We prepare and graduate students who take key positions in special education administration and higher education, where they are directly affecting policy, conducting research, and preparing the next generation of teachers. Our program produces the largest number of faculty for university positions in special education in the Chicago area. Our graduates publish articles in prestigious journals and regularly present their work at state and national conferences.

Student must complete a minimum of 96 semester hours of graduate work beyond the bachelor’s degree or 64 semester hours beyond the master’s degree for a doctoral degree. The plan of study for each student is prepared in consultation with the faculty adviser assigned in the student's area of specialization. The plan of study must be approved by a faculty adviser. All students are required to complete the core curriculum, appropriate work in the areas of specialization, a research project and a doctoral dissertation.

Core Curriculum (16 semester hours)

The core curriculum introduces students to issues in the conduct of educational research and begins the process of building methodological skills. The courses are:

ED 500 Philosophical Foundations of Educational Inquiry
ED 501 Data & Interpretation in Educational Inquiry
ED 502 Essentials of Qualitative Inquiry in Education
ED 503/EPSY 503 Essentials of Quantitative Inquiry in Education (Students may register under the ED or EPSY rubric.)

Area of Concentration (24 semester hours if a student has a master's degree, 56 semester hours without a master’s degree)

Required courses in the area of concentration include:
SPED 564
Proseminar in Special Education
Three research seminars (i.e., SPED 592, Seminar on Theory and Research in Special Education)

Students may take their remaining courses within the Special Education area, in other areas of the College of Education, or in other departments of the university (e.g., Anthropology, Disability Studies, Psychology, Public Policy, Sociology, and Women's Studies).

Research Project (8 semester hours)

All students in the doctoral program must work on a research project in collaboration with a faculty member, or a team of faculty members and students. Projects will focus on actual research problems in the student's area of concentration. Each student will make a formal oral and/or written presentation of the project findings.

Preliminary Examination

The preliminary examination is taken after the required course work is complete. It consists of two parts:
The comprehensive written portion is based on the student's course work.
The oral portion is based upon the student's written dissertation proposal and is presented to a faculty committee.

Dissertation (16 semester hours)

A dissertation based on original research is required and must be defended before a faculty committee. The research must employ a theoretical framework and make use of the methods of inquiry appropriate to the problem investigated.

A student's distribution of semester hour credits required for the doctoral degree will be as follows (these are minimum hours; students typically take more hours than the minimum):

	Minimum hours with master’s degree	Minimum hours without master’s degree
Core Curriculum	16	16
Specialization Requirement	24	56
Research Project	8	8
Dissertation	16	16
TOTAL	64	96

For further information regarding degree requirements, contact the Graduate Admissions Officer in the Office of Student Services at 312-996-4536, and consult the Graduate Catalog.