• Establishing that the student has achieved some prerequisites necessary to successfully undertake the more independent work required for the dissertation project (in most cases, this includes having acquired an agreed upon body of knowledge and research methodologies).
  
• Providing a "check point" that would enable both student and faculty to decide whether it is worth continuing in the doctoral program, before entering its most demanding and time consuming stage.

The "comprehensive exam" requirement for Ph.D. and Ed.D students specializing in Teaching and Curriculum is intended to fulfill all the functions articulated above. At the same time, the diverse and applied nature of our field makes it difficult to determine what the prerequisites necessary to engaging successfully in dissertation work really are. For this reason, the Warner School faculty as a whole has long decided that a "sit-in" written examination is not appropriate for our goals, and instead program areas should determine the form of examination within the following guidelines: "The comprehensive exam comes at the point in the student's program when he/she has completed the portfolio assessment with approval and completed most of the coursework for the degree. ... This examination should test the students' general and specialized knowledge of his/her field(s) in preparation for writing the dissertation proposal. ... The nature of the examination will be decided by the student and a committee of three faculty, usually composed of the advisor and at least one member from outside the program or cluster. ... [A]t least one component of the examination should be written. ... The committee chair files a plan for the examination which will be signed by the committee members and the student, approved by the Associate Dean, and filed in the Office of the Associate Dean. ... [T]hat plan has to be carried out within one year of the date of filing.” (excerpts from current Warner School program descriptions). In the remaining part of this document, the Teaching & Curriculum faculty has tried to articulate more specific guidelines to operationalize this structure for doctoral students within its programs. First of all, with respect to the process, we expect that:

• before beginning the comprehensive exam process, the student will have successfully completed the first portfolio requirement as well as most of the doctoral coursework at the Warner School, The student will have no more than 9 credits hours of coursework left in her/his program of study (exclusive of dissertation research credit hours).
  
• the student must submit the exam a minimum of three weeks before the year deadline (or any interim deadlines established by the committee) so as to give faculty adequate time to review the exam, meet together and write a response;
  
• if the student fails the exam, he/she has one chance to resubmit it, but the resubmission must also take place within the one‑year deadline or within three months from receiving notification of the exam evaluation (whichever is later)
  
• the committee will review the exam, meet and provide a written response within four weeks of each submission.
  
• Each completed question will be read and evaluated by two members of the committee according to the attached criteria established bythe T&C faculty.

• the student's ability to write in a coherent, clear and scholarly way,
  
• the student's ability to clearly articulate a research question of interest to him/her, and argue convincingly about its interest and significance for the field of education;
  
• the student's ability to write a literature review within his/her area of specialization, which is informed by a specific question and a theoretical position/s, and reflects knowledge of important theories and issues within that area of specialization;
  
• the student's adequate knowledge of research methods appropriate to his/her area of specialization.

• Educational Problem : Students identify an educational problem and articulate its significance. The comp question should lead to a literature review that analyzes other research that has investigated this problem and finds what remains to be asked/researched.
  
• Theoretical Framework : This literature review should “point” to the theoretical framework the student will use in his/her dissertation proposal by analyzing the frameworks that have been used to research the problem of focus.
  
• Research methodology/methods : This question should afford the student an opportunity to analyze the methodology and research methods used to investigate the problem of focus. The literature review should point to the research design/methods to be used in the dissertation study.

Student's ability to write in a coherent, clear and scholarly way:

• the reader can understand the points the student is trying to convey
• arguments are logical and well constructed
• appropriate evidence is provided in support of claims made
• material is well organized
• quality and style of writing is appropriate for a scholarly paper
• references are done according to one of the established formats
• document is free of grammatical and mechanical errors
• ideas are well conceived, writing flows well, transitions are used appropriately
  

Student's ability to clearly articulate a research question of interest to his/her and argue convincingly about its interest and significance for the field of education:

• a research question is clearly stated
• its major implications (i.e., what it really means) are articulated
• its relationship with other relevant problems/topics is made explicit
• the theoretical/conceptual framework informing that question is made explicit
• why the question is worth studying is made explicit, and justifications provided in support to the claim made
• question/s is appropriate given the fields investigated
  

Student's ability to write a literature review within his/her area of specialization, which is informed by a specific question and a theoretical position, and reflects knowledge of important theories within that area of specialization:

• the literature review is not simply a list summarizing research studies done on a given topic, but rather is clearly informed by a specific question
• the literature review addresses what significant prior research has been done to address the chosen question (and/or closely related problems)
• relevant research to the chosen question has been examined (i.e,, the literature review is sufficiently thorough and deep)
• the literature review provides a frame to make sense of the chosen question
• the contributions of specific studies to making sense of the chosen question are made explicit, and these claims are appropriately supported and contextualized with respect to the theoretical framework assumed by the specific study examined understanding of key relevant theories in the field of specialization –is demonstrated through the review of specific studies
• conclusions are drawn about the state of the art on the chosen question
• implications are drawn about areas where further research seems needed
  

Student's adequate knowledge of research methods appropriate to his/her area of specialization:

• some appropriate method(s) to approach a chosen research question have been appropriately identified and described
• the appropriateness of these methods (given the question) has been explicitly discussed and justifications provided
• (possible) data collection and analysis procedures have been explicitly identified and justified (addressing issues of accountability, trustworthiness and transferability)
• limitations of the study are explicitly identified and discussed
• (if a pilot project has been conducted) data have been reported in a meaningful and understandable way
• (if a pilot project has been conducted) data analysis has been conducted appropriately according to the chosen methodology
• (if a pilot project has been conducted) results have been reported in a meaningful and understandable way