An Assessment of Education Research Doctorate Programs

American Educational Research Association, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The American Education Research Association (AERA) in conjunction with the National Academy of Education (NAEd) will conduct a multidimensional study of research doctorate programs in education to parallel the large-scale assessment undertaken by the National Research Council (NRC) of 62 other fields. The NRC declined to examine research doctorates in education. Education research is among the largest doctorate-producing fields and the sole one dedicated to understanding science and mathematics education, learning, literacy, and performance. Yet there has been no comprehensive study of research doctorate programs in this field nor has there been an assessment of the state of education and training. Like the NRC assessment, the AERA-NAEd study assesses the characteristics and quality of education research doctorate programs through (1) quantitative data based on questionnaires from institutions, programs, faculty and students; and (2) faculty publication and citation data and dissertation key words. Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. will undertake the fieldwork, data cleaning and database preparation. This is the same organization that does the NRC survey, so results from this study can be integrated.