Although they are both doctoral education degrees, the focus and curriculum of an Ed.D. and a Ph.D. in Education are distinctly different. An Ed.D. is designed for those who want to assume leadership positions in educational settings, so programs focus on teaching students how to identify high-level problems in this field and develop practical solutions to implement. The Ph.D. in Education, by contrast, is designed for those who intend to conduct original research and contribute to the body of literature on education, possibly while they teach at the college level. Courses in these programs concentrate on the use of various methods to gather and analyze data.