Education Graduate Programs - Virtual Information Session

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Alright, alright, we're going to go ahead and get started. So my name is Jen Radwanski and I am the Associate Director for Graduate Admissions here at Stockton University. And I am joined by my amazing colleague and our program chair for our education programs here at Stockton and our Graduate School. So Doctor Kim Lee back, who is here to tell you a little bit more about how you can become involved in our graduate level coursework within education here at Stockton. So before we get started, just a few little.

Keeping items number one. For those of you who are joining us live, you will see a chat feature.

Please feel free to drop any questions you have in the chat with the 2 little caveats. One, I would suggest waiting to put your questions in the chat until the end of the presentation because more than likely we will get to all of your questions throughout the presentation. But again, we'll be happy to answer those for those of you joining us live in the chat. I would also secondarily remind you to not put any personal information in the chat. Doctor Lieback and myself would be accessible after this presentation to schedule.

One-on-one appointments are emails for anything that's of a more personal nature or more detailed, we'd be happy to talk with you offline about that. And the reason for that is because we are recording this. So if you're watching this prerecorded, thank you so much. And we will also provide both our live audience and our prerecorded audience our contact information at the end. So we look forward to being able to help you in any way that we can. So with that being said, I am going to turn things over to Doctor Lee Back.

To tell you more about our our graduate programs here within our education School of Education. So Doctor Lubeck, take it away.

Great. Thank you so much. Hello, everyone. My name is Kim Lee Back and I am a Professor of Education. I've been at Stockton for over 20 years now and I'm also the Chair of the MAED program. And it's my pleasure today to tell you a little bit about our MAD program and as Jen said, give you the opportunity to ask any questions that you might have.

So the beginning part is just going to be a bit of an overview.

About the program So as a starting place, the Master of Arts and Education program at Stockton is really designed to support educators to successfully impact the learning of your students. One of the things that makes our MAAD program unique is we are designed for practicing teachers or those teachers that have completed.

A umm, traditional education program as part of an undergraduate.

Program so everyone who will be in your classes have had some experience with teaching.

So we want to just start with talking a little bit about.

Why is Stockton a great choice for you as an educator? And one of the very first things that we say about our MAD program is we have consistent support for all of our students. So 87% of all courses are taught by full-time faculty. So what that means is you can get ahold of us very easily.

Umm, throughout all of the tracks that you take the courses.

That you take, you will work with full-time faculty, and we are available to you to support your learning and to support any of the challenges that you have in your own classrooms. We're not just here to talk about coursework, but we're also here to talk about your teaching and educational practices. The MAD faculty will also serve as advisors and will meet with you at.

Multiple times a year to support your studies and your progress through the program.

And finally, we have really found that the sweet spot for success for our students is through synchronous online UMM teaching and synchronous online courses. So therefore we have course time structured for both class time followed by conferencing opportunities.

So that you're not left to try and figure things out on your own, you have an opportunity to meet with students.

And your professor on a regular basis.

So why else do you want to think about choosing Stockton? Well, one of the things that sets us apart from other programs is the ability to earn multiple certifications within one program. So Stockton is a little unique in that in the MAD program, we have educational leadership programs, we have initial licensure programs with the alternate route program and we have advanced programs.

With courses with programs such as special education, LDTC, reading specialist, and so because all of these programs are housed under 1 distinct program, we offer multiple, sometimes overlapping pathways to certification. So for an example, if you're completing the alternate route to teaching in maybe elementary or secondary, you can easily.

Earn your special education certificate.

With just two additional courses.

Another thing that many of our alternate route students do.

They earn a supervisory cert as they're going through and then transition into a principal cert. So the way our program is set up, it allows for the earning of multiple endorsements through 1 program.

Why else do you want to choose Stockton? The other part is flexibility. Umm, course progression is based upon your own needs as a student, so.

Alternate route is set up a little bit differently in that the state requires.

A2 year time frame. So we do map out the courses for alternate route in a very sequential way. But all of the other programs you get to choose whether you want to take one course or three courses. Most people start with one or two courses and then see how they want to progress through the the program. We also offer courses in the fall, spring.

And summer semesters, we have a lot of students who decide that they want to take some of the courses during the summer.

When they're not teaching.

In addition to that flexibility, we also have a degree called the Content Instruction and Assessment degree, and it really allows you to tailor the degree to your own needs. So in this point, some people take ESL courses along with some special education courses, or they may take just courses that are of interest to them. So altogether, when we think about the MAED program, we've really.

Aimed to provide ongoing support to all of our students.

Maximum flexibility and then the opportunity to earn multiple endorsements as you proceed through the program. So now that I've given you a little bit of information about why you may want to consider coming to Stockton, I'm going to tell you a little bit about the different pathways that are housed under the MAD umbrella, our degree programs.

Are content instruction and assessment, as I just said, which tends to be.

A little bit more open-ended. Also, people completing the ESL and bilingual certifications often take our content instruction and assessment degree path. We have special education and LDTC as degree paths. We have a literacy reading specialist program as part of the degree path, our principal and supervision programs, and then our alternate route to teaching and our alternate route to teaching has three.

Pathways we have the elementary.

We have the secondary and we also have an alternate route program for ESL. So if somebody has a certificate of eligibility in the area of ESL, you can seamlessly complete our alternate route ESL degree program. In addition, we have, let's say you don't want to complete an entire masters degree and you just want to take the courses to earn your endorsements.

Or simultaneously, we'll call them certificates. Umm, you can do that too. So we have the options of the ESL Bilingual Bicultural certifications.

LDC, special Education supervisor, Principal reading specialist and then again there's multiple pathways for the certificate of eligibility.

So just to give you a little bit of information, our largest program is our alternate route to teaching program and it's designed for students with what the New Jersey Department of Education calls the Certificate of Eligibility.

Or CE.

Along with the Certificate of eligibility, you would need to have a teaching contract.

OK, so once you have those two things, you're eligible to apply for our Alternate Route to teaching program. In accordance with the New Jersey Department of Education, the alternate route program is a 2 year program for licensure. So the alternate route program will indeed take you 2 years to complete to get that endorsement.

The initial certifications for the alternate route program are easily coupled with other endorsements. So as I mentioned before, many people get alternate route.

With special education, because only two additional courses, some people do alternate route with ESL, some people do alternate routes with supervisor. And something that's become very popular with our alternate route students is they stay on to complete their principal certificate. And so basically in three to four years our alternate route folks are coming out with an initial certification.

A master's degree.

And additional endorsements.

So as I noted before, we do have multiple PO, umm pathways within our alternate route program, The alternate route elementary, the alternate route elementary with special education, the alternate route secondary, the alternate route with secondary and special education, and then of course the alternate route ESL programs.

We umm, follow the required number of credits.

That New Jersey Department of Education mandates in order to earn a certificate, so all elementary alternate route programs will be 30 credits. To also get that speed, it's 36 credits. The secondary is 24 credits, in accordance with the New Jersey Department of Education, and the secondary speed is 30 credits.

And then the alternate route ESL program is 27 credits.

In considering some of our other pathways, just to give you an idea of the overall credits on our ESL program is 15 credits. Again, that's the requirement by the New Jersey Department of Education. The bilingual bicultural program is 12 credits teacher of students with disability or also known as your special education.

Is 21 credits. Supervisor is 12 credits.

Principal is a 30 credit program. Reading specialist is also a 30 credit program. That is something that has been newly mandated by the state of New Jersey in terms of the requirements for the reading Specialist program. So our new reading specialist program has been updated to meet those new requirements. And then finally our LDPC program is 26 credits. So it gives you an idea.

Of how many credits are?

Required for each of the endorsements. One of the things to keep in mind.

Every credit taken at Stockton towards an endorsement.

Can also be used for the MAD degree so you'll never waste a credit.

At Stockton.

So because of that, almost all of our students make the decision to complete their degree which is 36 credits and again all those courses can be used towards the degree.

So that gives you a little bit of information about all of the options that we have available.

To you as a potential student umm thinking about coming to Stockton for your education endorsements and or degree?

I'm just going to very quickly go through our admission requirements. What is required, uh, for admission? And they do vary a little bit by track and based upon what the requirements, umm, from New Jersey Department of Education are. So you need to have an undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university with a minimum GPA average.

Of 2.75. The exception to this is if you've had a waiver from New Jersey Department of Education for the alternate route. And if that is the case and there has been a GPA waiver, then we will accept that for meeting the admission requirements here at Stockton, you need to have a teaching certificate. Now that can be a standard.

It could be your Certificate of Eligibility with Advanced Standing, which means you've recently graduated from an undergraduate program in the area of teacher education.

Or it could be a Certificate of Eligibility, a CE which is the alternate route to teaching and with that you will need a teaching contract.

There'll be two references that will require.

For the principal endorsement, you also need three years of teaching experience. The New Jersey Department of Education requires five years for certification. For the LDTC and supervisor endorsements, you also need one year of teaching experience in order to begin those programs. And for Reading Specialist, you don't need three years to, umm, enroll in the program, but it's important to know that New Jersey Department of.

Education does require three years of teaching experience in order to be certified, so those are the admission requirements for entrance to our program.

It's important to know that there are other opportunities available within the MAD program. We have graduate assistantships that are available.

For some applicants. And So what that allows you to do is to get tuition reimbursement or tuition waivers for some of the credits that you take in exchange for working with a faculty member on projects that they're doing in the area of research.

So we always encourage students to apply for those graduate assistantships. Stockton recently increased the number of graduate assistantships that we can provide to our students. So it's something that we really do want you to think about applying for in addition.

I know it sounds like a long way away, but we have many students who really want to use the MAD program as a stepping stone for doctoral level work and therefore we have a direct entry to the doctoral program at Stockton. So it provides those opportunities for direct entry into Stockton's doctoral level organizational leadership program. And each year we have several.

Students who take advantage of this specific opportunity.

There's two more things that I'm just going to give you a little bit of information about and then I'm going to turn it over to you for questions. One is transfer credits. We can accept up to 9 credits of transfer credits, umm, within the MAD program if you are going to complete the MAED degree.

And those transfer credits can be applied for at the time of application. They need to be graduate level transfer credits, but it is something that we certainly consider if you're planning to only do an endorsement program. We can, umm, accept up to 6 credits, provided they are graduate level and are equivalent to the courses that we offer here at Stockton.

In addition.

Umm, let's say you just want to try out Stockton. You may complete up to 6 credits on a non matriculated basis, provided you have a college degree and teaching certificate. So just a few little umm, additional informational pieces that you can keep in mind.

Again, we're going to have some opportunity for you to ask questions, but just so you have my contact information, umm, again, my name is Kimberly Lieback. I'm the chair of the MAD program, and my e-mail is kimberly.leeback@stockton.edu. We also have an associate chair of the MAD program, Doctor Susan Kites. Her e-mail is available on the screen.

In addition, we have graduate admissions with the grad school e-mail that is also available to you.

Alright, so now we're going to turn it over for opportunities for you to put any questions you might have in the chat.

Awesome Doctor Lieback, thank you so much. And yes, I'll just reiterate the contact information is on there again, for those of you joining us live, you can put questions in the chat and then for those of you who are joining us and watching this pre recorded, please feel free to reach out. Umm, if you are joining the live recording, we would just remind you not to put any personal information in the chat as it is being recorded. Umm, but happy to schedule uh, A1 on one with you, a virtual appointment or umm, you can call our office anything.

Like that, but we're happy to assist you through the application process. We know that it can be a little bit overwhelming, a little bit confusing, but we will simplify it for you to make it very easy. Our application system is really user friendly and we're happy to help you to make it as simple as possible for you so.

I'm also not seeing any questions in the chat feature here, so I'm thinking Doctor Levak, you may have covered everything, which is pretty awesome.

So we'll give every folks another moment, OK. We do have a question. Does successful completion of the MAD also provide direct entry into the EDD for educational leadership or solely for organizational leadership? So.

That, that is a great question. So the program that we here have here at Stockton is an EDD in organizational leadership. Umm, we do not have the same traditional educational leadership as a doctoral level program, but I will tell you a lot of educators take our organizational leadership program. So that is a great question.

Umm, the second question is can I apply for the alternate route at Stockton with a limited CE in elementary? Absolutely 100%.

We do indeed accept the limited CE in all areas. So please, if you have a limited CE, go ahead and apply to Stockton. We would love to see you here. We have many, many students who are under the limited CE.

Yep. And then Mackenzie to go back to your question about the EDD program and direct entry specifically, umm, there are opportunities and Doctor Lee back, I don't think we have, we have not ironed out your direct entry opportunity as of yet, but maybe, umm, maybe in the future. But I want to share what is really important, umm, is that, uh, we do have some upcoming EDD virtual information sessions. So there's an in person 1 coming up, uh, next month. And then there is also, uh, a virtual one that's going to be put up hopefully tomorrow. So.

An eye out on the EDD website for a similar session as we're doing here, where you have an opportunity to talk with the program directly. So keep an eye out.

Um, all right, so with that being said, I'm not seeing any additional questions. So I do want to just thank Doctor Lieback when I get questions about why, why should I attend Stockton? Why should I pick Stockton? My very first thing that I always tell people without question is because of our faculty. And within the School of Education, there is no better example of how amazingly dedicated our faculty are. You know, I know sometimes people think, oh.

It's, you know, fully online. Well, they are there with you as Doctor Lee Back mentioned, this is, this is synchronous courses. So you, they will still get to know you. They know who you are, they know what you're doing. They keep up with you. And I just, I can't speak highly enough of, of the caring nature that they put into working with our graduate students. And so that's really the main reason to take a look at Stockton in particular.

We get a lot of great feedback from our students about the ease and accessibility of this program.

In particular, and we're really proud of that. So we'd love for you to take a look at it. We'd love for you to reach out with additional questions so that we can help you through this process. We know that the majority of you are working professionals or will be working professionals if you're looking at the alternate route program. And we're here to help make this as simple as possible for you to advance your career and your education. So thank you all so much, Doctor Luak, thank you for your time and and sharing your expertise with everyone and we hope to hear from all of you soon. Thank you so much. Have a great evening everyone, take care.

Thank you everyone.