Education, EdD (Primarily Online)

Candidate Readiness Assessment 

The Candidate Readiness Assessment is a program milestone that evaluates a student's preparedness to advance through the dissertation phase of the EdD program. The assessment examines the student's mastery of core content knowledge, theoretical frameworks, and research methodology. Students must satisfactorily complete the CRA before proceeding with dissertation work. Specific requirements, formats, and evaluation criteria are determined by the program and communicated to students in advance of the assessment. 

Dissertation Committee 

The dissertation committee shall have at least three members, two of whom shall be from Northeastern. The chair and second reader of the dissertation committee will be faculty of Northeastern and will hold an appropriate terminal degree for the discipline. The third reader will be external to Northeastern and will hold an appropriate terminal degree for the discipline. The dissertation chair approves all members of the dissertation committee. 

Proposal and Defense 

The dissertation proposal presents the student's planned research study, including the identified problem of practice, relevant literature, proposed methodology, and plan for research. The student must submit a written proposal and defend it before the chair and the second reader of their dissertation committee. The chair and second reader will evaluate the scope, feasibility, and scholarly rigor of the proposed study. The proposal defense must be successfully completed before the student may proceed with other dissertation research activities. The committee chair is responsible for communicating the outcome of the proposal defense. 

Dissertation and Defense 

Upon completion of the dissertation in practice, the student must present and defend the final work before the dissertation committee. The defense provides an opportunity for the student to demonstrate mastery of the research process, articulate the significance of findings for professional practice, and respond to questions from committee members. A successful defense, as determined by the dissertation committee, is required for degree completion. The student must submit the dissertation to ProQuest (or a university-sanctioned successor system) according to the time schedule provided by the dissertation chair. 

Residency 

Residency requirements are designed to support students' intellectual development, scholarly community engagement, and professional identity as practitioner-scholars. Students are required to participate in two in-person residencies as specified by the program.