Competitive Carnegie Project

The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate has accepted the University of North Florida among its 22 new graduate schools of education as members into the consortium. UNF joins numerous other schools of education across the country in the important work of redesigning professional practice preparation in education for the improvement of Pk-20 education and the organizations that support it.
The CPED is a consortium of over 100 graduate schools of education that have committed resources to work together to undertake a critical examination of the doctorate in education through dialog, experimentation, critical feedback and evaluation.
“For decades, the University has prepared hundreds of local and international educational leaders. UNF’s selection for the highly-competitive Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate recognizes the excellence of our doctoral program and commitment to game-changing innovation,” said Dr. Diane Yendol-Hoppey, dean of the College of Education and Human Services at UNF. “This innovation will focus on developing practitioner leadership using an integration of evidence-based practices, conceptual understanding and application.”
CPED institution members and their faculty engage in a model of professional development to learn from and with each other the best ways to design professional preparation. New members were chosen through an application process and evaluated by a CPED committee composed of faculty members of current CPED institutions. Acceptance into the Consortium is an invitation to enter into a process of change. As a member, UNF’s Doctorate in Educational Leadership will undergo a transformation as the leadership faculty learn and consider new, innovative ways to improve this degree.
This program revision will be led by Dr. David Hoppey, UNF associate professor in the Department of Leadership, School Counseling and Sport Management, who will serve as the project principal investigator for the CPED initiative. He will serve as the University’s representative at all CPED events, relaying information between the member programs, their education schools and the Consortium.
The College of Education will provide resources and support for the redesign of its education doctorate, including participation in the CPED Consortium. This includes support for faculty to attend semi-annual CPED convenings, support for research efforts to study outcomes of the initiative and support for the redesign of the educational doctoral program.
Member programs and their education schools will provide CPED with evidence that the institution has met the milestones in order to create a record from which others can learn. Evidence of deliberations and resulting experiments can take a variety of forms (survey studies, cases, improvement efforts, self-studies and/or action research). This evidence should flow naturally from change efforts and further the work of the member programs and their education schools.
The vision of the CPED is to inspire all schools of education to apply the CPED framework to the preparation of educational leaders to become well-equipped scholarly practitioners who provide stewardship of the profession and meet the educational challenges of the 21st century. To accomplish this, CPED seeks to strengthen, improve, support and promote the CPED framework through continued collaboration and investigation.
The UNF Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership program has a rich tradition in the region of preparing transformative leaders. Since it’s inception in 1970, the program has provided candidates with a deep understanding of educational leadership through four curriculum strands—leadership, research, foundations and a cognate. The program prepares candidates with theory, opportunities for practice and analytical tools necessary to develop individuals and organizations to function effectively in our constantly changing global society. Scholarship and research are encouraged as well as nurtured with the goal of improving students’ ability to make data-driven decisions that enhance and nurture organizational learning.
The program employs a cohort model that provides students opportunities to study and learn within active learning communities. Through engaged reflective practice as well as interaction with faculty and cohort members, students deepen the understanding of themselves as advocates who effectively influence substantive change within organizations and communities. The program also strives to develop creative, ethical, humane, flexible and visionary leaders, who critically analyze problems, comprehend the inherent complexities of organizational systems and apply relevant research to examine and frame responses appropriate for different contexts, challenges and issues.
UNF, a nationally ranked university located on an environmentally beautiful campus, offers students who are dedicated to enriching the lives of others the opportunity to build their own futures through a well-rounded education.