Program Overview
West Texas A&M University’s Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership is a fully online Ed.D. degree program that has three Pathways. Pathway one prepares individuals to lead rural schools and to teach educational leadership within a university setting. Pathway two prepares individuals for leadership positions within higher education and educational organizations. Pathway three prepares leaders in the areas of educational business and finance. Although the program focuses on rural school leadership, all three Pathways equip educational leaders with a wide variety of tools to lead in any school district, university, or organization of any size, and in any location.
Distinguished program characteristics require 60 hours of courses that include an interdisciplinary curriculum, an emphasis on scholarly research and methodology, the opportunity for a high-impact experiential residency, and an endowed scholars’ program. Candidates who qualify may transfer up to 12 hours of transfer credit and/or competency credit into the three-year program. The residency requirement will be met when the candidate completes a minimum of 48 hours of classes at WTAMU. This satisfies the residency requirement of Graduate School.
Features of the curriculum highlight environmental courses (sociology, decision-making, and superintendent certification) to ground doctoral candidates in the interface among the community, the individual’s decision-making, and the job description. The first year in the Educational Leadership doctoral program includes superintendent certification courses while the first year in the Leadership in Higher Education Pathway focuses on leadership in university and/or community college settings. All three Pathways are introduced to add additional knowledge and skill courses of educational leadership in the second year. For all Pathways, the final year focuses on research, scholarly writing, and applying theory to practice. Rather than the traditional dissertation, innovative scholarly research throughout the three years at WTAMU results in an extensive literature review and two articles that are publication-ready.
Meet Our First Cohort
The first cohort of WT's Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership graduated on December 11, 2021. Five of the graduates shared their inspiring stories and experiences in the program with us.
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I See Me at WT Special Feature
Did you know that only 0.02% of doctorate degrees are held by Latin women? These four ladies from WT's Doctorate of Education program decided to make their dreams a reality and to improve that statistic. Together, they became "Las Chicas", and are inspiring others from minority groups to pursue their dreams.
