There has been a resurgence of interest in our school system in recent years. A multitude of local and national reports on higher education have described high attrition rates, increased illiteracy, and poor academic performance.* Reports such as "A Nation at Risk" resulted in moves toward reform in curriculum, testing and promotion procedures, accountability, and institutional organization. Consequently, we are being reminded that "our products are defective and it is our responsibility to perfect them".* The public resentment for these inferior products (graduates) and the political pressures have resulted in our quest to reform our institutions, our curricula, and our future teachers. Hence, there is a need for specialized programs and expertise to handle the influx of low-skilled students with inadequate academic preparation in reading, writing, computation, and study skills. A promising field of inquiry in higher education that addresses these needs is developmental education. Developmental education is sensitive to the individual differences and special needs among learners.*

Unfortunately, institutions are being asked to do more than ever before, in many cases, with fewer resources. Currently, students in our institutions are more diverse in demographics, academic abilities, and social skills. Moreover, they come to school at-risk and ill-prepared because of family background and socioeconomic status. And, when these students are admitted into higher education, they are faced with nonchalance and debilitating, inhumane treatments from institutional faculty, staff and administrators. These additional potential and/or actual stressors on the students may result in lack of motivation to excel in their academic pursuits. Belittling a student with low self-worth only adds fuel to the fire. The consequences are demoralized, unmotivated, and uncaring students with diminished self-esteem. Yet, we wonder why attrition is still on the rise among the disadvantaged, nontraditional, and learning disabled students.

One response to dwindling resources is the inclusion of students with disabilities to the general education setting. While inclusion can alleviate some of the inequities in higher education by placing special education resources in general education settings where students at-risk can also benefit, it is an additional problem for higher education administrators and faculty. This "inclusive ethos" creates confusion and stress for institutional staff and faculty. Learning disabled students have needs that require specialized skills that most mainstream and general education faculty cannot deal with. In most cases, institutional staff and faculty members are asked to function in roles and settings that run counter to their academic preparation, roles that are beyond their graduate training and specialized licensure.* This has resulted in high faculty attrition. Two pressing problems in higher education today are the lack of specialized (licensed) staff and the attrition of trained faculty.* To bridge the gap between trained specialists and general education faculty, post-secondary institutions need developmental educators who are armed with specialized skills to manage and lead their institutions into the 21st century.

Is there a need for an Ed.D. or Ph.D. in Developmental Education? A doctoral education should be a special time, the culmination of a formal educational process that encourages learners to think for themselves and to create new knowledge and insight. The notion that an Ed.D. degree program is inferior to a Ph.D. degree program is a thing of the past. Conventional Ed.D. programs required students to learn a handful of theories and models, whereafter, they would complete a field-based research project that would be used to satisfy a dissertation requirement. These programs trained learners to become practitioners who were not research oriented. Today's Ed.D. programs are closely aligned with Ph.D. programs as evidenced in the curricular emphases of both programs. In addition to training their learners to become pragmatists and leaders in today's dynamic world full of diversity, both programs also train learners to become independent and creative scholars.

So, there is no need, per se, for Ed.D. and Ph.D. degrees in developmental education. However, there is a need for a doctorate in developmental education. Like other disciplines, developmental education is a field of practice and research within higher education with a theoretical foundation in developmental psychology and learning theories. It promotes the metacognitive growth and intellectual abilities of learners at all levels of the learning continuum.* The doctoral degree program (Ed.D. or Ph.D.) in developmental education should be designed to offer working and mid-career professionals an opportunity to explore the roles and responsibilities of institutional leadership and support service centers. The program should give learners a unique academic experience that requires them to think about current theory and knowledge, to create imaginative new applications of what they learn, and to contribute new knowledge and interpretations of knowledge to the profession and society.

The outcomes of any doctoral program in developmental education should be shared proudly and with confidence, yet with the understanding that knowledge changes and that learning is a lifelong process. The courses and experiences for the Doctor of Developmental Education degree should aim at providing learners with a program of study that (a) is grounded in learning and instructional theories and models, (b) challenges them to interpret and apply these theories and models, (c) gives them time to question and reconsider the conventional wisdom, (d) gives them time to reflect on the personal meaning of what they learn, and (e) provides them a laboratory context in which they can formulate and create a personal contribution to the profession and society.

It is one thing to see the need for a doctoral degree in developmental education, but it is quite another to steer ourselves and institutions in the desired direction. Perhaps the main barrier to the improvement of teaching-learning lies not in the technical or intellectual resources available in higher education (in general) and to developmental education practitioners (in particular), but in the work culture and organizational structure of post-secondary institutions. These institutions of higher learning are the nexus where collaborative efforts and open-mindedness play vital roles in the transition from school to work. Students who graduate in a particular discipline from any institution should be able to interact and compete among themselves. Developmental educators provide the means for these transitions by equipping their students with the necessary skills to survive in a dynamic work environment.

Unlike other disciplines, developmental education offers programs and support services that commonly address academic preparedness, diagnostic assessment and placement, affective barriers to learning (counseling, tutoring, and study skills), and the development of general (holistic student) and discipline-specific (mainstream curricula) learning strategies.* Developmental education, as a discipline and/or program, fosters openness to diversity and promotes multiculturalism in linguistically diverse educational settings. It equips its practitioners with the learning and instructional theories and models for better student diagnostics, placement, and remediation of academic deficiencies.*

Is there a need for a developmental education program? A graduate program in developmental education is, therefore, needed for our institutional persistence. These programs should train leaders and learners to become practitioners in their cognate areas with emphases in developmental education philosophy. The Doctor of Developmental Education program should be an extension of our efforts to prepare tomorrow's leaders. Institutional leadership and learning specialists are the greatest responsibilities a person can assume. The responsibilities are complex, demanding, and vital to our nation's future. Being an institutional president, department head, superintendent of schools, public school administrator, or chair of a non-profit organization requires a way of thinking and a set of personal skills that transcend the components of any existing professional degree program. The need for this very important educational opportunity is self evident. No professional degree program, that we are aware of actually addresses the larger role and responsibility of being the steward of an ever changing social system with all its implicit and explicit duties and obligations of an educator. Quite often, leadership has been left to chance and to the good fortune of people who survive the power struggles on their way to that position.

Given the size and influence of institutions in our society and the diversity of student clientele, it is no surprise that public attention is focused on the manner in which all institutions function. They not only influence their institutions, but impact the community at large. For this reason it is time to offer a program that focuses on the top leadership role from the perspective of providing learners (current leaders and aspirants to developmental education) with an opportunity to explore their institutional, societal, and personal roles as they consider the larger meaning and function of leadership and education, as well as teaching and learning in their pragmatic sense.

The purpose of developmental education should be to provide a demanding program where leaders, as learners, have an opportunity to think deeply about the function, responsibilities and obligations of institutional structure and leadership, experience many of the conditions they face or will face to enable them to assess their personal fitness for leadership through self-reflection and structured feedback, and to culminate their graduate degrees (masters and/or doctoral programs) with a significant masters thesis or dissertation that demonstrates both their individual mastery of this area of inquiry and a significant personal contribution that will have an impact on the larger society, the profession, and their careers.

* Contact authors for citations:
Margaret C. Bell 03FLLLMC@JARVIS.EDU
Nelson T. Ikegulu IKEGULU@JARVIS.EDU
Jarvis Christian College, Hawkins, TX 75765

Updated: October 14, 2005