Rider University Introduces School's First Post-Master's Degree

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — Rider University’s new Doctor of Education in educational leadership is the first post-master’s degree in the school’s history, the college announced on Thursday.

The hybrid program, which will open to 12-15 candidates for July 2017 matriculation pending final approval, is designed to be completed in three years. The program includes coursework both on campus and online, including two summer residencies.

“This degree builds on our undergraduate and master’s programs in education, and addresses a great need for career educators who are ready to become leaders,” Dean Sharon Sherman of Rider University's College of Education and Human Services said. “We are very proud to have worked so hard to launch the first doctoral program at Rider.”

Through required coursework, participants will focus on education reform, instructional leadership, educational accountability and assessment, research methods and data analysis, the social context of education, politics and governance, teachers and training, and resource allocation and deployment.

After completing the required coursework, each candidate will work on a dissertation, a scholarly endeavor that will focus on a complex problem important to a school or district.

“The program will train scholar-practitioners who will be able to generate and use research to inform their work as educational leaders,” said Dr. Leonard Goduto, Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Graduation Education, Leadership, and Counseling at Rider.

After the program curriculum was finalized, it was reviewed and approved at several levels at Rider University, and externally by The New Jersey President’s Council and by an outside professor from the noted Bank Street College of Education in New York.

Final approval for the program is expected to be granted by the State of New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education later this month.

For more information on Rider’s Doctor of Educational Leadership, visit www.rider.edu/edd.

Patch file photo