A teacher in India who wants to teach in the United States; a speech pathologist who works with autistic children; a medical sales office manager who dreams of helping high school students develop communication skills; a nurse in Canada, who hopes to teach English as a second language. Those are just some of the people who are asking about Southeastern Louisiana University's new Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree.
"We've heard from five or six lawyers, an anthropologist, criminal justice and math majors, an accountant," said Bill Neal, assistant dean of the Southeastern College of Education and Human Development. "I've got a stack of e-mail messages, some of them from as far away as Alaska and Japan."
The new graduate degree, one of four advanced degrees added at Southeastern this year, debuts this summer, when the first two courses will be offered on campus and online.
The MAT will lead to dual certification in elementary education and special education or certification in secondary education in 11 specialty areas. The new program is already attracting the attention of both classroom teachers who need public school certification and non-education majors who want a career change, Neal said.
The MAT will be an asset to uncertified classroom teachers, who can take the entire two-year program via the Internet, said Rosanna Boyd. Boyd, who helped design the degree, is coordinating the $1.8 million federal grant that is funding the development of online courses.
"Southeastern is the state's second largest provider of distance education," said President Randy Moffett. "This new program will allow us to reach a greater number of potential teachers in a manner that conveniently allows them to meet their academic goals. This will not only impact the need for qualified, certified teachers in Louisiana, but in the nation as well."
Under Southeastern's previous alternative teacher certification program, non-certified teachers had to leave their classrooms, even quit their jobs, while they completed program requirements such as student teaching, Neal said.
Although the Internet version of the program will not be available to non-education graduates, many courses will be offered at night, a convenience for professionals switching to the teaching profession, Boyd said.
Whether they are currently in the classroom or want to be in the future, all the would-be certified teachers like the fact that the program offers both certification and an advanced degree, Neal said.
Southeastern, along with all Louisiana universities, was directed by the state's Blue Ribbon Commission on Teacher Accountability to redesign its alternative teacher education programs. Some universities have chosen to adopt practitioner teacher programs, but Southeastern chose the master's degree route, Neal said. Southeastern's program is the only one in the state offered via the Internet to uncertified classroom teachers.
Neal said the Board of Regents has authorized the university to waive out-of-state tuition fees on six hours of coursework for Internet participants.
"It expands the academic credibility of our certification program," Neal said. "We had the opportunity to completely design a new program from the ground up."
The MAT degree offers a 39-hour program in elementary education (grades 1-6) and special education (grades 1-12) and a 36-hour program in secondary education (grades 7-12) in the areas of English, Spanish, French, music, social studies, health and physical education, home economics, physics, biology, chemistry and mathematics.
To be admitted, would-be certified teachers must have a bachelor's degree with a 2.5 grade point average, and must past the PRAXIS I examination and the PRAXIS II exam in the subject matter they wish to teach.
Candidates from foreign countries must have the equivalent of a regionally accredited United States baccalaureate degree and must submit credentials to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), Office of International Education Services, Neal said.
Neal said Southeastern plans to market the program nationwide, where some 300,000 new teachers will be needed over the next three years. In Louisiana it is estimated that more than 14 percent of the teaching force has not completed teacher certification requirements and are teaching in fields for which they are not appropriately certified.
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