David D. Marsh

Rethinking School Leadership Programs: The USC Ed.D. Program in Perspective

The Ed.D. program at the University of Southern California focuses on leadership in urban education. The article describes the rationale and guiding principles for the program and its design in terms of core knowledge, inquiry, signature pedagogy, concentrations, and capstone experiences. The article concludes with an assessment of our contributions to date and a set of challenges that will direct our efforts in the near future.

School Principals as Standards-Based Educational Leaders Looking across Policy Contexts

Is it possible for principals/heads to be effective educational leaders? In this study, we compared the work of principals/heads in two policy contexts. In Policy Context 1, standards for student performance were common and well-established, and authority was devolved to the school level for reshaping the school to meet those standards. In contrast, Policy Context 2 involved attention to more locally defined standards, and authority was more rule-driven rather than directed by local self-management. Policy Context 1 provided several advantages for educational leaders. Principals/heads were able to use the formal leadership structure of the school and to be more focused on actually achieving student results as measured against standards. In contrast, principals in Policy Context 2 often had to spend considerable personal energy helping the school define its purpose/mission, and could not hold the collaborative focus tightly on a specific set of student standards or results. Implications for job structuring, principal development, and connections between policy and practice are discussed.

Knowledge Utilization in Evaluation Efforts The Role of Recommendations

The utilization of evaluations is an important knowkdge utilization problem. This study focused on the role that recommendations played in evaluation utilization, and included (a) the form and content of recommendations, (b) their relationship to the purposes and findings of the evaluation, (c) the process by which they were developed, and (d) the factors that influenced their utilization. A coordinated case study methodology was used. Factors influencing the utilization of recommendations mirrored the factors enhancing general utilization of evaluations. However, the use of recommendations influenced general utilization by creating an early, negotiated, and public focus on decision implications. Implications of the study for knowledge utilization are discussed.

Applying Research on Effective Bilingual Instruction in a Multi-district Inservice Teacher Training Program

Abstract Helping teachers apply existing research on bilingual instruction is both a critical and complex problem. The Multi-district Trainer of Trainers Institute (MTTI) has used sophisticated staff development and research dissemination strategies to help teachers apply this body of research. This article has three purposes: (1) to describe the MTTI; (2) to analyze its impact; and (3) to examine MTTI as a research utilization process. Data were collected using interviews, questionnaires, observations and participant logs. The MTTI uses the Joyce and Showers staff training model, with important refinements in the peer coaching process. Teams of influential theoreticians and MTTI facilitators guide participants through cycles of training lasting several years. The content and bureaucratic arrangements are also described. MTTI has had substantial impact on participants’ use of bilingual instructional strategies in the classroom, on the institutionalization of these strategies in school settings, on the ins...

Strategies for Elevating the Public and Professional Regard of the Ed.D.

A nationwide strategy for improving Ed.D. programs is needed to overcome two important dilemmas that are typical in schools of education: low academic status for Ed.D. programs and an overreliance on tuition as a source of revenue. Other major hindrances are the lack of agreement about research-based standards, a weak alignment with other elements of educational reform, and fuzzy accreditation standards. The authors then discuss two broad strategies for reversing the downward spiral in educational leadership programs: a compact among elite schools of education to improve their Ed.D. programs and a National Academy of Educational Leadership. For both strategies, the authors explore lessons from a range of analogies drawn frome experience both in the United States and internationally.

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Education Doctorate

This Special Issue of the Peabody Journal of Education: Issues of Leadership, Policy & Organizations is devoted to what some have labeled “education’s dirty little secret,” the doctor of education degree, the Ed.D. We refer here to the regrettably weak nature of many advanced professional degree programs in educational leadership and administration and related fields. Literally hundreds of colleges and universities offer the doctor of education degree (Ed.D.), and annually issue tens of thousands of such degrees. Only a very few of these programs are rigorous intellectually or professionally useful when it comes to improving American education. The problem is that the Ed.D. degree, though often fulfilling some awardees’ needs for higher social status, does so without reciprocally requiring the high levels of knowledge and professional competency the general public expects of advanced professional degree recipients, such as in medicine, law, and engineering. Moreover, many Ed.D. programs operate outside the confines of conventional professional certification and, in effect, are diploma mills. Such institutions routinely exhibit low admissions standards, if they have any standards at all. Their faculty members seldom possess high levels of training and relevant expertise. They operate in a weak regulatory arena and offer enrollees the prospect of higher social and professional status in exchange for tuition. The implicit bargain is that the degree-issuing institution will require little of an Ed.D. candidate by way of intellectual and professional challenge if the recipient will pay the price of tuition. By the way, when it comes to tuition, federally subsidized, low-interest student loan programs are readily available with quite reasonable repayment terms. These weak, sometimes fraudulent, operations badly impugn the reputation of legitimate Ed.D.-offering institutions, ones that voluntarily adhere to high professional and intellectual

Examining the Capstone Experience in a Cutting-Edge Ed.D. Program

The culminating or capstone experience of the Ed.D level student has traditionally been a product that verifies the ability to conduct research at the doctoral level. Historically, this requirement means that the student conduct original research in the form of a dissertation. The University of Southern California, however, has framed the capstone experience in our professional doctoral program so as to enhance the work of our Ed.D. students as leaders of practice. In this chapter, we will frame the theory of such an approach to the capstone experience, describe the program context and program design at USC for our approach, present desired student learning outcomes for the capstone, and analyze two case examples at USC of our capstone experience.

Faculty development for preservice teacher educators: A research utilization perspective

Abstract Weak research utilization strategies limit the faculty development of university-based preservice teacher educators. Compared to school district-based inservice teacher educators, preservice teacher educators have weaker knowledge acquisition strategies, and are less likely to have sustained contact with researchers, especially where a training focus is prominent. Preservice teacher educators have less developed networks that facilitate research utilization, and have less institutional support for internal staff development. A research utilization theoretical framework is used to propose recommendations for helping preservice teacher educators.