Longwood University has re-launched their renovated off-campus Elementary Education Masters Program. Candidates who complete this program will receive a Masters of Science in elementary education from the university.
This program was once available in he past and was pulled back out of storage in 2008 by faculty members Dr. Nancy Powers, Dr. Katrina Maynard, Dr. Sara Miller, Dr. Sarah South- all and Dr. Steve Whitaker, with Dr. Wayne White, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, as heir overseer.
“When we pulled it out of storage, we asked ourselves what can we do with this program to make it better and user friendly and something hat our students, when they graduate, would like to do as well as teachers that are already in the field,” said Powers, Elementary Education coordinator. The program will be delivered in a format so that recent graduate students and practicing teachers can complete their masters in one year.
Students can take three classes per semester. It is considered a full-time load, which allows of the availability of financial aid. However, the classes are being delivered one at a time. Each class has five weeks and is in hybrid form.
Faculty has also added some classes that are considered to be more spe- cific to “now.” For example, one of the classes offered will be focused on handing diversity, another focuses on gifted learners and special educa- tion students and another curriculum class was added as well.
“We feel that it’s more user-friend- ly this way,” said Powers. “We’ve geared it toward what teachers are already doing in the classroom. They are given assessments that directly relate to their classroom. Other par- ticipants work alongside a teacher for one semester, giving them access to students. As you can see, it’s a lot of theory to practice.”
The current cohort, or the headquarters, of the program is Prince Edward Career Center. The center will be streaming the program to other ar- eas. According to White, there are approximately 15 to 20 students in the program at this time. The next cohort will take place in the summer with the same amount of students expected.
“We have already seen an increase in numbers of interest than what we had in the program previously,” said White. “However, I can tell you that we have already seen a 15 percent improvement in classroom attendance as well as more discussion among colleagues in regards to discussing their classrooms and the techniques they use within it.”
Faculty members overseeing this program are continuing to look at data in hopes to capture anything else that they can improve. When looking at data, they pay attention to how well the students that our student teachers are working with are doing in the field, they are capturing what their student teachers think about what they’re doing in the field, they are capturing what the supervisors think about what the students are do- ing in the field.
They hope to continue to improve both thier lab school and their program in its entirety.
White said, “It’s a complication of things that we can do better. It does not have to be one thing that is going wrong. If it was one it would be a quick easy fix."
White added," I don’t think anyone has ever found that silver bullet that works for having someone to learn, and I think we’re looking for that silver bullet. We might find it, and I hope we continue to improve as we try to find it.”
