Virginia Tech to offer M.A. in education with reading specialist endorsement
Virginia Tech's Department of Teaching and Learning in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences again will offer its 39-credit Master of Arts in education program, "Reading Specialization Endorsement (PK-12)" to Virginia educators this fall.
The degree program, which has been accredited for more than 15 years, is now in great demand, given the extensive requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and the strong emphasis on reading proficiency among secondary school students, said Sue Magliaro, director of Virginia Tech's Center for Teacher Education.
Designed for experienced elementary and secondary school teachers, the program will enroll up to 20 teachers and is comprised of 12 courses, six hours of which are practica. The second practicum is an academic-year assignment during which degree candidates will undertake school-wide literacy development with other teachers in a school setting.
The program's first course, "Language, Literacy, and Culture," will be offered this fall at the Higher Education Center in Roanoke, Va. Other required courses to be offered in subsequent semesters are "Assessment for K-12 Literacy Instruction," "Practicum in Clinical Reading," "Conducting Literacy Inquiry," "Literacies and Technology," "Review of Literacy Research," "Comprehending Processes and Reading in the Content Areas," "Teaching Composition: Methods and Materials," "Literature for Adolescents," "Advanced Educational Psychology," and "Schooling in American Society."
To be accepted into the program, applicants must have three years of teaching experience, a baccalaureate degree, and a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) in the last 60 hours of undergraduate academic credit. The application process requires submission of an admission packet to the Graduate School, three letters of recommendation, and a writing sample verifying the applicant's advanced writing skills, as well as completion of an interview with the department's literacy faculty. Employees of the Virginia public school system will receive a reduced tuition rate.
For additional information about the program, contact Magliaro at (540) 231-5174 or sumags@vt.edu, or visit the program's website at http://www.tandl.vt.edu/readingspecialist/index.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
