Capstone Guide

Capstone Steps

Identify a Capstone Advisor
1. Submit the Applied Capstone Advisor Form
Candidacy Defense
1. Enroll in Candidacy Course A&S 706 in the quarter the student plans to defend their candidacy paper.
1. Submit the Candidacy Approval Form upon successful defense.
Capstone Proposal Defense
1. Enroll in A&S 838 Supervised Applied Capstone (EdD) Proposal Development in the quarter the student plans to defend their proposal.
1. Submit the Capstone Proposal Approval Form upon successful defense.
Capstone Defense
1. Enroll in A&S 839 Independent Applied Capstone (EdD): Educational Leadership in the quarter the student plans to defend their capstone defense.
1. Submit the Capstone Approval Form upon successful defense.
Submit Capstone for publication

Purpose of the Doctoral Capstone

A number of EdD programs across the United States provide students the option to work on program evaluations, policy analyses, combined program design and evaluation projects, studies of existing interventions or best practice models, or related applied programmatic research instead of traditional dissertations that require original scholarly research presented in the five-chapter model typical of much social science research. The doctoral capstone project requires rigorous research, but focuses more on the application of research to an implementable education solution that can take multiple forms. Examples of doctoral capstone projects may include but are not limited to proposed curriculum plans, education technology solutions for the classroom, community education initiatives, or a proposed teacher-training plan.

The doctoral capstone project requires intensive research and writing. However, capstone projects differ from dissertations in that they do not follow the traditional chapter format of the dissertation, and can take multiple forms–for example, an expansive new curriculum, a comprehensive professional development plan, an in-depth policy analysis with recommendation, a program evaluation, or an in-depth research paper on solutions to a particular issue in the field of educational leadership. Both the dissertation and the doctoral capstone result in the completion of important, original, and impactful work, but the emphasis of each is different. Unlike the dissertation that focuses more on innovative research that furthers understanding of a particular problem in education, capstone projects are more practitioner oriented and focus more on developing an implementable solution to an existing problem in education. Therefore, this project is an opportunity to pursue a project of personal professional interest with applicability to one’s practice.

Examples of Capstone Project Topics

Format	Problem	Guiding Question
Program evaluation process analysis	Challenges with supervision process at a XYZ school/district	How close is the supervision process to an ideal program, and how can it be improved?
Program design and development	Low freshman- to-sophomore retention of at-risk students at U-Name-It University	Does the transitional summer improve students’ chances of success, and how might it be modified to be more effective?
Organizational development	The organizational culture and structure of XYZ school/district is not conducive to individualizing instruction for students	What systems need to be created to facilitate the implementation of better support systems in the school/district?
Policy analysis	East Division’s ninth-grade students are struggling in the transition to high school	How can the challenges associated with the transition from middle school to high school be addressed through more responsive and concrete policies?
Cost-benefit analysis	West Division is considering alternatives to the existing community-education program	What would be the most cost-effective way to preserve high-quality community-education programming?

Capstone Research Process

Coursework

Coursework is designed to give you in-depth information about your field and familiarize you with literature related to it.

Candidacy

The doctoral capstone project is typically based on questions that arise in the professional experiences of practitioners. Some capstone projects actively involve the researcher as a participant in a study of their own practice, others focus on policies or programs that may be planned or implemented elsewhere (in another school, district, or university for example) in order to critically assess a potential “best-practice” and consider its implementation elsewhere. Depending on the project, the process may involve a period of research and planning followed by a series of recommended policies or actions with rationales and expected outcomes, a feasibility study, a program assessment or implementation of a plan of action. Regardless, the capstone project involves systematic collection and analysis of data and reflection on the results. A written report and public presentation of the report are important later stages in the process; but the principal tasks for students as they work on the capstone project are to review relevant research, plan a strategy for data collection and analysis, and on the basis of these, offer policy recommendations, prepare a program design or evaluation, and / or present a plan of action and take measures to implement the plan in ways that draw on the research literature, allow for systematic collection and analysis of data to assess results (or likely outcomes), and discuss application to practice.

Capstone Proposal

The structure of doctoral capstone projects vary depending on what students wish to pursue for their project. For example, in addition to various action research projects (Participatory Action Research Projects and Youth Action Research Projects), some students may elect to create a proposal for changes in the organizational structure, employee training, or management practices of a setting that involves education. In general, the components of a doctoral capstone project include a paper that explains students’ research and its purpose, existing research in their area of study, students’ capstone plan (project implementation or recommendations with data collection and analysis), and explanations of their work’s application to real-world situations. Students must clearly show how their project is grounded in theoretical frameworks and established principles in their field of study.

Capstone

The capstone is meant to be an applied project that is useful for schools/districts, organizations/institutions, centers, etc. Therefore, the format should be in the form of a technical or analysis report. The capstone requires an executive summary and table of content, and should be in professional format that can be presented to decision-makers such as policy-makers, superintendents, principals, foundation directors, CEOs, etc. During the review process, the capstone advisor should receive traditional double-spaced format in APA style for the candidacy paper, proposal, and final project. This version should be 90-110 pages. After successful defense and poster session presentation, and once the Capstone advisor approves the capstone, students will convert the document into a report-style layout. The final formatted versions will be 50-60 pages, single-spaced. Students are encouraged to use pre-made formatting offered in programs like Microsoft Word. Students should submit one copy of the final published capstone to the Doctoral Program Office.

Capstone Sections

Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Background (Introduction and Literature Review)
Process (Project Design/Method and Project Outcomes)
Application (Outcomes/Findings; Implications/Recommendations)
Conclusions
References

The process for completing a doctoral capstone project is similar to that of completing a dissertation, in that students must seek the mentorship and guidance of one primary faculty advisor, meet certain research and writing milestones, and present their capstone at a Capstone Poster Session.

Note: The Doctoral Office will provide samples of Capstone Projects to offer a very general idea of the types of topics and formatting. These samples do NOT have all the same requirements as those in the Educational Leadership Capstone and the Curriculum Studies Capstone (at DePaul the capstone is done individually, requires a literature review, etc.). So again, these samples are only to provide a general idea of capstone topics/formatting.