Professional Leadership - Special Populations, EdD

Admission Requirements

Students admitted to the EdD in Professional Leadership Special Populations program in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (DELPS) typically have earned a Master’s Degree in Education or a related field. Many prospective students work in educational, philanthropic, or healthcare fields.

Admission requirements for the College of Education require a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.6 for undergraduate coursework or over the last 60 credit hours of coursework. The College requires a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 for graduate coursework. The College’s admission committees evaluate all credentials submitted by applicants to determine a student’s ability and potential to succeed in graduate study. In addition, the committee is interested in the applicant’s potential to contribute to his/her program of study and the University community as a whole.

Visit http://www.uh.edu/graduate-school/admissions/how-to-apply to start the application process.

Admission Materials

1. ApplyWeb Application
2. Transcripts
3. Official Test Scores
4. Statement of Interest
5. Resume or Curriculum Vitae
6. Letters of Recommendation
7. Application fee ($80 domestic/$75 international)

For more on admissions, please visit the College of Education Graduate Admissions page.

Degree Requirements

Credit hours required for this degree: 51.0

The Professional Leadership-Special Populations is designed to be completed in less than three years. Specifically, students will take fifty-one (51) credit hours of coursework across eight (8) semesters to complete the degree. Since degree plans are enhanced periodically to support continuous improvement planning objectives, students will follow their approved degree plan that is in place at the time in which they complete an official, approved degree plan.

Academic Policies

• University of Houston Academic Policies 

Registration for Doctoral Thesis Credits/Independent Study Courses

Once students sign up for doctoral thesis credits they must continuously enroll for a minimum of 3 credits of doctoral thesis every subsequent semester until the doctoral thesis is completed

Ongoing and Annual Review 

The overall progress of all doctoral students is evaluated annually by faculty advisors associated with the DELPS program. Students are given feedback each year concerning the outcome of this evaluation. Students are in good standing if they:

1. register continuously at the University in courses consistent with the approved degree plan, or seek a formal leave of absence from the program if they must interrupt their enrollment;
2. maintain close contact with their faculty advisor concerning progress toward the degree;
3. make adequate progress in their research (e.g., candidacy paper, etc.) in accordance with the length of time that the student has enrolled in the program; and,
4. maintain adequate progress and performance in their coursework. Adequate progress includes formally resolving all Incompletes received in any course during the previous semesters.

Laboratory of Practice

Leaders in applied educational settings grapple with the identification and implementation of evidence based interventions and assessments. The program provides intensive research and applied skills development for students who face any of these real-world concerns. In Labs of Practice coursework, students bring the most pressing challenges experienced by the educational community to the experience. They learn as a team to network and support fellow members.  Each member works on a grand challenge that faces them in their own professional context. The program offers students the intellectual space to read the research that relates to their challenge, source the interventions that have been tried in various educational settings, design solutions that will result in evidence based outcomes, and generate a plan of action for moving forward. This practical nature of the Labs of Practice experience ensures that students have an avenue to apply the specifics of these problems to their other courses and to their research. The program emphasizes problem solving, student collaboration, and planning for a future as an instructional coach/leader throughout the Labs of Practice 6 credit sequence.