Lamar's new program sets itself apart in convenience and cost: Students take one five-week course at a time and finish a dozen required courses in 18 months, shorter than many traditional master's programs designed for working teachers.
They take all their courses on a computer – watching videos of lectures and doing assignments – and pay just $4,950, less than half the price of most education master's degrees in Texas.
I don't care if it's a diploma mill. Degrees in education are next to useless anyway. The only reason to get one is to "move over" on the salary scale.
6 comments:
I agree. I didn't learn anything I use now in grad school. I just got the master's to get the pay raise. Do it the easy way.
Yeah, I have a few, I just do not want to write the big paper, ever. My first I still use, the second is in History, but I only taught 2 years in High School, the rest in middle, so that does not help. Third, I used to get my current position, and the last to….yes, reach the far right side of the pay scale and learn something for me.. In Nevada we also get to use inservice credits to step over, so at 25$ a credit, that’s the cheap way.
Lamar has done a great job promoting their degrees through various district websites in Texas. My district doesn't accept it for administrative purposes. I do like the price, which is about one third as much as state or private universities. I also like the pace in five week classes that fit better into a teaching schedule.
I got my masters while teaching, and I was swamped with work but loved being able to apply immediately what I learned. However, the price tag was awful. And still is.
As a teacher, I have zero respect for fellow teachers who do not get master's degrees in their academic teaching subjects. A master's in education (or, as the online program popular among my colleagues is called: "Master's in the Art of Teaching") should be an embarrassment to all who hold it. If you have no intellectual interest in your teaching area, you have no business teaching it. Wouldn't it be something if school districts -- under the guise of addressing the "achievement gap" -- only gave raises to those who earned subject-area master's degrees? Of course, that would have the added benefit of putting the all-powerful but worthless schools of education out of business.
I don't see how having a master's degree will make me a better algebra teacher.
For my line of work, a master's degree in wholly unnecessary. Attach it to a few dollars, though, and I'll take the easiest route to get there, as have so many others.
Tie that dollar to student achievement, though--then I'd have to work for it.
The dollar is attached to a proxy for student achievement--a flawed proxy.
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