., Naval War College provost

Our alumni are advocates for fellow JWU Ed.D. graduates, recognizing the value of the JWU Educational Leadership degree as they fill vacancies and build leadership teams in their own organizations.

The JWU Ed.D. opens doors, as it is indicative of a quality preparation that produces thoughtful, research-based collaborators with a strong eye toward solving problems of practice to support change and growth in educational organizations and institutions.