Random, Thoughts, X,XXIV

#16,357
#16,357
vol445 said:
The reason I asked was she wants to teach college but can’t get a English master there. Would have to do master of education

@GordonC
Click to expand...

I just now saw this. I never got this notification and haven't been on much lately. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.

tl;dr

It’s definitely a double-edged sword. If she gets the degree immediately, she will have the degree when she begins her career, and it’s never easy to go “back to school” once someone has started working, especially if she has a family of her own. On the other hand, getting the degree now means she will command a higher salary, and a school board might want to get by spending as little as it can and hire someone lesser qualified. I know numerous people who say they wish they gotten their M.A. degrees before they started and people who’ve had a difficult time getting a job after they got the M.A. I am sorry I cannot give you a clear position on this. A lot of it depends on budgets, timing, and a combination of the two. I know there are a lot of funds for schools right now because of the pandemic. I am not sure how much of that can go to “new hires.” One thing we have all learned in the past year (and it’s unbelievable that more people didn’t realize this before) is the value of adaptability, not only in education but in every area of life. If I were a new teacher, I would look at finding as many cheap/free “certifications” in technology as I could find and getting those endorsements. I got online specialist training in like 2005, and it has opened doors for me in terms of being contracted to design online courses and materials “on the side” (a nice supplementary income). If she can get that M.A. in one year and if she is not too occupied with that coursework and work, she might be well-advised to get an Online Specialist certification. Of course, that is not a terminal degree, but some school systems include non-terminal degrees on their salary scale (“Reading Specialist,” for example). It really depends on the system.

The Master of Education would give her some versatility in terms of employment, but it would probably be at the elementary level. I can't speak to how every state is doing the licensure thing now, but in Virginia if a teacher passes the Praxis II for a subject, that teacher is considered "highly qualified" to teach that subject in secondary education. That preceded the pandemic, and I don't know if or when that will change or how things are in your area. If she's considering an M.A. in English, that tells me that she is probably more interested in teaching secondary school than elementary school. Teachers with decent content knowledge, especially in English and math, are very difficult to find, especially ones who actually understand and can communicate certain skills (grammar, for example). An M.A. in English would be required if she ever wanted to teach dual-enrollment classes, because the accreditation process for the colleges requires that teachers who are teaching those classes either have the M.A. or are making "reasonable progress" toward a degree *in that field*. My M.A. and doctoral work are in History, and I taught dual-enrollment English for ten years or so because I was a licensed teacher with an undergraduate major and area of licensure in that subject. Because I had an M.A. degree, it was not a problem for me to teach dual-enrollment English until about six or seven years ago. At that point, the community colleges offering dual-enrollment courses (at least the ones using SACS as their accrediting agency) began requiring the degree in that field. That took away some of the versatility that a Master of Education would have provided not long ago at the secondary level.

I would emphasize to your daughter that no matter what decision she makes, she needs to be certain to have a good liability umbrella policy once she begins her career. She can accomplish this without joining one of the large teachers' unions. I don’t know if the NEA and AFT have made inroads into the colleges to enroll prospective teachers or not.

I will be glad to help you all I can with this, brother.
 
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#16,360
#16,360
GordonC said:
I just now saw this. I never got this notification and haven't been on much lately. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you.

tl;dr

It’s definitely a double-edged sword. If she gets the degree immediately, she will have the degree when she begins her career, and it’s never easy to go “back to school” once someone has started working, especially if she has a family of her own. On the other hand, getting the degree now means she will command a higher salary, and a school board might want to get by spending as little as it can and hire someone lesser qualified. I know numerous people who say they wish they gotten their M.A. degrees before they started and people who’ve had a difficult time getting a job after they got the M.A. I am sorry I cannot give you a clear position on this. A lot of it depends on budgets, timing, and a combination of the two. I know there are a lot of funds for schools right now because of the pandemic. I am not sure how much of that can go to “new hires.” One thing we have all learned in the past year (and it’s unbelievable that more people didn’t realize this before) is the value of adaptability, not only in education but in every area of life. If I were a new teacher, I would look at finding as many cheap/free “certifications” in technology as I could find and getting those endorsements. I got online specialist training in like 2005, and it has opened doors for me in terms of being contracted to design online courses and materials “on the side” (a nice supplementary income). If she can get that M.A. in one year and if she is not too occupied with that coursework and work, she might be well-advised to get an Online Specialist certification. Of course, that is not a terminal degree, but some school systems include non-terminal degrees on their salary scale (“Reading Specialist,” for example). It really depends on the system.

The Master of Education would give her some versatility in terms of employment, but it would probably be at the elementary level. I can't speak to how every state is doing the licensure thing now, but in Virginia if a teacher passes the Praxis II for a subject, that teacher is considered "highly qualified" to teach that subject in secondary education. That preceded the pandemic, and I don't know if or when that will change or how things are in your area. If she's considering an M.A. in English, that tells me that she is probably more interested in teaching secondary school than elementary school. Teachers with decent content knowledge, especially in English and math, are very difficult to find, especially ones who actually understand and can communicate certain skills (grammar, for example). An M.A. in English would be required if she ever wanted to teach dual-enrollment classes, because the accreditation process for the colleges requires that teachers who are teaching those classes either have the M.A. or are making "reasonable progress" toward a degree *in that field*. My M.A. and doctoral work are in History, and I taught dual-enrollment English for ten years or so because I was a licensed teacher with an undergraduate major and area of licensure in that subject. Because I had an M.A. degree, it was not a problem for me to teach dual-enrollment English until about six or seven years ago. At that point, the community colleges offering dual-enrollment courses (at least the ones using SACS as their accrediting agency) began requiring the degree in that field. That took away some of the versatility that a Master of Education would have provided not long ago at the secondary level.

I would emphasize to your daughter that no matter what decision she makes, she needs to be certain to have a good liability umbrella policy once she begins her career. She can accomplish this without joining one of the large teachers' unions. I don’t know if the NEA and AFT have made inroads into the colleges to enroll prospective teachers or not.

I will be glad to help you all I can with this, brother.
Click to expand...
Thanks. She really wants an English masters plus her advisor finally said neither degree they offer would allow her to teach college level so I think she is going to work towards her professional license and do masters in English online
 
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#16,370
#16,370
Great news for @Souce . Bennifer may be reuniting. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have been spotted hanging out again after she separated from Alex Rodriguez. Souce is gonna be over the moon.
 
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