This week’s Chronicle of Higher Education features a story about Arthur Levine, President of the Columbia University Teacher’s College, and a somewhat controversial report he wrote back in March 2005. The report focuses on the education of school leaders. Levine’s suggestion to eliminate the Ed.D. degree caused a particularly strong reaction from education schools. Many academic librarians, certainly those in administration, are themselves holders of the Ed.D. While I think Levine’s argument for some sort of M.B.A. in education curriculum for those who want to be K-12 administrators makes sense, I would argue that the Ed.D. should continue on as a valuable degree for higher education administrators. For one thing, most Ed.D. programs will have a track in higher education administration that offer a good mix of theoretical (e.g., governance, history) and practical (strategic planning, statistics, law) courses that will enable a library administrator to have a far better understanding of higher education institutions. But is writing a dissertation of much value? How does that help an academic librarian? The other good thing about the Ed.D (and perhaps as opposed to the Ph.D.) is that the dissertation project can focus on a practical administrative topic. The research could involve quantitative or qualitative methods, or both. That alone does a better job of preparing academic librarians to conduct research and write it up. I think anyone who perseveres through the dissertation process will be far more confident when tackling research for publication and presentation. While I doubt Levine’s report will bring an end to the Ed.D, for K-12 or academic administrators, I hope those who read the report or the Chronicle article will remember that the Ed.D isn’t just for K-12 principals. It’s a degree with merit for academic librarians who want to pursue administrative opportunties – or who just wish to be better students of higher education.