Overview of the 20 Competencies

The 20 Program Competencies examined in this section are the cornerstone of your Capella Educational Leadership and Management experience. Together, they form the guiding principles of the EdD, and are the framework around which the program’s curriculum, instruction, and assessments are designed. Each course provides opportunities to demonstrate mastery in multiple competencies. The program’s 20 Competencies also serve as the primary organizing principle for your portfolio as each becomes a separate chapter in your Professional Showcase Portfolio.

Yours is a doctoral program made up of a professionally diverse group of aspiring education leaders, To make sure the program met the needs of such a diverse group, we examined program outcomes from both the P12 and Higher Education worlds, especially those of two particularly respected groups: in P12, ISLLC; in  in Higher Education, AACC.

ISLLC is the acronym for the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium, and their standards are the province of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), a nonpartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and five U.S. extra-state jurisdictions.

AACC is the acronym for the American Association of Community Colleges. Before we began to build our curriculum, we asked AACC how well we had addressed their competencies. Their reply: Capella University’s Doctor of Education (EdD) program aligns with the Competencies for Community College Leaders developed by the American Association of Community Colleges.

It should not be surprising that these (and other) recognized and respected sets of competencies overlap as much as they do. After all, the essentials of leadership cross not only educational professional boundaries but professional boundaries generally. When leading and managing change, one identifies and enlists all the affected stakeholders. When managing resources, black ink is far better than red at the end of the year. Systematic planning and execution are prized. And so on and so on…

Clearly, at a more micro level, unique professions require unique skill sets, but at the macro level, you will find more commonality than uniqueness. That’s one of the fundamental and fact based assumptions behind your doctoral program.