Nov/Dec
2015
Vol 7:2
Ed.D. Website | Careers | Contact Us

In This Issue 
 
  • Director's Report
  • Looking to Join the 2016 Cohort? learn more 
  • Consultancy - A New Paradigm for the EdD read more
  • Community Panel Champions Social Justice Leadership read more 
Prospective Students
From the Director - Dr. Robert Gabriner

Strengthening the EdD Program Facebook 

 Robert Gabriner

 

Learning how to transform learning opportunities, structures and policies in our schools and community colleges to provide high quality education for all students is perhaps the most important challenge we face as educational leaders. Our EdD program is designed to build leadership skills that will impact our local institutions.  We are currently accepting applications for the 2016-17 school year.  If you or anyone you know is ready to pursue a professional doctorate in education, you will find links to information about the admissions process in this newsletter.

In this issue, third year student Tim Weekes describes our consultancy model--an alternative dissertation format that allows our students to research and address problems of practice identified by educational partners in the community. Then, read about a recent panel discussion of program alumnae and community leaders who shared their work with the first year students.

We are always excited to recognize the accomplishments of our students and program graduates.
  • Congratulations to five of our students who have been selected to present at the 2016 AERA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC this coming April:
     
    • Angela Meeker (3rd year) will present her paper "Representing Family, Culture and Self: The Experience of Latino Students Participating in Baile Folklorico".
       
    • Tim Weekes (3rd year) will participate on a panel discussion of papers focusing on charter schools.
       
    • Laurie Murdock (2nd year) will present her paper "Considerations for Professional Learning Community (PLC) Design in Disseminating English Language Development Standards and Strategies".
       
    • Bobby Nakamoto (2nd year) will present his paper "High School Ethnic Studies: Increasing Agency for Marginalized Urban Youth".
       
    • Janelle Waldrep (2nd year) will present her paper "The Voices of Two First-Generation College Students Studying Abroad."
       
  • Dr. Debbie Budd ('10) has been selected as the new Chancellor for the San José-Evergreen Community College District.  She will be leaving her current position as President of Berkeley City College to take up her new post in January, 2016.
     
  • Dr. Carissa Purnell ('14) left her position at the Cesar Chavez Library to become the new Director of the Alisal Family Resource Center (AFRC) with the Alisal Union School District in Salinas. The AFRC supports students and families by addressing the socioeconomic factors that impact them including teaching English, and offering support groups. Carissa writes, "For a program like SFSU's EdD model that prides itself on social justice in education, the AFRC is truly a place where that lives."  Carissa is also a lecturer at CSU Monterey Bay.
     
  • Dr. Courtney Paulger ('15), has taken a position with WestEd as a program associate in science in the teacher professional development program. Courtney's paper, "Voices of Successful Women Advanced Technological Education Graduates: Counternarratives" was also selected for the 2016 AERA meeting.
Earn your Ed.D. at San Francisco State

InfoWe are accepting applications for the 2016-17 school year!  

 
We are now accepting applications for the 2016-2017 school year.  If you are passionate about improving educational outcomes for all students, if you envision yourself as an agent of change, and if you have your master's degree, we invite you to consider joining our next cohort of educational leaders. If you know people who are ready to take on a leadership role, please tell your colleagues about us.

Join us at one of our upcoming information sessions. Sessions are held Thursday evenings at San Francisco State University in Burk Hall 321.  All sessions begin at 6:00 p.m.  Please RSVP to edd@sfsu.edu if you intend to join us.

View the flyer. 

Upcoming information session dates:
  • December 17, 2015
  • January 14, 2016
  • February 18, 2016
 
More information is available on our website and read about the admissions requirements or begin your application process now. 
Taking Scholarship to the Schools - SF State's Consultancy Model

ConsultantHow SF State's Consultancy Model Prepares Educational Leaders Welcome  
 by Timothy Weekes

Timothy L. Weekes is a doctoral candidate in the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at San Francisco State University where he also works as a research assistant. His dissertation research is focused on investigating the characteristics of high-performing charter schools that serve a majority of underrepresented minority and low-income students. Prior to entering the EdD program, he spent seven years working as a high-school math teacher at a number of inner-city charter schools in the Bay Area. 
 
Consultancy: The New Paradigm for the EdD
 
Introduction
One of the distinguishing features of the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program (EDDL) at San Francisco State University is the array of culminating experience options offered to students. Doctoral candidates are encouraged to choose a culminating project most suited to their educational or career interests. Some of the options include a traditional dissertation, three journal articles for publication, a program evaluation, or a research consultancy project. Regardless of the format, the culminating project must demonstrate a student's synthesis and application of the theory and research in a rigorous, systematic examination of a contemporary and significant educational issue.

In the consultancy model, a student or group of students works with an educational entity that has identified a problem needing examination. Students then conduct their study and their final project is a report to and for their client. In many respects, the consultancy project is the most appropriate methodology for working practitioners seeking to improve their effectiveness as educational leaders. As Smrekar and McGraner (2009) argue, consultancies require students to "apply analytical capacities, professional knowledge, contextual understandings, and teamwork skills" (p. 52) to a contemporary issue--skills expected of educational leaders today. These capstone projects offer doctoral candidates real-world experience addressing issues of structural inequality and equity affecting public school students at the P-12 and community college levels. 
 
The EdD and Consultancy Projects
Since the establishment of the first EdD program at Harvard in 1921, the program distinction between the EdD and the PhD has often been blurred (Topolka-Jorissen & Wang, 2015). Nevertheless, over the decades, the number of EdD programs in the US has rapidly increased as state and local educational leaders have looked for ways to meet heightened demands for school accountability and student performance. This resulting growth in EdD programs has also lead to both internal and external pressures for redesigning both the curricular focus and delivery of these programs (Buttram & Doolittle, 2015; Topolka-Jorissen, K., & Wang, 2105).  

Calls for changes in the requirements related to dissertation or capstone projects have received the most attention. An average of 65% of EdD programs surveyed (Buttram & Doolittle, 2015) indicated they were considering changes in this area. Supporters of changing EdD program requirements to include consultancy-based projects point to "the lack of alignment between the research skills necessary to complete a dissertation versus the future career pathways for most EdD candidates" (p. 296). In his essay, Rebooting the EdD, Jon Wergin succinctly captures this shift in focus in a quote by Gordon Kirk, "The PhD is to understand the world, the EdD is to change the world" (Wergin, 2011, p.119).
Rationale for Consultancy Projects
The consultancy model for the EdD capstone addresses two fundamental aspects of the professional doctorate. First, it seeks to address a problem that is currently impacting an educational institution and thus, it is immediately relevant. Second, it develops more than scholarship but the practical skills an educational leader needs. That is, consultancies require students to apply their theoretical and practical knowledge to navigate within the political, social, and institutional contexts of the client organization in order to quickly identify and effectively analyze salient issues and develop recommendations for improvement.

There are broader implications for the consultancy model, however. This community-based application of research is an important strategy for increasing the university's engagement with the community. The consultancy model not only provides a practical context for strengthening the student's research and leadership skills, but also increases the local relevance and impact of the EdD degree and SF State's EdD program and become true community partners.
Consultancy (Capstone) Projects at SF State 
Several consultancy projects have been undertaken by SF State EdD students. In 2012, Dr. Laurie Scolari completed her dissertation that led to a collaboration between San Francisco Unified School District and City College of San Francisco to increase successful transition from high school to college. After graduating with her doctorate, Dr. Scolari joined the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office in order to scale up implementation of the programs derived through her research.

Lorri Capizzi's ('16) is working as both a consultant and a researcher for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. The purpose of her study is to inform both Santa Clara County administration and policy makers from the State Board of Education about challenges and opportunities school districts have faced implementing Local Control Accountability Plans. These are plans mandated by AB 97 to increase educational outcomes for foster youth. Her study explores how administrators, teachers, social workers and school counselors have planned, interpreted, and implemented policy into practice at three school districts in Santa Clara County.   

Mark Reibstein ('16) is examining the implementation of the Common Core standards and his capstone project is a professional development proposal to the San Mateo County Office of Education.  His consultancy project will result in a set of papers combining personal narrative and analysis of staff interviews as well as a video-based professional development tool. 

This year, Liz Leiserson ('16) and Tram Vo-Kumamoto ('16), in partnership with the Peralta Community College District (PCCD), are planning a mixed-method, parallel research design study investigating the phenomenon of swirling--or attending more than one college. Swirling is a substantial issue in this district where over 40% of all full-time students within the district are enrolled at more than one campus within a given term. While there is evidence that in California (Bahr, 2009) and nationally (Crisp, 2013) swirling increases completion rates for all student groups, it is still unknown if swirling yields similar results within PCCD.  For students who do swirl, little is known about how it works--and for whom--and how it can be better supported. Moreover, swirling is a model of college enrollment that is not captured by current methods for measuring institutional impact and accountability. Such methods assume enrollment in a single college and are likely underestimating completion rates. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to help the district better understand swirling and its relationship to completion rates within PCCD.
 
These projects highlight the ways EdD candidates at SF State are gaining real-world experience identifying and solving complex educational issues locally, at the P-12 and community college level. We invite our community educational partners to contact us to learn more about the opportunities available through the consultancy model of research.
 
References
Buttram, J. L., & Doolittle, V. (2015). Redesign of EdD and PhD educational leadership  
         programs. International Journal of Educational Reform, 24(3), 282-308.
Topolka-Jorissen, K., & Wang, Y. (2015). Focus and delivery of doctoral programs in
         educational leadership. International Journal of Educational Reform, 24(3), 212-232.
Smrekar, C. & McGraner, K. (2009). From curricular alignment to the culminating
         project: The Peabody College Ed.D. capstone. Peabody Journal of Education, 84(1), 48-60.
Wergin, J. (2011). Rebooting the EdD. Harvard Educational Review, 81(1), 119-140.
 
Educational Leaders Focused on Social Justice

PanelSan Francisco State Alumnae and Guests Speak to First-Year Cohort    

 
   Dr. Vidrale Franklin joins her dissertation chair, Dr. Jamal
   Cooks, for a photo after participating on the panel for our
   first-year students.

On  November 8, 2015 the first-year cohort  had an opportunity to learn about social justice leadership in action.  Faculty member Jamal Cooks, instructor for the first-year seminar, invited program alumnae and community leaders to class to speak about their work as educational leaders and how the program prepared them for that work. 

On the panel were program alumnae
Dr. Debbie Budd ('10), President of Berkeley City College; Dr. Newin Orante ('10), Vice President of Student Services at Diablo Valley College; and Dr. Vidrale Franklin ('11), Head of School for the Roses in Concrete Community School; and Dr. David M. Johnson, Dean at Cañada College.         


Together, panelists and students talked about theory, practice, and keeping equity at the core of decisions at work. When asked about the comparative value of the EdD and the PhD, the panelists agreed on three important points:
   *  For practitioners, the doctorate matters more than the type of doctorate;
   *  Potential employers are looking for someone they feel can do the job and the Ed.D. prepares leaders
       to do the work of leadership; 
   *  What is of fundamental importance in their work is keeping students at the forefront of leadership
      decision-making, wherever you are in the institution.

Dr. Cooks, later commented on the panel's success, remarking that it is not only fun but a powerful experience to have former students and colleagues sit together on a panel and "lead the thinking, ideas, and influence of the next generation of educational leaders." 
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Be sure to like the SFSU Educational Leadership Doctoral Program on Facebook! (@EDDSFSU). Then, join discussions on the latest trends in educational leadership; read and share articles discussing developments, ideas, and news from the field; and stay on top of what's happening in the SF State Ed.D. program.