TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) – Florida A&M University’s College of Education has received approval from the Board of Trustees to offer a Master of Education degree in curriculum and instruction beginning this fall.
The curriculum and instruction master’s program is designed to address the State University System’s goal of increasing productivity and efficiency, along with addressing the need for more highly-trained teachers.
“This is a result of area superintendents and their school districts expressing to us their need to have highly-trained teachers in the area of curriculum and instruction," the College's Interim Dean Patricia Green-Powell said.
The new program has been more than three years in the making and is designed to train future and current educators in a variety of career tracks through several specialization options, including concentrations on instruction, learning and assessment, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
These career tracks range from curriculum generalists, specialists and supervisors to district curriculum coordinators, school administrators and non-school based curriculum designers or evaluators.
The program will also offer an opportunity for enrollees to specialize in educating historically underserved students.
“We’ve listened to the needs of our students who want to pursue jobs in this area and this program will train them to address the needs of areas highly concentrated with minority students,” Green-Powell said.
Enrollment and recruitment projections predict that at least 20 students will be enrolled within the program's first year, and by its fifth year at least 60 students will have enrolled in the program.
There are currently six faculty members who are already credentialed and prepared to serve as inaugural instructors for the program.
Participating students will be required to maintain a cumulative 3.0 GPA, pass the master’s degree comprehension exam, make an action research presentation as a component of a capstone requisite and complete 30 semester hours.
