17 th Annual Southeastern African American Student Leadership Conference

1. 17th Annual Southeastern African American Student Leadership Conference Midlands Technical College March 26- 27, 2010 Welcome to “Young and Gifted Black Males in Higher Education: Beyond the associate, bachelor and master to the doctorate.”

2. What is a doctorate? • A doctorate is an academic degree or a professional degree that in most countries represents the highest level of formal study or research in a given field. • In some countries it also refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to practice in a specific profession, such as law or medicine. • (www.Wikipedia.com)

3. Types of DegreesPhD, EdD, PsyD, MD, JD, etc. • The best-known degrees in higher education are the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, or sometimes DPhil) and the degree of Doctor of Education (EdD). • For purpose of this session we will be discussing the PhD and EdD.

4. PhD • Professional doctorates originated in the United States, with the introduction of the M.D. or Medicine Doctor at Columbia University in 1767, or almost 100 years before a research doctorate, or Ph.D., was ever awarded. • Yale awarded the first PHD in the U.S.A in 1861. Modeled after the Germany university model • A PhD focuses on course work and research with an emphasis to produce scholarly researchers. • Recommended for those who are in or planning on entering an academic position, business industry, or professional research post. • University Professor • The PhD candidate does not necessarily study philosophy. • Persons may decide to study science or liberal arts.

5. EdD • The Doctor of Education degree (Ed.D.) was first introduced in the United States at Harvard in 1920. It was created as a need to increase the number of educators with doctorate degrees. • As an alternate doctoral-level degree to the PhD, the EdD is designed with an explicitly professional orientation.  • It is a research degree designed to provide senior educational professionals the opportunity to: • Engage in higher professional development. • Become a knowledgeable and critically reflective practitioner. • Acquire knowledge and skills through coursework and a supervised dissertation to conduct independent and high quality research in their workplace. • Contribute original knowledge to improve their profession. • EdDs normally work in schools as principals, lead teacher, and administrators, but some EdDs may be hired to work at Universities and Community Colleges.

6. PHD vs. the EdD: What’s the difference • PhD is more research-oriented. The dissertation maybe more experimental than an EdD and involves larger populations and numbers. • EdD is more educational practice-oriented and application of practice and theory. The dissertation may involve descriptive research, more like surveys and be more concerned with local and regional populations such as area schools and educational institutions. The subjects of the research may be students or teachers. • http://www.cedu.niu.edu/lepf/edpsych/PhD.PDF

7. PhD vs. the EdD: What’s the difference • The degree that you need depends on what you plan on doing and your field of study\research . • You will find that the two degrees cross over career wise. •  It is what the university, institution or organization is looking for.

8. Did you know that you don’t have to have a master’s degree to enter a doctoral program? • At first, a master's degree was a requirement for students who wanted to enter into a doctoral program. Not any more, for several programs, you can enter a doctoral program upon completion of an undergraduate degree.

9. The requirements! • Getting in • One must usually have a clearly defined major, perform well on the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) in both one’s specialty and in the general test, and have excellent grades, recommendations and scholastic history in order to get into a PhD or EdD program. • Getting out • The requirements for obtaining PhDs, EdDs and other research doctorates in the U.S. typically entail successful completion of pertinent classes, passing of a comprehensive examination, and defense of a dissertation.

10. Doctoral Candidate • Once a person has finished a PhD or EdD qualifying exams, he/she is considered a PhD or EdD candidate • (ABD, all but dissertation) and may begin work on his/her dissertation. Next, we will talk more about the dissertation. • Normally at this stage a student qualifies for a tuition reduction.

11. Dissertation • A dissertation is a written document that is submitted in support of completing the doctorate. It is the author's research and findings. The dissertation has no required page length. You follow the format of your college or academic program.

12. Dissertation • Chapters • 1. Introduction • 2. Literature Review • 3. Methodology -The research method that you are going to use (qualitative or quantitative, research instrument- surveys, focus groups,- subjects or populations). • 4. Results-What did you find? • 5. Conclusion-Summary- Recommendations

13. The Steps • Course work\classes • Comprehensive Exam -Written • Dissertation Proposal -first three chapters • Submit an IRB Application –We will talked about this in the next slide! • Dissertation- Chapters 4 and 5 • Approved- Full Committee- The # of persons on your dissertation committee may vary. There may be an outside or student member. • Oral Defense- Answer questions and defend your research\results. • Submit the final copy and graduate.

14. Submit an IRB (Institutional Review Board) Application- An institutional review board (IRB), also known as an independent ethics committee (IEC) or ethical review board (ERB), is a committee that has been formally designated to approve, monitor, and review biomedical and behavioralresearch involving humans with the aim to protect the rights and welfare of the research subjects. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Health and Human Services (specifically Office for Human Research Protections) regulations have empowered IRBs to approve, require modifications in planned research prior to approval, or disapprove research. An IRB performs critical oversight functions for research conducted on human subjects that are scientific, ethical, and regulatory. http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

15. How do I prepare for a doctorate? • Plan Early! • What is your short term and long term goals? • Research : See which schools offer your degree seeking program. • Talk to others who have completed a doctorate in your field of interest. • Look at schools that have support or mentoring programs. • Get your writing up to par. Learn APA!

16. TESTING: MAJOR BARRIER Testing is a major barrier that prevents many minority groups from being successful in employment and higher education. Take a prep course. Talk to people who have taken the tests to see what resources they used to be successful. It is not like we can’t do the work or don’t know the information. It deals with how prepared we are, do we know of software programs or resources that other groups know of that helps them perform better for the tests. Knowledge is the POWER. It is what you don’t know that hurts you the most. Admission Tests : MAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT.

17. Financial Aid-You won’t qualify for a Pell grant or a SC tuition Lottery Scholarship like you did as an undergraduate. Be prepare to work part-time. Don’t depend fully on student loans-you don’t want to be in debt after you graduate-You want to have time to focus on finding that 1st job, not worrying about paying off your college debts. Finances

18. Scholarships, fellowships, grants, etc. • Seek out and apply for scholarships and fellowships. Ford and Spencer Foundations • Don’t be afraid to apply! • Apply early, therefore you won’t miss the deadlines! • Employee-Tuition Reimbursement- • Richland One School District helped me! • Professional Organizations – SCEA- NEA may offer scholarships • Online Research • www.chronicle.com • www.edweek.org

19. Family Friends Spouse or Partner Church-Spiritual guidance Employee-Tuition assistance or advancement in pay. There will be some who won’t believe in you! You have to believe in yourself! You have to have that motivation inside! You will go through things in life. My father passed in 2007. Two of my best friends who were Ed.Ds didn’t get to see me graduate. I had my dissertation chair move to Canada and said that he did not have time to serve. In addition, he didn’t think my writing was at the level he wanted it to be! I had health and finance issues, however, I had a support network of friends who were medical doctors, Ed.D’s, and Ph.D’s who were willing to be my support system! Support and Encouragement

20. What do you know? What university awarded the first PHD degree?____________ What university awarded the first professional doctorate in the United States? What was the first professional doctorate?_____________ In 2008, what university by far awarded the most doctorates to blacks?_______ In 2008, what minority group was awarded the most doctorates than any other minority group? _____________

21. The End Presented by Dr. Anthony E. Morgan Ed.D amorgan2@kaplan.edu