Courses & Benchmarks

The PhD in Education program requires a minimum of 63 units of course work. Students spend years 1 & 2 taking courses, year 3 preparing for and taking the qualifying exam and year 4 completing the dissertation. In addition to courses and benchmarks, students devote 20 hours a week for all 4 years to their assistantship with their faculty advisor.

Students gain knowledge and expertise through a combination of education-focused coursework, interdisciplinary courses taken across the university, and hands-on experiences through assistantships and professional development. This integrated approach ensures a well-rounded understanding of both theory and practice, preparing students to lead impactful research across diverse educational contexts.

Rossier PhD Courses

• EDUC 630 Organizations and Policy: Current Issues
• EDUC 642 Controversies in Learning
• EDUC 651 Qualitative Methods 1
• EDUC 653 Qualitative Methods 2
• EDUC 654 Qualitative Methods 3
• EDUC 658 Fixed and Random Effects Modeling for Social Policy Research
• EDUC 665 Foundations and Design of Educational Research
• EDUC 667 Racism & Anti-Blackness in Education
• EDUC 668 Mixed Methods
• EDUC 681 Research, Policy and Practice in Urban Education
• EDUC 682 Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods in Education
• EDUC 683 Proseminar in Education
• EDUC 684 Research Synthesis
• EDUC 705 Survey Design and Analysis
• EDUC 790 Directed Research

Sample Cognate Courses

• AMST 560 Readings on Race and Ethnicity
• AMST 520 Readings in Asian American Studies
• AMST 553 Race, Gender and Sexuality
• CJ 505 Analysis of Criminal Justice Systems
• COMM 620 Critical Theories of Race and Culture
• COMM 636 Interpretive and Cultural Approaches in Organizational Communication
• PM 542 Social Network Analysis
• PM 603 Structural Equation Modeling
• PPD 501a Economics for Policy, Planning and Development
• PPD 502x Statistical Foundations for Public Management and Policy
• PPDE 668 Applied Econometrics for Program Evaluation
• PPDE 646 Grant Writing Practicum
• PPDE 664 Seminar in Social Justice and Public Policy
• PSYC 501L Statistics in Psychological Research
• PSYC 520 Fundamentals of Psychological Measurement
• PSYC 512 Social Psychology
• SOCI 671 Urban Sociology
• SOWK 624 Social Work in Juvenile Justice Settings

Degree Benchmarks

In order to successfully complete the PhD program, students need to complete the following program and university benchmarks:

Doctoral first year screening – After you have completed 24 units of coursework, the doctoral screening committee will assess your performance and determine your readiness to continue in the program.

Qualifying exam – As a prerequisite to candidacy for the PhD, you must pass written and oral qualifying examinations. The written qualifying examination is designed to assess your readiness to undertake dissertation research and ability to critically analyze and synthesize theoretical and methodological knowledge.

Teaching and research portfolios – As part of the qualifying exam benchmark, you will be required to complete a teaching and research portfolio for the PhD degree. You will present the portfolios during the qualifying examination oral defense meeting. 

Dissertation proposal – Once you have successfully completed all coursework and passed the qualifying examination, you will write a doctoral dissertation proposal.

Doctoral dissertation – A dissertation is an original contribution to current knowledge in the field and a demonstration that you have achieved sufficient mastery in the field to pursue independent research and scholarship.