Southeastern, ULL approved to offer doctorate in education
Contact: Rene Abadie
2/23/06
HAMMOND – The Louisiana Board of Regents Thursday (Feb. 23) approved a proposal by Southeastern Louisiana University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to begin offering a joint doctoral degree in educational leadership.
The program, which has been in development by the two institutions for several years, is the Southeastern’s first foray into doctoral education. As partners, the two institutions will form a consortium board that will jointly administer the program, offer classes and make decisions regarding program development and student participation.
“This is an historic day for Southeastern,” said President Randy Moffett. “We appreciate the Board of Regents’ confidence in the proposal we developed jointly with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. We look forward to working together to help develop a new generation of supervisors, principals and superintendents – administrators who are visionary leaders, effective managers and change agents for improvement in our schools.”
Moffett said Southeastern will submit the program to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) for review, since the doctoral program is a significant change in its current degree offerings. In December, Southeastern’s accreditation by SACS was reaffirmed for another 10 years.
“We do not anticipate that this review process will hinder our moving forward with the program,” he said.
“Our schools are under increasing pressure to improve student performance,” Moffett said. “The burdens of attaining school success and individual student achievement are falling squarely on the shoulders of our school administrators. Today’s school leaders must be prepared to focus time, energy and attention to changing what students are taught, how they are taught, and what they are learning. These challenges demand a new type of school executive, and this program was designed to prepare these new leaders.”
He said the intent is to develop a flexible delivery of course content to accommodate the needs of participants, most of whom are expected to be working professionals. The program will use a combination of traditional face-to-face classroom instruction, as well as distance education technologies such as compressed video, the Internet, and interactive desktop video.
“We intend to use the technology of our institutions to provide the convenience of on-line and other distance education strategies, while ensuring the highest level of academic achievement and program integrity,” Moffett added.
The degree program consists of 60 credit hours beyond the master’s degree level, and will blend theory and practice by using both content courses to develop skills and knowledge with research-oriented field-based projects applied to specific problems or issues. The universities expect to begin enrolling students in the program starting next fall semester with the first graduates anticipated in three to four years.
Both universities have identified and retained qualified faculty who bring both experience and expertise to the program, said Diane Allen, dean of Southeastern’s College of Education and Human Development.
“The faculty involved in this program have experience directing doctoral students, strong records of scholarly research, and a sincere interest in helping to change and improve the educational leadership of our primary and secondary schools,” she added.
Allen said a looming shortage of qualified school administrators presents a critical need for new doctoral programs such as the one approved. Surveys conducted in the regions around Southeastern and ULL indicate that about half of school-based administrators are eligible to retire in the next five years.
“Those positions will need to be filled in the next several years,” she said. “We are hoping to increase the pool of highly qualified and prepared administrators. We need to take steps now to recruit and prepare practicing educators in leadership if our schools are going to continue to improve.
“We know that the success of students depends largely on having a qualified teacher in the classroom,” she added. “But successful teachers need effective leaders who understand the challenges of the classroom and the need for ongoing professional development.”
Allen said surveys of students currently enrolled in graduate education courses and of principals and supervisors in the southern part of the state indicate considerable interest in the program. Both Southeastern and ULL currently offer programs leading to masters degrees in educational concentrations.
Both institutions are fully accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. NCATE accreditation is a peer review process that involves a comprehensive evaluation of programs responsible for preparing teachers and other professional school personnel.
Southeastern is one of the state’s largest producers of teachers and was the first institution in the state to guarantee the performance of its teacher graduates to area school systems.
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