Outside the Beltway

It Don’t Take No Ed.D.

For many Ph.Ds, the Ed.D. represents the ticket to the administrative high life, the white flag to academic scholarship, and the tramp stamp of the compromising careerist.

James Joyner · Tuesday, February 15, 2011 · 2 comments

Monterey Peninsula College English prof David Clemens sums up the recent “higher education bubble” debate and puts his finger on the problem I’ve been calling out for more than a decade: the educrats.

The ed-blogosphere overflows with predictions of a “higher education bubble” inflated by worthless degrees, crushing student loans, dumbed-down majors,country club student life, bloated administrations, and throwdowns such as for-profits vs. non-profits, credentialing vs. educating, and tenured Brahmins afloat on the backs of disposable adjuncts.

[…]

A search of Instapundit, law professor Glenn Reynolds’s Libertarian poli/tech blog, turns up 24 “higher education bubble” stories in the last month alone.  Google spits out 248,000 occurrences of the phrase.  Still, I find no mention of one thing that epitomizes the whole sorry mess:  the Ed.D.

For many Ph.Ds, the Ed.D. represents the ticket to the administrative high life, the white flag to academic scholarship, and the tramp stamp of the compromising careerist.

Emphasis mine.

Clemens notes the absurdity of these “doctorates” in such non-academic fields as “higher eduction administration” and their amorphous goals. A particular favorite is CSU East Bay Ed.D. in “Educational Leadership for Social Justice” wherein students “will be engaged in studies, activities and skill building that fosters courageous school leadership that will demonstrate bold, socially responsible leadership to address and resolve issues that have impacted the achievement and success of students of color, and other marginalized students and communities.” After all, leadership that demonstrates leadership is the kind of leadership that leading leaders lead.

via Glenn Reynolds