Sonoma Joins UC Davis And Sacramento State To Offer Ed.D In Educational Leadership For K-12, Community Colleges

Sonoma State University along with the University of California, Davis and California State University, Sacramento has applied for a planning grant that would be the first step in bringing a joint Doctorate of Education Program in Educational Leadership to the three campuses.

The goal of the program is to produce increasing numbers of leaders with critical skills to take action in advancing educational practice in pre-K-12 and community college environments.

There will be two strands to the planned program, one focusing on leadership needs of pre-K-12, and one on the needs of community colleges. In both strands, students will be actively engaged by faculty in research that addresses today’s problems faced by schools and colleges.

"California is facing a severe shortage of effective, high quality educational leaders in pre-kindergarten through community college settings, " says Dr. Phyllis Fernlund, Dean of the School of Education at Sonoma State University.

"With a rapidly growing, highly diverse student population, monumental resource needs, and complex accountability issues, the state’s educational system is experiencing acute pressure to retain and recruit qualified administrators at all levels," the Dean says.

Community colleges are also facing a significant shortage of educational leaders, and many of the same complex issues affecting K-12 public school administrators apply to community college administrators as well, Fernlund adds.

For these reasons SSU, U. C. Davis, and CSU Sacramento have decided to consider a high quality Joint Ed.D. Program in Educational Leadership that addresses the needs of both the pre-K-12 schools and the community colleges in northern California.

The three campuses have agreed to create a joint faculty work team, and the faculty work team will assemble an advisory committee drawn from educational leaders in the pre-K-12 schools and community colleges in the region.

The outcomes of the planning grant are: 1) meet with the advisory committee to consider regional educational needs, 2) conduct additional needs assessments as appropriate to inform academic and administrative program planning, and 3) prepare a Joint Ed.D. program development proposal in anticipation of a development grant submission for Fall 2002.

Contact: Jean Wasp, Media Relations, (707) 664-2057