Facing Reality as We Embrace the Challenge of Overhauling K-12 Education, Part Four

Part Four: Very Few K-12 Teachers Earn Master’s Degrees from Departments in Academic Discipline

A key member of the Department of History at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) looked away for a moment, searching her memory bank. “No, I can’t think of any in the last ten years or so.”

This answer came in response to my question, “Can you think of any graduate students who aspire to be K-12 teachers who have been in your program in recent memory?”

In the case of the history department, her answer was fully anticipated. For at least ten years, the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) Department of History has had no terminal master’s degree. This means that all graduate students in history enroll with the intention of seeking the Ph. D., typically for the purpose of gaining the expertise expected for one teaching at universities or four-year colleges. If these aspirants have their programs interrupted for some reason, and have studied sufficiently into their programs, professors in the department may agree to grant such a student a master’s degree. But no graduate student in the history department starts out seeking the master’s.

This is now a common situation at the University of Minnesota. The same essential situation prevailing for history applies to the departments of political science, sociology, and chemistry. The departments of biological sciences, economics, physics, and English do have terminal master’s degrees, but no one connected to graduate studies in the those departments remembers any student in recent memory who was aspiring to, or proceeded to, teach in a K-12 system.

“Why would a graduate student seek a terminal master’s degree, since all universities and four-year colleges these days require their professors to have the Ph. D.?” I asked an administrator for the graduate program in English at the University of Minnesota.

“Usually, our master’s students want to get editing positions for journals or businesses. They are seeking positions for which advanced training in English is helpful.”

“But you can’t remember any master’s students who were intending to teach in K-12 schools?” I continued.

“Not in our program. Those students get their master’s degrees in the College of Education and Human Development,” she replied.

An Exceptional Case of High Quality--- But Not Often Sought--- Master’s Degree for Teachers

An interesting situation exists in the math department. In that department at the University of Minnesota, there are actually four different terminal master’s programs. One is for students who will eventually go on to the Ph. D.; conceivably, a student might stop at the M. S. level, but this is rare. Unlike the situation prevailing in many other departments, though, doctoral students are given a master’s of science (M. S.) degree before they advance to the doctoral level. Two other degrees are for clearly professional purposes: an M. S. in industrial and applied mathematics, and an M. S. in mathematics for finance.

And then there is the M. S. granted through the Center for Education Programs, also part of this math department. This program was established almost twenty years ago to give aspiring K-12 and community college teachers an authentic, scholarly training program in mathematics.

“We typically have two to five students in this program,” a math faculty member replied to a question of mine about the annual enrollment. “Right now we have four.”

“How many of those intend to teach in K-12?” I asked.

“Two of the four,” he responded.

“Where do most aspiring K-12 teachers get their master’s degrees in math for the purpose of improving their credentials and place on the pay scale?” I continued.

“The College of Education and Human Development,” the professor replied.

He went on to describe a very mathematically rigorous program for prospective teachers, a course of study that includes numerous 5000 and 8000 level courses that range far beyond calculus and differential equations in difficulty. Those courses include, for example, Theoretical Neuroscience, Dynamical Systems and Chaos, Stochastic Processes, Manifolds and Topology, and Calculus of Variations and Minimal Surfaces.

The course of study in the mathematics education program granted from the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Minnesota is very different from that in the program in the math department. A graduate studies administrator in the CEHD described that program for me, citing courses such as “algebraic structures for teachers” and “geometric structures for teachers” that were as mathematically rigorous as the education college program gets.

Typical Route to a Master’s Degree for Teachers--- Lacking in Academic Rigor

For people matriculating at the University of Minnesota, those aspiring to be high school teachers first get a bachelor’s degree in a major disciplinary field such as math, biology, physics, anthropology, or English. Then, upon graduating, students must enter the master’s degree program, which runs three semesters in duration. The first two semesters feature coursework with a mostly pedagogic emphasis. The third semester finds the prospective teacher in a fulltime internship (practice teaching), taking just a course or two (typically online). Upon successfully completing this program, the person is granted both a master’s of education (M. Ed.) degree and a teaching license.

This helps to explain why the number of terminal master’s degrees is diminishing at the University of Minnesota. Prospective high school teachers essentially must enter the M. Ed. program to gain licensure. The only case of an academic department that works in cooperation with the College of Education and Human Development to provide its own teacher training program is the math department, M. S. recipients of which also are approved for teaching licensure.

Thus, there is much incentive for aspiring teachers to move into the education college upon getting a bachelor’s degree, and either much disincentive or curtailed possibility to pursue a master’s degree in an academic department.

Corroborating Data from the Minneapolis Pubic Schools

One sees the impact of this in today’s centralized K-12 districts such as the Minneapolis Public Schools. Data provided by that school district’s department of human resources for the seven high schools of Edison, Henry, North, Roosevelt, South, Southwest, and Washburn indicate that there are 248 staff members teaching math, English, science, and social studies. Of those 248 teachers, 132 hold master’s degrees, almost all of them granted in schools, colleges, or departments of education.

Personnel in the human resources department at the Minneapolis Public Schools have not heretofore made any distinction as to the department granting the master’s degree for teachers. Since any accredited master’s degree, whether in education or an academic discipline, gains a teacher advancement up the “step and lane” system, those working at human resources have simplified their tasks to what is absolutely necessary.

That 132 teachers at these schools hold master’s degrees of some kind is as close to specificity as human resources data get. Teacher websites at five of the mainline high schools, though, provide useful information in distinguishing master’s degree by department in which coursework was completed. The websites at Henry and North high schools are not helpful, but those at South, Southwest, and Washburn are serviceable, and those at Edison and Roosevelt are quite good.

Data at teacher websites for those five schools show eight (8) teachers who indicate that they hold master’s degrees from subject area departments relevant to their teaching fields, rather than holding the more typical master’s degree from a program in education; a teacher at Edison actually holds a Ph. D. in chemistry. There may be teachers holding master’s degrees in academic fields who did not record this information, but the data on the websites is highly suggestive.

At the five indicated high schools, there are a total of 210 teachers, 101 of whom (48.10% of the total) have master’s degrees. If just nine (9) of those teachers hold master’s degrees (or above) from academic departments, that would mean that just 4.29% of all teachers hold academic graduate degrees, and that of teachers holding a master’s, only 8.91% hold academic master’s (or above) degrees.

A situation in which not even 10% of all teachers hold master’s degrees granted in university departments such as math, physics, history, economics, and English, rather than in education schools, colleges, and departments seems entirely consistent with the graduate studies situation currently manifest at the University of Minnesota. Prospective teachers cannot hold degrees that do not exist (because of the trend away from terminal master’s degrees).

Further, in a system that overwhelmingly encourages teachers to pursue licensure through an education program, rather than through completion of an academically rigorous degree program such as that in the department of mathematics, also strongly indicates that most teachers hold their master’s degrees (typically M. Ed.) from education programs rather than holding master’s degrees (typically M. A. or M . S.) from academic departments.

For those interested in teacher quality in the Minneapolis Public Schools and other districts, questions related to the type of master’s degrees held by teachers are likely to produce intense discussion.

K-12 Students Deserve So Much More in Terms of Academic Preparation of Teachers

The weakness of master’s degrees typically sought by teachers means that those pursuing these academically insubstantial degrees move into a more favorable position in the “step and lane” system of remuneration, which rewards teachers merely for years of experience and additional academic credentials acquired.

These formal additional credentials are acquired in weak programs, gain colleges and universities overseeing the relevant programs great sums in tuition revenue, and allow the educators acquiring these non-rigorous degrees to gain more remuneration. But they add very little, if any, content knowledge that a degree in a legitimate discipline (biology, math, literature, art, history) would provide, and they enhance teacher efficacy not one whit.

Our students deserve academically more knowledgeable teachers. They deserve so much more.

Facing this circumstance is one of the many hard realities that we must confront as we turn from the normal distractions and focus on the real issues that will move the revolution in K-12 education forward as we advance through the Second Stage of the Civil Rights Movement.