PhD in Education with a concentration in Urban Educational Leadership

The educational objectives for the PhD in Education are the following:

• To advance research on inequity issues within the full P-20 educational pipeline.
• To prepare students to use original and existing research to transform educational practice.
• To equip future educational researchers with innovative teaching experience and cutting-edge transdisciplinary research experience to become attractive job candidates on the academic market.
• To prepare candidates to create a collaborative learning community that integrates all the various educational contexts.
• To prepare candidates to be critical thinkers who focus on leadership, policy, ethics, and social justice.

Candidates for the PhD in Education degree must complete a minimum of 54 academic credit hours, pass the comprehensive exam, and submit and successfully defend a research-based dissertation. All students in the program will be expected to complete academic core and research courses of 27 credits and concentration courses of 27 credits. The concentration courses are presented on the the relevant pages and in the PhD Program Handbook.

The Core 27 credits consist of the following:

Academic Core (9 Credits):

• ASLP 600 Introduction to Doctoral Studies and Academic Writing (3)
• ASLP 640 Race and Public Policy in Education (3)
• ASLP 642 Equity and Social Justice in Education (3)

Research (15 Credits)

• ASLP 620 Introduction to Educational Research (3)
• ASLP 700 Methods of Inquiry (3)
• ASLP 710 Quantitative Research Methods (3)
• ASLP 712 Qualitative Research Methods (3)
• *Students will complete an additional 3 credits of advanced research electives related to their chosen methodology.

Dissertation (3 credits)

• ASLP 997/998 (3)

Prospective students should complete this brief interest form to be connected to a faculty member for more information.

Admission Application Deadlines:

• January 15 - Priority deadline (Especially for those seeking graduate student funding)
• February 15 - Final deadline to begin an application
• March 1 - Final deadline to submit a complete application

All application materials must be received by this date for consideration

The School of Graduate Studies coordinates the application process. 

Students can complete the PhD program as either high residency or low residency programs.

• High residency students will take courses on-campus, hybrid-flex, and remote synchronous modalities. Students in the high residency option should be able to come to campus for evening courses.
• Low residency students will take remote synchronous courses scheduled in the evenings and will be required to come to Baltimore for an in-person retreat during the Fall and spring semesters. 

Learn more about our delivery options here.

Our program offers three types of funding:

• Graduate Research Assistantships
• Graduate Teaching Assistantships
• Tuition Awards

Many of our students also leverage their Tuition Remission benefits from local institutions like the USM schools, JHU, or Morgan State. Tuition Remission is determined and coordinated by your institution. We encourage you to speak with your HR representative about how to use these benefits.