Ed.D. Doctor of Education Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield Ed.D. Doctor of Education facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. How do people learn, according to behaviorism? → When the provided stimulus changes behavior.
2. Fenwick English's concept of 'curriculum alignment' primarily addresses the relationship between which elements? → Written, taught, and tested curriculum
3. Reliability in educational assessment refers to: → The consistency of scores across administrations or raters
4. Which type of validity evidence is gathered by examining whether a test's content accurately represents the full domain it is intended to measure? → Content validity
5. Shared governance in higher education refers to the collaborative decision-making role of: → Faculty, administration, and governing boards
6. Completion agenda initiatives in higher education primarily focus on: → Improving graduation rates and credential attainment
7. Which federal law governs student privacy rights and restricts disclosure of educational records? → FERPA
8. Construct validity in an EdD proposal instrument is best established by: → Aligning each item to the theoretical framework and having experts review the alignment
9. Senge's concept of a 'learning organization' is best characterized by which feature? → Continuous capacity-building where members expand their ability to create desired results
10. Criterion-referenced assessments measure student performance against: → A fixed set of predetermined standards or learning objectives
11. What information should be presented in the proposal's preliminary results section? → Unpublished results related to the dissertation topic
12. What is the main objective of leadership in education? → To make a positive difference
13. The purpose of research is____? → Working in a scientific way to search for the truth of any problem
14. A researcher studying administrator burnout conducts interviews with participants from their own school district. The primary ethical concern is: → Power imbalance may coerce participation or inhibit honest responses
15. What quality does learner-centered design have? → Creating an environment that encourages collaboration
16. What is a type of qualitative research method? → Ethnography
17. Which type of assessment is designed to monitor student learning progress during instruction and provide feedback for improvement? → Formative assessment
18. Which policy framework argues that education decisions should prioritize equity by directing more resources to historically underserved populations? → Equity model
19. Which federal legislation most directly governs special education services and the rights of students with disabilities in US public schools? → Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
20. An instructional leader wants to evaluate the fidelity of a newly adopted reading curriculum. Which data source is most directly relevant? → Classroom observation data matched against the curriculum's implementation checklist
21. The Carnegie Classification system categorizes higher education institutions primarily by: → Mission type and research activity level
22. The Higher Education Act of 1965 primarily established: → Federal student financial aid programs
23. A university's strategic plan typically covers what time horizon? → 3–5 years
24. Which change management model identifies eight sequential steps, beginning with creating urgency and ending with anchoring change in culture? → Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
25. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act primarily provides federal funding to: → Schools with high concentrations of students from low-income families
26. Which term describes curriculum content that schools intentionally do NOT teach, which Eisner argued shapes students as much as what is taught? → Null curriculum
27. Reading centers, story hours, exhibits, and reading to literature are examples of what? → Service of a public library
28. Which need, according to Maslow's hierarchy of requirements, must be met before other needs can be supplied? → Physiological needs
29. The study of individual units drawn from a population is known as which of the following terms? → Sampling
30. A research paper is a concise description of the results of previous research based on: → Both Primary and Secondary Data