College of Education establishes new Master of Education with Reading Specialty
Janel Shoun |
With more attention turning to children’s literacy and Tennessee implementing new common core academic standards, Lipscomb University’s College of Education announces the creation of a new graduate program designed to help schools meet the growing demands.
The Master of Education with Reading Specialty will not only prepare a teacher to become a reading specialist in the schools, it will also incorporate the new common core standards into course instruction and provide leadership training for all participants, said Nina Morel, director of the new master’s program.
The 36-hour master’s program is open to licensed teachers looking to earn Tennessee’s endorsement as a reading specialist in preK-12. The program can be completed in less than two years with courses held in the evenings, online and on some weekends.
Applications for the Master of Education with Reading Specialty are due by July 20 for the fall semester. Classes will start in August.
“What we are seeing in schools today is that reading specialists – who work one-on-one with students or team-teach with other teachers, are doing a lot of mentoring and coaching with their colleagues. They are becoming more than reading specialists, but actual school leaders in literacy,” said Morel. “This program recognizes that fact and focuses on preparing today’s reading specialist how to be a good collaborator and how to set up an effective literacy program.”
Lipscomb’s College of Education is gaining national recognition for its teacher coaching program carried out at Cameron Middle School in Nashville for the past two school years. And Morel, who established a successful instructional coaching program in Sumner County schools, literally wrote the book on teacher coaching: “How to Build an Instructional Coaching Program for Maximum Capacity.”
“We have seen a lot of inquiries for a reading specialty program, probably spurred by the federal Race to the Top program bringing new resources to Tennessee’s schools and the state implementing its new common core academic standards,” said Candice McQueen, dean of the College of Education. “We wanted to make our program one that would prepare teachers not only to focus on literacy, but would also develop teachers into leaders who can improve literacy instruction throughout the school. That’s the way schools can meet new requirements effectively and improve student achievement.”
The Master of Education with Reading Specialty will take a balanced approach to literacy, the diagnosis and remediation of reading disabilities, best practices and the leadership skills essential for mentoring and coaching success.
All working teachers receive a 26 percent in-service discount on tuition at Lipscomb University’s College of Education.
Those interested in the reading specialty program can contact Kristin Baese at 615.966.5173.
About the College of Education
Lipscomb University’s College of Education (COE) is a known leader and innovator in education in the state of Tennessee. The college was cited as one of the best university teacher preparation program in the state in the Tennessee Higher Education Commission’s 2011 Tennessee Teacher Preparation Program Report Card when comparing the school’s graduates with veteran teachers.
The COE offers undergraduate and graduate programs that enable candidates to teach in 24 different subject areas with students from kindergarten to high school. More than 500 students are currently enrolled in graduate education programs at Lipscomb and at three off-campus sites. The college’s programs are fully accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Tennessee State Board of Education.
Lipscomb’s COE is also the professional development provider in the first public-school-to-charter-school transformation in Tennessee: Cameron Middle School in Nashville. The partnership is creating a nationally recognized body of research on embedded professional development and instructional coaching for PreK-12 schools and is drawing strong regional and national interest.