Program Specific Degree Requirements
The Ed.D. is the terminal professional degree in education designed for students who desire to improve their professional practice as educators. The Ed.D. is delivered through distance delivery system and requires a minimum of 77 semester hours beyond the bachelor’s degree, of which 41 hours must be taken in the student’s chosen field, and 6 hours of dissertation. Candidates may, with the approval of the faculty, transfer up to 30 semester hours from previous graduate level coursework. A bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree are required of all students to be admitted to the Ed.D. program.
Required on-campus orientation during first fall semester.
In order to be considered for admission, applicants must meet the following minimum requirements:
- Hold a Master’s degree from an accredited institute of higher education.
- Score of “Proficient” or higher on a letter of intent describing academic goals, teaching experiences, and reasons for pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Wyoming. This letter serves as a writing sample.
- Three (3) years of P-12 teaching experience or its equivalent.
- Minimum 3.000 GPA on a 4.000 scale on the applicant’s most recent degree from an accredited institution, plus transcripts from all other schools attended.
- GRE minimum score of Verbal:153, Quantitative:144.
- TOEFL score of 540 (paperbased), 76 (internet exam) or IELTS score of 6.5 or above are required for international, non-native English speaking applicants. Until further notice, due to COVID-19 related postponements/cancellations of TOEFL/IELTS exams, we will be accepting Duolingo scores or 110 or higher as proof of English proficiency.
All Doctor of Education students will use research methods to explore practical leadership problems. Applied projects are problem-based and may be collaborative. Projects may involve evaluating curriculum, designing and implementing professional development or training, developing applications to be used in local settings (e.g., early childhood-12 education, corporate and government centers), as well as other projects designed to advance knowledge in a specific field or setting.
The following requirements apply to all projects:
- Research-based (literature review)
- Scholarly, academic writing using APA style
- Primary or secondary data
- Authored by individual or small groups of students
- Uploaded to ProQuest for dissertations of practice or other projects in a dissertation format, and uploaded to the Mountain Scholar Digital Collections for projects in a non-dissertation format
Suggested project formats and brief descriptions are:
Dissertation of Practice
- A dissertation of practice is original practice-based empirical research with data collection expected from primary sources.
Local Case Study
- A case study is a descriptive, exploratory, or explanatory analysis of a person, group, or event. Thomas (2011, p. 354) offered the following definition of case study: “Case studies are analysis of persons, events, decisions, periods, projects, policies, institutions, or others systems that are studied holistically by one of more methods.”
Faculty Directed Individual or Team-based Inquiry
- This type of inquiry involves individual or a small group of students working together on a single project under the guidance of a faculty member. Data can be obtained from primary or secondary sources.
Documentary on an Educational Issue
- A documentary is an in-depth and extensive study with an analysis presented in video form accompanied by a written summary of the purpose and outcome.
Submitted Manuscript
- A full-length research manuscript must be submitted to a refereed mid- or top-tier national or international scholarly journal.
Program Evaluation
- A program evaluation report typically uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods to examine and collect data on a current program that is in place in a school or another organization.
Additional project formats may be proposed and approved by the student’s committee as long as they meet the requirements listed above.
Final Project Processes
As in the traditional dissertation process, all students are expected to meet with their committees to gain project approval (at the pre-prospectus and/or prospectus stage). The Report of Final Examination will indicate whether or not the final project is acceptable to the committee. The deadline for submitting projects to Mountain Scholar Digital Collections or dissertations of practice or other projects in a dissertation format to ProQuest is the same as the Report of Final Examination, the last day of classes for the semester during which a student intends to graduate. All projects will be evaluated by committee members and also by the student.
Please note: After submitting the required steps for the Mountain Scholar Digital Collections you will receive a confirmation email. Please forward this email to your chair, Clayleen Rivord in the College of Education Dean’s Office, and Robert Ratterree in the Office of the Registrar.