UB partners with SUNY New Paltz to create flexible doctoral pathway for educators

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Starting this summer, the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education (GSE) is offering its online doctoral program in educational leadership to SUNY New Paltz.

The collaboration between the two State University of New York (SUNY) schools is intended to help experienced educators in the Hudson Valley and beyond advance into K-12 leadership roles through UB’s three-year, flexible EdD program. New Paltz currently offers master’s degrees in education and educational administration, as well as advanced certificates, but does not have a doctoral program.

“Our students have been clamoring for doctoral options,” says Nancy Maess Hackett, PhD, EdD, lecturer in the education leadership program at New Paltz and its liaison on the partnership. “They want to continue to learn and grow to understand all that is going on in the field of education and to advance themselves.”

Ian Mette, PhD, EdS, associate professor in UB’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy who is spearheading the partnership, says the collaboration reflects a broader approach to meeting workforce needs.

“We try to look at ways in which we can practically apply what we’re teaching,” Mette says. “Theory is really important, but if it doesn’t translate into practice, it doesn’t amount to much. The more we can collaborate and address needs, the better we’re going to be at supporting educators and the communities that they serve.”

The first cohort of 25 students, including 18 from New Paltz, began the nine-week summer session on May 26. They will then take two evening courses in both the fall and spring semesters and continue in the summers. All courses are delivered synchronously (live, as opposed to recorded lectures).

“We believe that you can’t just develop educational leaders asynchronously. There has to be interpersonal development and intrapersonal reflection,” Mette says. “Offering the courses predominantly through synchronous online instruction is a really good fit for both of us.”

Hackett, who attended UB while pursuing one of her graduate degrees, says she and other leaders in the New Paltz School of Education considered several institutions for a possible partnership. UB ended up being the perfect match.

“UB’s Educational Leadership and Policy Department is invested in the same conceptional plans for preparing administrators that we have – ones that can lead to positive change in schools,” she says. “It’s been a real collaborative effort, and I couldn’t ask for anyone better than Ian to work with.”

New Paltz students take two courses in quantitative analysis and social context the semester prior to the UB work, which transfers toward their degree requirements.

Most of the students are working in administrative jobs, such as school principal, curriculum director and district superintendent, but a few are teachers who want to move into leadership roles, Mette says.

The online program includes two years of intense support and development where students explore, define and refine a problem of practice they see in their schools.

“We give them assignments that help them build and create the proposal that they’ll use for their dissertation,” Mette explains. “In the third year, we offer them support through dissertation courses to analyze that data and that they are able to defend at the end of their third year.”

Both institutions promote the cohort model, in which a group of students takes all their classes together and matriculate through the curriculum together.

Hackett says the cohort model provides a synergy in which students can learn from one another. New Paltz’s graduate students are located throughout the mid-Hudson region — from Westchester County to the Catskills.

“We have quite a range, from small rural schools to urban schools, where our students are working,” she says. “And this makes the cohort even richer.”

While there has been a small dip nationally in the number of people who want to become educators, Mette says, demand is growing for degrees in educational administration.

“I think this is because we’ve pivoted in the way we’re approaching development of educators,” Mette says. “We’re saying, ‘We don’t know more than you do. We’re going to learn with you. We’re going to empower you to pursue your own interests.’”

One goal of UB’s doctoral program is to encourage the students to take theory and apply it to their daily educational leadership positions, Mette says.

“We’re not trying to support the development of educational leaders that will create new theory,” he says. “We’re trying to support the development of educational leaders that will translate theory into practice.”

This marks the first partnership like this for GSE, and Mette hopes this model may be repeated at other SUNY institutions.

“As budgets decline and demand continues to go up for degrees like the EdD, I think this could be a blueprint for other SUNY campuses,” he says. “It’s a really good example of how we can work smarter, not harder with each other instead of in competition. We’re really proud of what we’ve produced.”