Michael Staton | August 3, 2020

When four South Carolina universities established a cooperative pathway to a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in education systems improvement science at Clemson University, they did so with the intention of seeing the program’s alumni quickly make positive, measurable impacts in education across the state. Fortunately, what they intended is already happening before the first cohort member has even graduated from the program. This kind of immediate productivity from students was inevitable when many of them are already working as administrators and leaders in the field of education. This particular brand of doctoral program hinges on institutions’ ability to make a program as applied as possible, so it should come as no surprise that they’re wasting no time putting lessons learned to use in their respective workplaces.