There is a growing trend among universities to regard the offering of a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree as a necessary element in efforts to improve the status of the university. This paper discusses reasons for the rapid expansion of Ed.D. programs, the likely results of this phenomenon, and what this trend means for school administrators in the field. The increase in the number of institutions that offer the Ed.D. in educational administration has been partly influenced by the National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPB) which has advocated the doctorate as a prerequisite for entry in the educational administration profession and for national certification of educational administrators. Analysis of state certification standards reveals that there is little agreement regarding administrator licensure criteria. To ascertain the response of professors of educational administration to the recommendations of the NPB, questionnaires were sent to 176 professors from master's level institutions, 228 from sixth year or specialist institutions, and 288 from institutions offering the doctorate. Analysis of the data (65 percent return rate) indicated that professors from master's and specialist programs tend to be in greater opposition to requiring the doctorate for licensure than professors from institutions offering the terminal degree. A total of 51.7 percent of the respondents disagree with the concept of a national board issuing a certification examination. (IAH)