Education Graduate Programs - Virtual Information Session

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Well, thank you all so much for attending today. My name is Jen Radwanski and I'm the Associate Director for Graduate Admissions here at Stockton University. And I am joined by my colleagues in the School of Education to share a little bit more about our Masters of Arts in Education program along with our teaching endorsements as well as our alternate route program. So just a few housekeeping items. If you are watching this live, there is a chat feature on the right hand side of your screen. Please feel free to use that to ask any additional.

We would encourage you to ask questions towards the end as we have a full presentation for you that will probably answer all of your questions. But if we don't, like I said, we would be happy to take some time at the end of the session to to answer those questions. We also encourage you not to put anything of a personal nature into the chat because again, this is being recorded and it will be shared with a very large audience later on. So please hopefully think of a personal nature in there. If you do have personal questions, we are going to give you our contact information.

You can reach out to us and then we can assist you further from there. So with that being said, I'm going to turn things over to you. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Hello everyone. Uh, my name is Doctor Kim Lee Back. I am the chair of the MAD program and I am joined here by Doctor Susan Kytis, who is the associate chair of the MAD program. And today we are gonna be walking through, umm, some information around the MAD program, hoping that this will be will it be something that you're interested in doing?

So I'm gonna just start and I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about our mission, and Doctor Kittis and I will be going back and forth giving you all the information.

To really help you make a decision if Stockton University's MAD program is right for you.

So the Master of Arts in Education program, which is known as our MAED program, is designed to support educators to successfully impact student learning. So one of the things about the MAID program is we are for practicing teachers. So everybody who comes into our program.

Has either gone through a traditional teacher education program and has either a certificate of eligibility with advanced standing or a standard certification, or has a certificate of eligibility and is going to be going the alternate route to teaching. So when you're in classes, you're going to be in classes with other people who have already gone through a certification program or are in the classroom.

During the MAD program, students will strengthen content knowledge.

Learn new instructional strategies to meet the needs of diverse students in the classroom and develop his teacher researchers.

Uh, hello everyone. I'm happy to be here today to share a little bit about our program, but just to continue off, based off what umm, Dr. Liebach just shared with you, umm, through our MAED program, you can choose to complete your Masters of Art in Education or you can do an endorsement which provides additional career opportunities. Now, sometimes when we think about the concept of an endorsement, what we're really talking about is an additional certification. What's really nice about this?

It opens additional doors for you. It makes you more flexible, more versatile for your district. You may find that you know you're interested in supporting students in other areas. So adding additional endorsements, additional certifications to your to your initial certification can be a good way to really help make yourself marketable and versatile in the field. Now I always think about the fact that you know, you may choose to get started and then decide you.

Continue on to your masters. Before you know it, you may find I've got a couple of courses under my belt and I'm not far from completing my full masters. And sometimes that's a really great way to sort of inspire yourself to go ahead and attain that master's degree. Speaking from personal experience, when I started out, I said let me just take a graduate course or two and before I knew it, I was almost halfway to my masters and just continued right on. So you may find the same experience.

So if you choose to do a masters, umm, a full degree program. So we, we have the 2 tracks umm, The mad degree programs include the Content, Instruction and Assessment track which is really a track that allows for your own flexibility. You can decide what courses in interest are umm, really important to you and tailor a program to meet your own individual needs. We also have a degree program of special.

And or LDTC, we have a literacy and special reading specialist program, principal and supervision as our degree program. They're coupled together. And so when you go through the principal and supervision program, you come out with your master's degree and a principal certification and a supervision certification. And then we also have our alternate route to teaching that is for those that have a certificate of eligibility.

And a contracted teaching position that also can lead to a degree.

OK, so all of our degree programs are 36 credit programs, which is the equivalent to 12 classes. So you would have 12-3 credit classes. Each degree program has is made-up of the content, pedagogy and action research classes based on your specific area of practice. So the content instruction and assessment degree is a nice.

Degree program because it does allow you to tailor your degree.

To your own needs so you have the ability to sort of be a little bit versatile in the courses that you're taking. And then we also have the special education, the masters in special education or your masters of education with a specialization in special education. Another area would be your literacy or reading specialist. So you can get your master's degree and your reading specialist certification. And then we have the principal and supervision programs now all.

These would lead to both a certification and a master's degree, and that's a really nice feature of our programs.

Now you may be saying, I don't really want a full master's degree. I just want to get that additional certification. And so that is another option that we have in multiple areas. So 4 endorsements only. This is just getting that additional certification. We have ESL, we have bilingual bicultural, we have our LDTC program, we have special education. So that's the the teacher of students.

Disabilities. It's a stand alone program. We have the supervisor. So let's say you don't want to get principal, but you just want to get the supervisory endorsement. That is an option. We have the principal as its own just endorsement program, the reading specialist program, and then again an alternate route. You may choose to just do the certification and not get a full master's degree.

Is this, uh, is Jen jumping in here?

No, you can go ahead with this one.

Oh OK, did you want to advance the screen?

Oh, you did? Let me see if I can do that.

Umm, I did advance. It did. Are you not seeing it? Uh, I'll do it here.

Did it advance?

On my screen it did.

It did. OK, I'll just go from OK, so umm, let's talk a little bit about our endorsement programs. The MAED endorsement program is designed for teachers to earn a New Jersey Department of Education endorsement. So each endorsement program is based on the number of credits required for certification by the NJDOE, right? So if you're interested in the ESL certification, that would be.

Credit endorsement. The bilingual bicultural requires 12 credits. Now the teacher of students with disabilities is a 21 credit program and then our supervisory program is 12 credits. Now I always like to clarify that the supervisory program would give you the ability to supervise, let's say for example, a department like you could be the language arts supervisor or the supervisor of math and then our principal.

Endorsement is a 30 credit program. The Reading Specialist certification requires 30 credits and then alternate route for elementary is a 30 credit endorsement program and then alternate route for a secondary certification. AK12 would be a 24 credit program. Now the LDTC is A and that's learning disability. Teacher Consultant is a 26 credit program.

So, umm, again, you can couple these endorsements and all of the required credits would count toward a master's degree if you decided to continue on.

And so that's something that we were just talking about, one of the really nice things about any of our endorsement programs, you decide, oh, I'm just gonna do an endorsement, but you get done that endorsement and you say, hmm, I really wanna go ahead and get my masters degree. Those credits can always be used towards a full master's degree. And so that's a nice feature. This doesn't mean you have to go take additional courses to get a master's grade. It means that.

Can just continue right on and you can even take a break. I just was talking to a student today who said I'm going to take a break for a year, but then I've decided I really do want to get my masters degree. So those credits stay there and you'll be able to come back and complete that degree.

OK, so let me tell you a little bit about our alternate route program. All right, So the alternate route teacher certification program is designed for students with a certificate of eligibility and a teaching contract, right? So some of you may be in that position right now. So in our state, you can get what's referred to as a certificate of eligibility from the NJDOE and then when you've landed a teaching.

Job because you can teach with that certificate of eligibility. You would then enter an alternate route teacher education program and this is a 2 year program that would enable you to complete your licensure and become a certified teacher. So initial certifications in the alternate route program can then be easily coupled with special education certification or a supervisor endorse.

So this is a really nice way to sort of get a lot of bang for your buck coupled together a couple of certifications. So our alternate, our alternate route teacher education program is a really nice path towards standard certification, standard teaching certification in New Jersey.

OK, so why should you consider, now that we've told you a little bit about our programs and what we have to offer and the range of offerings we want to turn to, why you might want to consider Stockton for your graduate studies? So at Stockton, our graduate level education courses are based on the needs of the practicing teacher. So we try to make our course work relevant to what you're doing in your own classroom setting.

One of the other very nice things about our program here at Stockton is they are all offered.

In an online format, so you do not have to come to the campus, but you can do it at home. However, our program also recognizes that as teachers, there's a real value of interaction between faculty and students. And in fact, many of our exit surveys, that's one of the things they point to, is that the interaction between professors and students are really important.

So therefore many of our courses are offered synchronously, which means in a zoom format.

So you get to personally know your professor and interact with other classmates.

And a little more about another reason to consider Stockton, OK, umm, in In our MAED program, you will work with full time faculty for most of your program. Umm, the MAED faculty serve as your advisors. You'll meet with us at least twice a year and as often as you need to. Beyond that, umm, we're always available to meet and we really appreciate the opportunity to advise our students so that we can ensure you're taking.

The most direct path and the most advantageous path to, you know, get the most for the courses that you're taking. So we have, you know, full time faculty teaching nearly all of the courses. And the progression through those courses is really based upon your needs as a student. And that's why it's really important to get your advice from your advisors. You can choose to take one course a year. If that works for you, you can do.

A semester, we have a spring semester, a fall semester, and we have a summer session that offers quite a few graduate courses as well. So you could easily accomplish, you know, 1A semester and one in the summer. Or if you're someone who's able to do 2 at a time, you could take as many as six courses a year. So it's a really nice way to sort of move through the program efficiently.

So we're hoping that this has talked you in to perhaps wanting to come to Stockton's MAD program. BU, uh, so I'm gonna quickly just talk about the admission, uh, requirements and then our, uh, Jennifer will jump in and tell us a little bit more about the admission requirements. So what do you need? You need an undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university.

Minimum GPA average of 2.75 and that's consistent with what you need to get your.

Certification in New Jersey you need a teaching certificate and that can be a standard, a Certificate of Eligibility with Advanced Standing or Certificate of Eligibility.

And sometimes you also get a provisional. Once you've started teaching, you need 2 references. And then for programs that have additional New Jersey Department of Education requirements such as principal endorsement, you also need three years of teaching experience. For LDTC and supervisor, you need one year of teaching experience.

And then in order to be certified in the reading specialist, you need three years of teaching experience.

So let's talk a little bit more. This is the the what, and I can talk a little bit more about the how. And that's where we work very closely in graduate admissions with each of our schools and each of our programs and our faculty to help with the how. So for the undergraduate degree, the way that you prove that is when you start your application, which is on the MAD website, there's an Apply Now button at the top of the page.

You will be indicating any institution that you've attended, so whether that's.

You know where you received your bachelor's degree, associate's degree, any place where you had undergraduate credits and then transferred them to another institution. We need all official transcripts. That also goes for any additional masters degrees that you have, any additional certificates that you have. All of those official transcripts have to be sent to us and they those get loaded to your application. We load those for you from the official transcripts being sent to us. We suggest that you do all of that electronically, electronic transcripts.

Really the, the best way to do that, it takes very little time, It's very efficient and it also saves everybody a little bit of time and money. So if you have questions about how to go about doing that, please let us know. We do pull transcripts for Stockton students. If you went to Stockton a very long time ago and had transfer credit, sometimes we're not always able to pull those transfer transcripts, but usually 9 times out of 10 we are and we'll be able to, we'll, we'll pull those for you.

And again.

The GPA that we're looking at is a cumulative GPA of all of those institutions. Master's degrees are gonna and master of credits and certificate credits are gonna weigh a little bit heavier in that process than undergraduate, but all of them are factored in and you do need to report all of them. So it's really, really an important part of the process. The teaching certificates, however, you're able to load yourself. And so when you log in, you can take a screenshot or you can load APDF, whichever you know is easier for you.

And that is done by you.

That needs to come from the DOE website. When you log in, it'll show your certificates and you can load that to your application yourself. Now for the two references, when you start an application, it's going to ask you to submit. That doesn't actually mean you're submitting your application to be complete or to review. You're submitting it to be started. And so sometimes people get hung up on that word submit. You want to go ahead and submit. There is a $50 application fee in order to do so.

But that's just moving your application to the next part of the process on that screen. It's also going to ask you for your references. And I strongly suggest to you that you have that ready to go when you're starting your application and that you copy and paste the e-mail addresses for your references. I can't tell you how many times people type the e-mail address in incorrectly for their references and the they don't receive them because the references are all done electronically. You don't have to collect anything from anybody. They don't have to.

Anything, it's all done on the computer and all done through the application system. But you do have to make sure the e-mail address is correct. So please copy and paste that from an e-mail that you already have from them. And then also, it's really important that you make sure that you talk to the people that are doing your references. Let them know that this is coming because as soon as you put their e-mail address in, it's gonna automatically shoot off the reference information to them. And you don't want that to be a surprise. You want to make sure it doesn't, you know, go to junk mail or anything like that, but you also want to talk to them about it and make sure they know that they need to do it.

Umm, these references do need to be professional references, uh, for this program in particular, these should be individuals who have seen you in the education setting and preferably supervisors who have seen you in the education setting, who can speak to your academic abilities here at the graduate level. And that's really important. Umm, uh, you'll also be loading a copy of your resume. So, you know, for programs like the principal endorsement, we need to be able to review your resume and your work experience in order to make sure that you meet the criteria for.

That specific endorsement. So that is very important. And then the bottom part of, you know, bottom line of it is that the Office of Graduate Admissions is here. If you have any questions, we are very happy to assist you through this application process. We don't want this to be a scary process or something that you dread. We're here to answer questions either via text, e-mail, or you're welcome to stop in our office in lower end wing here on campus in Galloway. So those are a couple of the items that that will be helpful to you in that application.

Process The next thing that I'm going to just share with you is a lot of times we get questions. All right, well, I want to apply, I want to do all of this, but how do I afford? So we know that some school districts will pay or do a portion or maybe even all of your graduate education. And that's always a wonderful opportunity. So we encourage you to talk to your HR department first as one option. Another option is there are a small amount of graduate assistantships that are available within the education program. And so this is allows you to do.

You know, some kind of research with faculty here at the institution and then receive a small amount of your credits to be paid for. This is usually one to two credits. So it's not a large amount of money, but it could be a little bit that helps and also help you with something additional on your resume that you would enjoy doing and, and researching that's specific to your area of study or a specific project that a faculty member may be working on that you have interest in as well.

As far as other financial opportunities, we have a full list of financial information on.

The MAED website, on the left hand side of the website page, you will notice it says financial information. And before we get to the Q&A portion today, I will drop the link to the MAD program in there. So you have that whether you're live or virtual, you'll be able to click on that link to view it. Excuse me. So just definitely take a look at all the different options as far as loans and things of that nature. Each semester we also offer a webinar on finance your graduate education, which can be very.

To lastly, umm, we just want to share that there is a direct entry opportunity now available for anyone, uh, looking to also do the EDD program. We have a doctorate in organizational leadership, umm, and there is a way that once you have completed your Maed within the first year of finishing that to go straight into your EDD, uh, application process with a limited amount of material that would be needed because you've already been through the MAD program here. So if you're interested in that, we can help you with that and be happy to.

A1 on one consultation to talk further, if you have already received your Master's degree and are also interested in the EDD program and not through the direct entry opportunity, this program is still enrolling as well for the fall of 2025 as are all the programs that we just mentioned. I would be happy to talk to you about that, but that's a whole nother session in and of itself and there's recordings that we could share with you for that too.

Kim, do you want to talk a little bit more about non matriculated student options too?

Oh, you're muted?

All right, so let's say your peak, we've peaked your interest. You think maybe you might want to try out a course or two. We do have a non matriculated option. So let's say you don't want to go through the whole, uh, application process, right Yet you want to just try us out. You may complete up to 6 credits on a non matriculated basis.

Providing you hold a college degree.

And a teaching certificate. And so there's no need to put anything else in there. We just need to see that you've completed a bachelor's degree and you have a teaching certificate. And you can feel free to try out two classes with us and then make a decision if you want to take us up on an endorsement or a degree option.

All right, so that brings us to the end of our presentation. Our contact information is there. Please don't hesitate to reach out. Umm, if you do have questions, now would be the time to drop those in the chat. We'd be happy to answer those live for our live viewers. And then for those of you, those of you who are watching this pre recorded umm, again, the best way to send any of your questions is to anyone of us and we'd be happy to help you umm, with those questions. But that does conclude our program today. Umm, I know that uh, in the beginning of this presentation.

And Doctor Lebeck and Dr. mentioned, you know, why should you choose Stockton? One of the things that they, they may not want to brag about, but I will on their behalf is one of the reasons I always tell people that they should attend Stockton is our amazing faculty. And this program is surely one of those programs that is at the top of the list. We have the most dedicated faculty in this program who works so hard to educate our teachers to take your degrees to the next level and to then help our, you know, students overall, both you as the student.

And the teacher and then the students that you all teach. And it's such a pleasure to work with the individuals in this program and, and see how dedicated they are and all that they commit to, to helping our teachers and, and our K through 12 education system here in the state of New Jersey. So thank you to both of you for all that you do. And, and it's just, I'm so proud to, to get to work with you all. And again, that's a wonderful reason why you should consider Stockton's program in particular, so.

All right, so we do have one question. It says.

I have a BA from Stockton and an MA and EDS from Rowan and want to get my supervisor certificate. Can I start as a non matriculated student in the fall and apply well in the program?

Yes, you absolutely can. You can, umm, enroll in one or two classes in the fall and then you would apply during that semester to complete the UH certification program depending on how fast you want to get it done.

Yeah. I would suggest though, if you know that this is something that you want to do, there are a lot of benefits becau to becoming a matriculated student. Now one of them is the the aid process. There are a number of loans that are not available to non matriculated students. So if you're paying for this out of pocket and are going to need any kind of loan assistance, really applying for the program right away is the best way to go about doing it.

And so if you have questions about that, I'm happy to schedule a one-on-one conversation with you to to help with that process. But keep in mind that that's one of the options, you know that to think about. The second thing is.

That for some of our courses, especially UMM principal and supervisor certificate courses and and Doctor Liebeck, correct me if I am wrong, but those classes fill up very quickly. And so if you are interested in taking those, the courses would be available to matriculated students first as far as registration is concerned. And there may not be the option to take those courses as a non matriculated student because they feel so quickly. So another reason there's nothing really to lose by applying for the program. There's actually more to gain by becoming a matriculated.

Versus non matriculated student? Anything you want to add to that?

No, that's absolutely, uh, the right advice.

Now, so awesome all right, I don't see any additional questions uh in the chat, but you again have our contact information here Doctor Leibak Dr. kainis, thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge and being here to talk more about the program. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and.

We do have another question.

Sure. Oh oh I just thought thank you for the alternate route program. Can the obtained teaching contract be from a private school?

Yes, absolutely. So if you have your certificate of eligibility and you're going through and you're teaching at a private school, you absolutely can do the alternate route program.

And I'll add one more item. Kayla, thank you for your question, because this is something that comes up very frequently. When the application asks for a copy of your teaching contract, we need to have a signed copy of the Board of Education contract. It has to be signed by the Board of Education. You can load that to your application as well. So in addition to your certificate of eligibility that you can load, you must load that signed contract. I know that there are a number of schools that.

Have board meetings before the end of June and so anyone out, I know we have a couple of people in the audience who are interested in alternate route if you have that contract already.

Negotiated. Please try to get that signed contract before the before July because a lot of schools close up for you know, July into the beginning of August and then there's not another school board meeting until the end of August, sometimes even into September. And we are not able to process your application for review until we receive that signed contract.

So that's a really key point. So Kayla, thanks for bringing that up.

Great. All right, one more question. Someone who graduated from Stockton in May of 2024 with a certificate of eligibility with advanced standing and interested in special education, the special education endorsement, but do not have a full time position with a school district.

Should I leave the employment section blank on the application?

Umm, so I mean, I guess you're so.

You have to teaching certificate. We may need to talk offline a little bit, but if you have the teaching certificate but want to do special Ed endorsement, Kim, I'm gonna leave this one to you to talk about, you know, thoughts on currently being employed at.

Yeah, so you, Hannah, nice to to hear from you. She was in our undergrad teacher education program. I had her for a couple classes. You can absolutely apply and start your special education endorsement That that is a great route to take to add that that endorsement. You could leave the employment section blank on the application. Just put your resume in with where.

Student taught. And if you've been substituting and then Hannah, this isn't part of your question, but I'm just gonna add this amount, this little bit of information. You might want to get a certificate of eligibility from New Jersey Department of Education which will allow you to begin to apply immediately for special education jobs. And then that way you could be eligible for getting a job, but you would have to start.

Program right away, but that's just another thing to think about to make you more marketable as you're looking for a job this summer.

Perfect. Thank you. That's good advice.

Mm-hmm.

Awesome.

All right, well, I am now not seeing any more questions. So I think that does conclude our our event today. Thank you all again. If you come up with other questions you think of after, umm, watching this or listening to this, please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you all for attending and again, Doctor Lee back, Doctor kites, thanks for being here. We hope everybody has a great day. Take care.

Thank you everybody. We hope to see you soon.

Goodbye.

Thank you everybody.