Graduate Admission to the Department of Curriculum and Teaching

In addition to general requirements for admission to graduate study in the School of Education and Human Sciences, doctoral programs in Curriculum and Instruction require completion of appropriate undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Materials describing all Curriculum and Instruction programs may be obtained from the department.

Please refer to the graduate application for application deadlines.

Admission to the Doctor of Education, Curriculum and Instruction Program (Domestic Applicants)

The following materials must be submitted:

• A completed domestic online graduate application.
• 1 official transcript of all previous undergraduate and graduate credit. Doctoral applicants must have earned a Master's degree or equivalent with at least a 3.5 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale.
• A statement of career goals addressing how this degree will help meet professional aspirations and areas of interest in curriculum and instruction. An appropriate length is 1 to 2 pages.
• 3 letters of recommendation; a letter from the master's advisor is appropriate to include.  Each letter should be attached to the online recommendation form when it is submitted by the recommender.
• Writing sample:  an article, paper or other scholarly composition originally written by the applicant. An appropriate length is 8 to 10 pages.
• A vitae or resume.

Please note: Meeting minimum admission standards does not guarantee admission to the program.

All application materials should be submitted online with the graduate application.  If there are application materials that cannot be uploaded with the online application, they may be emailed or mailed to the department:

The University of Kansas
Department of Curriculum and Teaching
Joseph R. Pearson Hall
1122 W. Campus Road, Room 321
Lawrence, KS 66045

Contact us: ctdepartment@ku.edu

Doctor of Education, Curriculum and Instruction

The Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Curriculum and Instruction prepares graduates for leadership positions working with teachers and other education professionals in a variety of settings that may include school districts, colleges and universities, state and federal education agencies, and educational non-profit organizations.

Elective areas for advanced degrees in curriculum and instruction may include Curriculum Studies, Language Arts/English Education, Literacy Education, Mathematics Education, Science Education, Social Studies Education, or Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Education.

Doctoral aspirants should develop a program plan at the first enrollment or promptly thereafter.  A copy of this program should be filed with the Graduate Division of the School of Education. The program plan must include:

• A minimum of 27 graduate credit hours in Curriculum and Instruction
• A minimum of 9 graduate credit hours in Research Skills
• Completion of the Responsible Conduct of Research requirement
• Completion of a 3-credit-hour field experience that will inform a Research Action Plan
• A minimum of 18 credit hours of dissertation, unless student successfully defends the dissertation earlier.

The Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction program is offered in a hybrid format, with courses that meet in-person on select Saturdays and evenings during the semester, and the remainder of each course is conducted online.  The program is a cohort model that begins each fall and is designed to be completed in a structured, 3-year cycle.  To complete the program in 3 years, the following course sequence should be followed, as well as the additional program requirements listed below the course sequence:

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
C&T 920	Introduction to the Curriculum & Instruction Doctor of Education Program	1
C&T 802	Curriculum Planning for Educational Settings	3
Content Elective, selected upon consultation with the faculty advisor.		2-3
C&T 806	Instructional Strategies and Models	3
EPSY 870	Quantitative Methods for Research in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies	3
C&T 803	Differentiating Curriculum and Instruction	3
C&T 902	Directed Readings	3
C&T 970	Fostering Teacher Growth and Inquiry	3
C&T 995	Field Experience in: _____ (A supervised, directed field practicum. Students will enroll in 1 credit hour in the fall, and 2 credit hours the following spring.)	3
C&T 808	Qualitative Research: Curriculum Inquiry	3
C&T 971	Planning and Conducting Educator Inquiry in Professional Settings	3
C&T 980	Seminar in Mixed Methods Research	3
C&T 972	Connecting Professional Growth and Student Learning	3
C&T 990	Capstone Seminar	3
C&T 999	Doctoral Dissertation (Minimum of 18 credit hours, unless the candidate successfully defends a dissertation before 18 hours is complete.)	18
Total Hours		57-58

Additional Ed.D. program requirements

• Successful completion of written and oral comprehensive exams (typically conducted during the summer term with concurrent enrollment in C&T 972 and C&T 990).
  • The comprehensive examination consists of both written and oral parts and covers the major area pursued by the student.  The student passes the comprehensive examination if a majority of the official examining committee (including the chair) approves the student’s performance. The grade on this examination is Honors, Satisfactory, or Unsatisfactory. An aspirant who receives a grade of Unsatisfactory may be allowed, upon the recommendation of the department, to repeat it, but it may not be taken more than 3 times. The aspirant may not repeat the oral examination until at least 90 days have elapsed since the last unsuccessful attempt or by petition.
  • Students in the Curriculum and Instruction Ed.D. program must pass both written and oral components of the comprehensive examination. Satisfactory performance on the written component must be attained before the oral component may be attempted. To fail either component is to fail the examination. All 4 members of the student’s comprehensive examination committee are involved in the evaluation process. The written component of the comprehensive examination, like the oral, focuses on advanced knowledge in the major and any appropriate related areas.  The focus of the examination is the ability to relate program knowledge to tasks and problems faced by practitioners. To pass, the student must be evaluated as having responded satisfactorily to questions in the major areas. If a student fails any portion of the written comprehensive component, a failure of the examination is recorded. The examining committee determines if the entire written component of the examination, or only the failed portion(s), must be retaken. The entire written component lasts a minimum of 16 hours. If a student passes the written component but fails the oral, the examining committee determines if both components or only the oral must be repeated.
• Completion of the Post-comprehensive Enrollment requirement: https://policy.ku.edu/graduate-studies/doctoral-candidacy.
• Approval by the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) of all research projects involving human subjects (if applicable).
• Committee approval of the candidate's dissertation proposal before the candidate is allowed to continue working toward the dissertation defense.
  • After successfully passing the comprehensive examination, students will have three semesters (including summer) to present a proposal to the dissertation committee. If the proposal is rejected by the dissertation committee, the student must resubmit a proposal the following semester. If the second attempt at the proposal is rejected, the student is dismissed from the program. Exceptions to the above policy would be given only if the student submits verification of extenuating circumstances preventing progress.

  • The dissertation proposal meeting, sometimes referred to as the dissertation proposal defense, is a time for candidates to meet with their dissertation committees to discuss the focus, direction, and methodologies of their dissertations.  The proposal typically is comprised of the first three chapters of the dissertation and should follow the dissertation formatting requirements found on the Graduate Studies website. Candidates should submit their proposals to their committees at least two weeks prior to the dissertation proposal meeting.  After consultation with the advisor, candidates arrange with their committee members a mutually-agreeable date and time for the proposal meeting.

• Please refer to additional information about dissertation requirements in the KU Policy Library - Doctoral Dissertation: https://policy.ku.edu/graduate-studies/doctoral-dissertation.
• Completion of the doctoral dissertation following all formatting and style requirements as directed by the candidate's dissertation committee.

  • The candidate must present a dissertation that exhibits the application of existing knowledge in the major field of professional study. Ed.D. candidates may satisfy the dissertation requirement by completing a comprehensive, critical assessment of the relevant literature on a major educational issue or problem. This study should demonstrate the application of existing knowledge to the author’s area of professional practice. The format and style of a student’s dissertation is left to the discretion of the student, advisor, and committee, but format and style options may be constrained or dictated by the policy of the department from which the student is to receive the degree and by the Office of Graduate Studies. The dissertation is prepared under the direction of the dissertation committee.  The minimum number of dissertation hours in the Ed.D. program is 18 (unless the candidate successfully defends earlier), although students need to maintain enrollment in dissertation hours until the final dissertation defense. Instructions regarding the proper form of the final document may be obtained from the School of Education and Human Sciences Graduate Division office.  Any substantial divergences must be approved in advance as prescribed by the instructions, and candidates and faculty members are urged to seek early approval to avoid last-minute disappointments over unacceptable format or reproduction.

• Successful dissertation defense and submission for publication to UMI/ProQuest.

  • When the dissertation has been tentatively accepted by the dissertation committee, the chair of the dissertation committee may request the School of Education and Human Sciences Graduate Division Office to schedule the final oral examination.

    The examination covers the dissertation and the candidate’s concentration area. The candidate passes the final examination if a majority of the official examining committee members (including the chair) approves the candidate’s performance. When the final oral examination has been passed, the dissertation committee reports a grade of Honors, Satisfactory, or Unsatisfactory. Candidates who fail the final oral examination may be allowed to repeat it upon recommendation of the dissertation committee.

  • When the candidate has passed the final oral examination and the members of the dissertation committee have signed the dissertation, a title page and acceptance page with original signatures are to be delivered to the Graduate Affairs office of the school/college in which the student’s program resides so that completion of degree requirements may be officially certified. As a requirement of graduation, the candidate must arrange publication of the dissertation and payment of all applicable fees, through the electronic submission process found on the Graduate Studies website.

• Application for degree and completion of required doctoral surveys and release forms as directed by the School of Education and Human Sciences Graduate Division Office.

Although the courses and the research leading to the Ed.D. are necessarily specialized, the attainment of this degree should not be an isolated event in the enterprise of learning.  The aspirant for the Ed.D. is expected to be a well-educated person and should have acquired a broad base of general knowledge, both as preparation for more advanced work and as a means of knowing how curriculum and instruction is related to other fields of human thought.

Note: Contact the home department or program for more information about research skills and responsible scholarship, and the current requirements for doctoral students. Current Lawrence and Edwards Campus policies on Doctoral Research Skills and Responsible Scholarship are listed in the KU Policy Library.