Redefining and reclaiming the EdD, or 'PhD-Lite'.

What's the difference between a PhD and an EdD?

In 2001, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching launched the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, a five-year project that challenged graduate schools to review the depth and breadth of their PhD programs. As part of the initiative, researchers examined the education doctorate seeking ways to strengthen it.

Participating in the project were 21 education departments, including the University of Houston, Penn State and Duquesne University. Most offer both the PhD in education and the EdD, or doctorate of education. Over the past 50 years, the distinction between the two has blurred, leading to the EdD being called a "PhD-Lite."

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At October's Women in Educational Leadership conference held at one of the participating schools--the University of Nebraska-Lincoln--three locals led a town hall meeting called "The Hijacked EdD" to identify major attributes of an EdD designed for educational leaders.

Professor Miles Bryant and associate professor Richard Torraco teach in educational administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Melissa Byington is a middle school principal and doctoral student in the department of educational leadership.

The problem