An Education Specialist (EdS) degree is designed to provide students with training in scholarship and research at a doctoral level. The focus of the EdS degree is to build practical skills with advanced expertise in a specialized area of education studies. Education specialists can focus on a large number of advanced topics, such as special education, teaching technology, education administration, and higher education.

An EdS degree can help prepare you for future doctoral studies while also building the skills and knowledge you need to be more effective in the field right away. Liberty University’s EdS program is especially flexible, allowing graduates to transfer in up to 27 credit hours of their EdS studies into a full doctoral degree.

If you are looking for a way to gain advanced education skills in a highly specialized area but are not ready to commit to a full doctorate program, then Liberty’s educational leadership specialist degree can help you.

While the content of EdS degrees and doctorates are postgraduate level, Education Specialist degrees are not doctorates because they do not meet the full requirements for length, content, and research required for a terminal degree. These requirements are dependent on accreditation requirements and industry standards.

However, EdS degrees fill an important need for education professionals who need advanced skills and research in a concise, focused program. Because the courses you take in an EdS degree are postgraduate level, you can also move on from this program to one of Liberty University’s full doctorate degrees in education while transferring up to 27 credit hours of your coursework.

If you are a teacher or school administrator, you know that there are unique concerns and challenges in the school setting that are very different from business or other fields. To advance your career in the field of education, you need leadership and management skills that can help you build strategic plans, manage educational resources, and administrate complex organizations.

Liberty’s EdS in Educational Leadership is designed to give you these skills. By choosing an EdS in Educational Leadership online with Liberty University, you’re choosing an advanced credential that can help you pursue roles in K-12 school administration, higher education leadership, education policymaking, and other roles that require an expert-level background in education research.

Education Specialist degrees build on graduate studies from a master’s degree. If you have a master’s degree, you have a baseline of research, writing, and study that can help you tackle the advanced education topics in the EdS. If your master’s degree is in education, you may have completed licensure requirements as part of your practical studies. The EdS can help you meet additional requirements for advanced licensure or add-on licensure to expand your expertise and career options.

But even if you are already an established professional in the field of education, the postgraduate studies in the EdS degree can help you develop new expertise in postgraduate research and education studies. With these new skills, you can pursue higher levels of leadership in education and make a greater impact on students. The best part is that your postgraduate studies can transfer to a full doctorate later, allowing you to apply your new skills sooner while leaving the door open to a terminal degree.

While the EdS emphasizes advanced research and scholarship in education, it is not a complete doctorate degree. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is a terminal doctorate that includes a dissertation research project. While not built as a full doctoral degree, Liberty University’s Education Specialist degree is designed to equip you with research skills and exceptional scholarship that may form the basis for future dissertation research.