Teacher Quality, Part Two >>>>> The Disappearing Legitimate Master's Degree for K-12 Teachers

Disciplines Very few K-12 teachers earn master’s degrees from departments of legitimate academic disciplines.


Consider my conversation of August 2014 with the person who at that time was Chair of the History Department at the University of Minnesota:


I asked her,


“Can you think of any graduate students who aspire to be K-12 teachers who have been in your program in recent memory?”


“No, I can’t think of any in the last ten years or so.”


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.


Of the administrator for the graduate program in English at the University of Minnesota, I inquired:


“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.?”


“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 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 masters 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 by a mathematics department professor who wanted to give aspiring K-12 and community college teachers an authentic, scholarly training program in mathematics. I spoke with the current director Center for Education Programs of in August 2014.


“We typically have two to five students in this program,” this professor 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 director said.


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 at the University of Minnesota is very different from that in the mathematics department program:


A key graduate studies administrator in the college of Education and Human Development 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.


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.


One sees the impact of this in today’s centralized K-12 districts such as the Minneapolis Public Schools:


The Lack of Legitimate Master’s Degrees in the Minneaplis Public Schools


Data provided to me in 2014 by that school district’s department of human resources for the seven high schools of Edison, Henry, North, Roosevelt, South, Southwest, and Washburn indicated that there were at that time 248 staff members teaching math, English, science, and social studies. Of those 248 teachers, 132 held 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 held master’s degrees of some kind was as close to specificity as human resources data got in my requested data collection.


Teacher websites at five of the mainline high schools, though, provided useful information in distinguishing master’s degree by department in which coursework was completed. The websites at Henry and North high schools was not helpful, but those at South, Southwest, and Washburn were serviceable, and those at Edison and Roosevelt were quite good. Data at teacher websites for those five schools showed eight (8) teachers who indicated that they held 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 held a Ph. D. in chemistry.


There may have been teachers holding master’s degrees in academic fields who did not record this information, but the data on the websites was highly suggestive. At the five indicated high schools, there was a total of 210 teachers, 101 of whom (48.10% of the total) had master’s degrees. If just nine (9) of those teachers held master’s degrees (or above) from academic departments, that would mean that just 4.29% of all teachers held academic graduate degrees, and that of teachers holding a master’s, only 8.91% held 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.


The essential situation that weighs against teachers obtaining degrees in legitimate subject area disciplines has not changed over the last two years.


Those interested in teacher quality in the Minneapolis Public Schools must be concerned that almost no teachers as we greet February 2016 earn master’s degrees in legitimate academic disciplines.