Online Education

July 1, 2008 9:48 AM

Can anyone suggest a good Online degree program to further my education career?

I currently hold a bachelor's with a t-4 teaching certificate. I plan to stay home with my son for another 4 years but would like to go back into education at the administrative level when he enters full time kindergarten. Can anyone suggest a good, online Masters or Specialist in Education Administration program? Or, give me some guidelines on what to look for in a good program. I'm not really looking for the cheapest. I've been googling but I have no idea how the programs measure up or the best way to tell. Thanks in advance for any help!

posted by pearlybob to education (5 comments total)

Check out your State University system. Lots of schools have online degrees now, so why not do the one that you might get cheaper tuition AND will be respected in your region.
posted by k8t at 9:56 AM on July 1, 2008

Our district works with a couple of places to offer online Masters to the teachers. They work with Lamar University and with the University of Phoenix. I have not used either one. You might check with a district in you area to see who they work with.
posted by nimsey lou at 10:01 AM on July 1, 2008

I am working toward my MSEd in Educational Leadership through UNE online (University of New England). The class prices are a bit expensive ($1200 per class), however you take one class per session, it lasts 8 weeks and it is all online. I just finished my first class last week and started my second class yesterday. I will be finished with my Master's by November 2009 and then plan to do my CAGS after that. I chose UNE with the recommendation of two of the Administrators I work with. We do have a partial online program through our state university but it meets on an evening I cannot attend, which is why I chose the total online program.
posted by sisflit at 10:34 AM on July 1, 2008

Great answers so far!! Can I skip the Masters if I want to go directly to the Educational specialist degree? Just a thought... Not sure how the "ladder" works these days.
posted by pearlybob at 10:44 AM on July 1, 2008

It is different by state - I would suggest talking to your local Dept of Education or even see if you can get an appointment with the Superintendent or Asst Superintendent in your school district for advice. Be prepared though, in my experience it is very unusual for someone to come into a district and earn an administrative position with a 5 year absence from daily classroom contact, at least here in New England. We had 2 principals retire this year and the newly hired principals had been Asst Principals in the District for over 5 years each. My goal is to get into administration as well, but I think I'm going to have to put in a good 5-8 continuous years of daily classroom contact in order to gain that level of responsibility.

Good luck to you! I hope the market where you are is different than here!
posted by sisflit at 12:21 PM on July 1, 2008