Educational Services and Leadership

The Department of Educational Services and Leadership offers post-baccalaureate and graduate programs that provide students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to bring about transformative leadership and change that promote highly effective educational institutions. The department is organized around what educational leaders and practitioners need to know and be able to do in order to foster learning organizations that are responsive to societal needs and demands regarding P-16 education. To this end students can enroll in programs that lead to a doctorate in educational leadership and master’s degree and/or certificate programs in school counseling, school psychology, school nursing, school administration, school supervision, and higher education administration and instruction. We offer a variety of modalities in our course offerings including accelerated programs, online and hybrid programs, as well as traditional on-campus classes. All of our programs are approved by the New Jersey Department of Education and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). In addition, the school psychology program is approved by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), and the school counseling program is approved by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). The Department is housed in the College of Education and is located in James Hall. The Department’s faculty is mindful of adult learning needs and seeks to engage students academically, professionally and personally. We look forward to reviewing your application and providing you with the necessary information that will assist you in making an informed decision regarding your professional plans.

Mission Statement
Our mission is to create a network of leaders who will facilitate profound and meaningful change for education. We promote the knowledge, skills, professional dispositions, global perspectives and multicultural competencies within collaborative, holistic learning-centered environments. Our highly qualified and diverse faculty, staff and graduates integrate teaching, research, scholarship, and community service to enhance the learning, mental health, leadership and personal development of students and clients in applied settings. We adhere to the highest ethical standards in preparing our students as transformational leaders, scientist-practitioners and advocates for social justice.

Rowan’s College of Education joins consortium for the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate
Rowan University’s College of Education was recently accepted as a new member of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). Headquartered at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education, CPED is both a collaborative effort to promote excellence for the educational doctorate (Ed.D.) and a design-based research project. Rowan will join 21 other new institutions and 80 existing members committed to learning together and engaging in a process of innovation. “CPED is prestigious and selective. Being accepted is a mark of distinction for Rowan University,” explains Associate Professor Monica Reid Kerrigan. “This greatly benefits our Ed.D. program because we will now have the opportunity to learn and grow through collaboration with the other CPED member institutions.  We are now part of a community focused on studying and improving practice, which will allow us to make our already strong program even stronger and more rigorous.” Through involvement in CPED, Rowan’s faculty will work with consortium members as they together explore ways to continue to improve Ed.D. programs.  “CPED is focused on innovation, improvement, and collaboration--always with a focus on rigorous improvement for practice,” says MaryBeth Walpole, professor and chair of Rowan’s Department of Educational Services and Leadership. “It connects us with other programs similarly focused on rigorous approaches to practice.” Adds Kerrigan:  “We will be engaged in the effort to reclaim and distinguish the Ed.D. from the doctor of philosophy, emphasizing that the Ed.D. is more practically oriented, applied in nature, but no less rigorous than the Ph.D.” Offered since 1997, the Doctor of Educational Leadership program was Rowan's first doctoral program. Students are educated to become reflective practitioners who not only understand and evaluate professional research and literature, but also learn how to translate research and theory into practice in order to transform educational institutions to meet society’s challenging needs. The program offers tracks in Higher Education, P-12, Nurse Educator and a Community College Leadership Initiative.  Depending on the track, the program is offered as a hybrid, online, or in a blended format.