Over the last two decades, policymakers in the United States and around the world have increasingly recognized the critical importance of education to economic, political, social and cultural improvement. Policy makers make decisions about such important educational issues as: who teaches, what is taught, how educational success is assessed, how much funding is provided to education, and who pays for that funding. Their decisions have implications for the livelihood of families, communities, and the United States' place in the global economy. Unfortunately, these decisions are often made without a clear understanding of their consequences, the needs for change, or the social forces that affect actions that legislatures and government bureaucrats take.  This program will prepare scholars who want to help find answers to these questions and, in the process, help inform policy makers, educators, and the public about the progress and challenges of improving public and private education.

Among the areas that students can explore are: the formulation, implementation, and evaluation and assessment of educational policies at the local, state, national and international levels, with a special focus on issues in New Jersey; the social and economic influences of policymaking and implementation; the consequences of educational policy for the development, welfare, and employment opportunities for citizens; and the role of social institutions that shape policy. Graduates of the program will be prepared to assume faculty and research positions in academia, government and the private sector.

One of the most important components of the Ph.D. program is the opportunity to work closely with scholars who are actively engaged in research on issues important to educational policy; the program has been carefully designed to facilitate learning experiences of this kind. The faculty for the educational policy concentration are drawn from both within the Graduate School of Education and across the university, and their varied interests and experiences reflect the strong research and policy experience being brought to this exciting new program as well as the diverse interests supported by the program.