Sherri Ybarra’s campaign spokeswoman, Melinda Nothern, said today that Ybarra had hoped to earn her doctorate in education by August, but instead changed her course of study and applied some of her credits toward an educational specialist degree, which she received in August. “She’s still enrolled and still working toward her doctorate,” Nothern said.

The university couldn’t immediately confirm that. The issue arose after Ybarra, who is running for Idaho state superintendent of schools, said throughout her campaign that she expected to receive her doctorate in August, then appeared to refer on her campaign website to the degree she did receive in August as a type of doctoral degree, though it was an educational specialist degree. Nothern said, “She still has a dissertation to do, she’s still actively going to pursue that, is pursuing that.”

University spokeswoman Andrea Barlow has confirmed that in the summer semester of 2014, Ybarra was enrolled in both the educational specialist program and the Ed.D doctorate program. In the spring semester of 2014, however, and in all semesters prior to that, she was enrolled only in the educational specialist program.