The College of Education at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa has two doctoral degrees: the PhD in educational psychology and the PhD in education. Both degrees have been in existence for over 30 years. The PhD in education, however, began its life as the EdD and was renamed the PhD in 1999. As two of the articles in this issue make clear (Johnsrud and Banaria, McCarty and Ortloff), doctoral degrees have come under increasing scrutiny at the national level. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, for example, has recently initiated a program to study doctoral degrees with the aim of helping university departments restructure their programs in six different fields of study: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Thus, the moment is an opportune one to invite a closer look at University of Hawai'i's doctoral programs in education. This article describes the events and conditions that have given shape to these two degrees from the period of their inception to the present date. (Contains 1 footnote.)