M.A. in English Education

The M.A. Program in English Education is designed to prepare candidates to serve as curriculum leaders or master teachers. The students who enter the program are already teachers who want to engage in a process of professional development and to prepare themselves for more responsibility as educators. The program requires 30 hours of graduate course work and a written comprehensive exam. No thesis is required.

Application and Admission

Application materials for the M.A.program may be obtained through the Office of Education Services, N310 Lindquist Center. Students applying to the program must include transcripts of all post-secondary course work, at least three letters of recommendation, and a personal statement explaining their goals for their graduate studies. Applicants must also take the Graduate Record Exam.

Those admitted to the M.A. program will have taught English or a closely related area for at least two years and will have completed a substantial amount of course work in English or a related area with a minimum g.p.a. of 3.0.

The Program

The only required course in the M.A. program is the M.A. Seminar in English Education, a course offered every fall semester at a time in the evening when practicing teachers can attend class. Candidates design the rest of their program themselves, in consultation with their advisor. They are free to choose courses from the wide range of offerings in the College of Education and in the English Department, but they can also choose courses in related disciplines such as Psychology, Anthropology, and American Studies. Candidates who are teaching full- or part-time can complete their programs over several years, taking courses in the evenings and in the summers as their schedule allows. Candidates who are not currently teaching can usually finish their programs within 3 or 4 semesters.

The M.A. Comprehensive Exam

Near the end of their program, students are required to take a written comprehensive exam. The exam consists of two 3-hour sections or three 2-hour sections.

In preparing for the exam, students should first ask three faculty members to serve on the exam committee. One of these faculty members, usually the student's advisor, will serve as chair. Although students are free to ask any professor to serve, most MAT's ask faculty with whom they have worked most closely. Professors in English Education (Colvin, DiPardo, Sunstein) are familiar with the exam process and serve on many committees.

At least two members of the three-person committee should be asked to write questions for the exam. The procedure for writing these questions is as follows:

One area of the exam will be designated "English Education," and will address broad issues and trends in the field. For this portion, the student asks one member of the committee to write the question(s) and, in consultation with that member, develops a reading list of about 12 to 15 texts drawn largely from the course work that the student has already completed. That reading list will serve as a foundation for this segment of the exam.

Exams in cognate areas follow a similar pattern. Students choose the area (e.g., the teaching of writing, the teaching of literature, adolescent literature, middle school curricula, reading instruction) and ask a member to work with them in developing a reading list and a question. After the reading list in the area has been approved by the committee member writing the question, the list becomes the basis for questions that the students will address during this portion of the exam.

All three members of the exam committee read the exam. Students are informed of the results through the mail. There is no oral portion of the exam.