Ed.D. from a great school or Ph.D. from an ok school?

[nl03]

i'm in education, have lots of experience as a teacher, but planning to exit the classroom eventually.

Right now my goal would be to work with new teachers in some capacity, at the university level or at some other alternative certification program would be great, but I feel that desire could change one day. The only thing that I cannot envision myself being interested in right now is research.

It looks like I'm going to have two good offers in Curriculum and Instruction.

I've already got one offer a Ph.D. at a University close to home, US News ranking in the top 120 School of Educations, unranked for Curriculum and Instruction. Benefits are it is cheap and I can do it full time. Disadvantage is that it is not a big name by any means it seems.

The other offer looks like it will probably come, it is an Ed.D in the same subject at a University on the East Coast, top 30 education schools and Curriculum and Instruction program is ranked in the top 20 in the subfield. Advantages are a nice city, and prestige. Disadvantages are it is an Ed.D. not a Ph.D., and it is more expensive, and since I will be doing the part time option for the first year I will need to get a job. I need to work in the state for a year to become a resident, then i can redesignate and get the in state tuition and possibly do the full time option (there is a full time option).

In my research online about PhD vs. EdD I am actually quite surprised at some of the bad rep an EdD gets. If I had to choose just straight out, I would probably go with the more prestigious PhD. However, if an EdD is truly for a practitioner as opposed to a researcher, that is more what I am interested in.

But I don't want to graduate and put in the work, and then discover that some doors are closed to me because of the limitations of an EdD. On the other other hand, I also don't want doors closed for me because my university wasn't prestigious enough.

Any advice would be great

[yoshiko]

I don't really have insight on the Ed.D but I just read the article regarding Harvard cutting their Ed.D program. I find that very important to consider in your own decision because Harvard is one of the most prestigious universities in the world and Harvard was the university to actually introduce the Ed.D. program. For them to completely cut the program shows that they did not value the degree enough to keep it open (it's not like Harvard is going through terrible money issues right now). Therefore, if I was in your shoes, I would be considered how the Ed.D will decrease in value even more, now that Harvard has come saying that they don't think it's worth it and that the PhD of education is the way to go.

My two cents. But I honestly do not know much about Ed.D degrees.

[nl03]

Thanks for the input

Well, it seems most PhD's seem to say the Ed.D. is not valuable, but I will say you do see plenty of Ed.D.'s teaching in colleges of Education

It's unfortunate that it just seems like PhD-lite, like the exact same classes minus a few statistics courses or whatever. I would consider myself less interested in theory, and more interested in practice

[Eigen]

But it's the research experience that makes you qualified to teach at the University level, which is what you're interested in.

Go with what you were told on the CHE forums, there are lots of very experienced people there.