The two main objectives of this course are to teach students to design professional quality survey instruments and to organize survey responses in a way that graphically and statistically summarizes what those responses demonstrate. As a necessary element of learning to understand and to present survey data, students are introduced to statistical concepts-principally descriptive statistics, but also sampling theory, inferential statistics, and scale construction.

This course explores relationships between individual diversity, social inequality, and education. Students examine how differences in socioeconomic status, race, culture, and gender translate in the educational process and affect educational outcomes. Course content addresses issues such as educational access, social mobility, social policy and social reproduction

The primary objective in this course is for students to produce the qualifying paper required by the doctoral program. The written qualifying paper is designed to evaluate student progress in acquiring the substantive knowledge and analytical skills which the doctoral program strives to convey. The paper consists of a review of literature and is aimed at assessing substantive knowledge on a topic, analytical reasoning and writing proficiency. It entails preparing at minimum a 30-page paper that addresses a significant topic in education.