Education and Doctorates
Re “Just What the EdD Should Not Be Ordering,” Valley Perspective, March 11.
William Chitwood’s well-written commentary suggests that we don’t need EdDs. He suggests that more EdDs won’t help children learn to read and write. I beg to differ. I think that Chancellor [Charles B.] Reed’s initiative to establish EdD programs at some Cal State University campuses is a step in the right direction to improve K-12 education.
The CSU, because it presently has no EdD programs, will design pioneering new programs that could be revolutionarily different from existing programs. The new programs could combine education course work with advanced subject matter course work, to produce EdDs who are discipline-specific content experts as well as experts in the field of education. For example, science departments could collaborate with education departments to produce a whole new concept in the EdD degree.
The College of Education at my campus, Cal State Northridge, is outstanding, and I often collaborate with these distinguished professors to develop and implement teacher training programs that are widely recognized as exceptional and well-funded as a result of rigorous review.
Hats off to Charlie Reed for his bold initiative. If it is implemented, I’ll be the first to volunteer my expertise to work with the College of Education to produce truly distinguished EdD programs.
STEVEN B. OPPENHEIMER
Director, CSUN Center for
Cancer and Developmental Biology
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Chitwood makes an excellent point regarding the limited value of the so-called doctor of education degree. However, I was disturbed to learn at the end of the article that he is a “private-sector language arts instructor,” a job description that an EdD probably spent much time designing. Is he embarrassed to call himself an English teacher? Perhaps so. He uses the expression “from whence.” Whence contains the sense of from; consequently, the construction from whence is redundant. In other words, whence by itself means “from where.”
BILL FRIEDMAN
Studio City
