Ed.D. Versus Ph.D.: What’s the Difference?
Northern Illinois University offers the Ed.D., or Doctorate of Education, in Educational
Psychology. Perhaps it has been suggested to you that you should pursue the Ph.D., or Doctor of
Philosophy, instead of the Ed.D. so that you will be “more employable.” So, you may well be
wondering, “what is the difference between a Ph.D. and an Ed.D.?
The Ph.D. degree in the United States was modeled after the German university model. The first
Ed.D. degree was granted at—where else?—Harvard University in 1920. It was awarded in
response to an expressed need for more educators to have the doctorate.
The theoretical distinction between the two degrees has always been that the Ph.D. is “research-
oriented,” whereas the Ed.D. has been directed towards educational practice and the application
of theory and research. The Ed.D. was originally conceived of as “equal in rigor, but different in
substance” to the Ph.D. In the academic world, however, the distinction between these two
degrees—and in the kinds of doctoral dissertations completed—has not always been so clear.
A content analysis of doctoral dissertations (Nelson & Coorough, 1994) found few differences
between those written for Ed.D. and Ph.D. programs. Generally, Ph.D. dissertations in the social
sciences (including education) tend to be experimental and quasi-experimental studies, and use
multivariate statistics, have somewhat wider generalizability, and are more concentrated in some
areas—educational psychology, for example. Ed.D. dissertations, on the other hand, contain
more descriptive research, such as surveys. Most Ed.D. dissertations concern local and regional
populations such as area schools and institutions, and the subjects of study tend to be students
and/or teachers. Ph.D. dissertations in the social sciences often, but not always, use college
students as “proxies” for other populations.
What about Northern Illinois University’s Ed.D. program in Educational Psychology?
While the majority of our educational psychology faculty hold the Ph.D., we believe that our
Ed.D. program is equal in rigor and substance to the graduate programs from which we all
came—Brown, Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, UCLA, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Many of our
graduate students are practitioners and they understand and appreciate the need to learn how to
conduct original research to inform and improve their practice. Still others are interested in
careers as community college and university faculty. Our Ed.D. program offers great flexibility
to students which can help facilitate the accomplishment of their career goals. Many of our Ed.D.
recipients are teaching at colleges and universities, in public and private secondary schools, are
administrators, evaluators, and assessment specialists for various educational programs,
community agencies, and businesses throughout Illinois and the midwest.