The online doctorate: flexible, but credible? it's a popular new option for aspiring school system leaders, though questions linger among traditional providers

School Administrator, August, 2007 by Patti Ghezzi

Tom Ward wanted to continue his education, but the rural Missouri superintendent faced obstacles. He lived an hour and a half away from the closest university with a doctoral program in educational administration. His job gobbled up much of his day, leaving little time for a long commute. Plus Ward realized he might make a career move to another locale during the years it would take him to earn the doctor title.

He found a solution in Capella University, an accredited higher education institution run by a publicly traded, for-profit company that offers Ph.D. and Ed.D. degrees through online coursework. When he finished the program in February, his colleagues in the 378-student La Plata R-II school district held a reception in his honor. But Ward says the degree wasn't about recognition.

"I needed to do it for myself," he says. "I needed to go to the next level."

Question of Rigor

Administrators like Ward are finding flexible opportunities to pursue doctoral degrees online. Cyber institutions such as Walden University, University of Phoenix and Argosy University--as well as a few traditional universities that have forged into the electronic arena--can accommodate time-strapped educators no matter where they live, as long as they have a computer with high-speed Internet access and the self-discipline to learn on their own.

Programs typically require students to appear in occasional in-person seminars held at locations around the country. Or students may take courses scheduled on weekends and during the summer. The vast majority of the work can be done over the Internet.

Yet there's a downside to this online pursuit. While more K-12 educators have easier access to earn the credential they need to open doors to higher administrative posts, some educators remain skeptical that online degrees require the same rigor and offer the valuable collegial experiences of doctoral degrees earned at conventional universities.

One critic, Thomas Glass, a professor of educational leadership at University of Memphis who tracks superintendent trends, believes online programs run by online colleges cannot prepare educators for executive-level positions in a school district. "They are definitely second class or third class," says Glass, lead author of AASA's latest "Study of the American School Superintendency," which is being released this fall. "Is someone going to learn data disaggregation online?"

Leaders at the institutions now offering online doctoral degrees say their programs are as rigorous, if not more so, than programs at bricks-and-mortar universities. They contend their electronic classes emphasize practical skills and applicable research over education theory and say their instructors are practitioners who understand the public education landscape better than tenured professors who may be decades removed from working in school settings.

Those enrolled in graduate degree programs contend the online colleges are selling exactly what they want. Other students concede while they might prefer a more traditional academic experience on a university campus, the factors of time, distance and transportation gridlock make it almost impossible to do so.

A Demanding Path

Ward, 53, earned his master's and specialist degrees at Truman State and Lindenwood universities, traditional campuses in his home state. He insists he worked much harder at Capella, where he enrolled in the doctoral program for K-12 educational leadership in 2002. "The classwork was rigorous," he says. "It required a lot of research. I had a hard time adjusting to the scholarly writing they required."

Ward had the benefit of sharing cyber classes with graduate students who were full-time educators in school communities across the country. They shared ideas on common problems such as putting Section 504 plans in place for educating special education students. In his earlier graduate work, classrooms were populated mostly with individuals from the local area.

An educator for 33 years, Ward spent 18 months on his dissertation on the impact of embedded credits--courses that combine content from two subjects into a single course and allow the student to earn credits for both--on vocational students in Missouri. He defended his dissertation on a conference call with a three-member committee. Throughout his studies at Capella, Ward appeared in person only three times for required seminars, though he logged many miles doing his dissertation research.

Ward subsequently applied his research findings to the vocational curriculum in his northern Missouri school district, embedding math credits in a vocational course. The move will enable voc-ed students to meet the academic requirements for a high school diploma and graduate on time, while learning a vocation.

"Anybody who thinks the online route is an easy route, they can give me a call," Ward says. "I beg to differ with them."

Bill Brown, a former superintendent in Kentucky who serves as interim co-chair of Capella University's K-12 leadership department, says the online graduate program requires that all instructors hold a doctorate from an accredited university and have several years of experience in school administration. Brown counts among the 423 doctoral students enrolled in the K-12 leadership program, superintendents, principals and assistant principals, as well as teachers who have no desire to ever lead a school or district. More than 2,700 students are enrolled in Capella's doctoral programs for educators.