• want to improve your classroom teaching skills
• feel that the classroom is the place to make a difference for good in the world
• do not want to become a librarian through the getting of your master's degree
• do not want to become a principal or other school administrator
• want to know more about teaching diverse populations but do not want to become a licensed special education or Title I teacher
• want a master's degree but do not want to become a school counselor
• have found in your teaching experience that you already have plenty of content knowledge for your students to learn and are more interested in being able to get across what you already know than in learning still more content than your students are likely to ever learn

This degree is all about classrooms and kids. It contains a 12-hour core that would be common to most master of education degrees and then goes on to give extra help in the three areas that teachers particularly in Arkansas feel they could use some extra instruction:

• Reading (we offer six graduate hours, ELED 5333 and ELED 6323 or ELED6343)
• English as a Second Language (ENGL 5023 and ENGL5703; may also take ENGL5713 and ENGL5723 to complete additional licensure for ESL)
• Diversity (EDFD6053, ELED6803, and ELED6823)

Nominally the degree has 6 hours of graduate electives. We sometimes preserve those by allowing EDFD6993 Action Research to be substituted for EDFD6063 Educational Assessment. If a student takes 12 hours of ESL in order to complete an additional teaching field for ESL, the electives have been used. @atu.edu

Standards: The Master of Education degree in Instructional Improvement has been mapped to the National Board for Professional Teachers Standards and to Pathwise Standards, but has not applied for acceptance (SPA) to any of the learned societies. Candidates receive degrees but not certifications or licensures. Some of the coursework taken on the degree will lead to licensure in special education, English as a Second Language, or reading specialist, through transfers to universities with approved programs in those areas. You may want to contact our Licensure Officer, Dr. David Bell, for further information about ESL licensure through Arkansas Tech University, after having (1) completed all requirements for licensure in some other area of teaching and (2) completing ENGL5023, ENGL5703, ENGL5713, and ENGL5723 within the grade point requirements.

Admission: Bachelor's degree from an accredited college; cumulative GPA of 2.5 or a 3.00 on the last 30 hours of undergraduate work or hold a graduate degree froma regionally accredited institution; take either the Graduate Record Examination or Miller's Analogies within the first twelve hours/before applying for candidacy.

Gateways: 3.0 GPA; Exit GPA 3.0 with no more than six hours of "C"; Satisfactory Action Research study.

Technology Integration/Competency: The use of technology is infused and pervasive in the Master of Instructional Improvement degree; technology is not introduced in piecemeal fashion but is part of presentation and participation in almost every course. Web technology, word processing, spreadsheets, and display technologies are used in all courses by both instructors and students. Students should have or very quickly upon entrance to the program acquire competence in programs such as Netscape, Microsoft Word or Word Perfect, Excel or Quattro Pro, and Power Point. Email with attachments is an "understood." These and other technological tools are used for the creation, development, production, and evaluation of curricula, innovations, and research.

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