The University of California Irvine (UC Irvine) has theoretical and research perspectives that cover central issues pertinent to educational leadership and provide a solid foundation for the proposed Ed.D. program with CSU campuses. Faculty expertise includes such areas as human development, learning theory, teacher education and development, school reform, charter schools, testing and assessment, state and federal policy, educational technologies, urban social policy, quantitative and qualitative research methods, critical theory, and philosophic inquiry.

California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) has expertise in diverse areas such as curriculum, instructional leadership, assessment, reform, instructional design technology, educational leadership, research methods, distance and web-based education, teacher education, bilingual and bi-cultural education, education for special needs populations, reading instruction, and science and mathematics education. The School of Education awards Master's degrees in seven different concentrations: Bilingual/Bicultural Education, Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Administration, Instructional Design Technology, Reading, Secondary Education, and Special Education.

California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) has programmatic and faculty strength in the areas of higher education and community college leadership. CSULB currently offers a nationally recognized Master's Degree program in student development and higher education, which prepares leaders for two-year and four-year colleges and universities in the region.

California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) will contribute strength to the program in urban educational leadership, diversity and inequality, and practitioner research. CSULA offers a Master's Degree in Educational Administration, and the faculty in the program have broad expertise on urban education, educational equity, learning and teaching, and research in urban schools.

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP) has programmatic and faculty expertise in the areas of educational technology and leadership that will contribute substantially to the Joint Ed.D. program. The College of Education and Integrative Studies offers a Master of Arts in Education that includes an internationally known program in Educational Multimedia that addresses the increasing importance of computers, multimedia, telecommunications, and networked systems in K-16 education