Master of Education in Middle School Education

Master of Education in Middle School Education

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Inspire young students

The Master of Education in Middle School Education program at Worcester State University helps you refine your teaching skills and broaden your content area knowledge so that you can excel as an educator in grades 5-8. Designed for teachers with an initial license in middle school education, our Education Department’s well-established program offers an advanced degree in education with a concentration in one of the following subject areas: biology, English, history, humanities, math, or Spanish.

You’ll be able to advance your career at your own pace: You can complete the program either full- or part-time, and courses are offered in the fall, spring, and summer terms in a range of formats, including in person, online, and hybrid (a mixture of both). What’s more, our highly respected program also is an exceptional value. In fact, students who earn their initial license through Worcester State’s Post-Baccalaureate Certificate for Initial Teacher Licensure in Middle or Secondary School Education program can use 4 of those courses toward their M.Ed.

By taking courses in your subject area as well as in education, you’ll gain a blend of content area expertise and middle school pedagogy that will strengthen your knowledge of adolescents’ developmental needs, abilities, and interests. You’ll also conduct research on an issue relevant to your classroom teaching, creating the proposal yourself and carrying out the project under the guidance of a faculty member.

Graduates of our program go on to rewarding careers as teachers in middle schools across the state. You may use the master’s degree in Middle School Education to further your career advancement—and as a possible pathway to professional educator licensure through the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Check out the different education courses waiting for you at Worcester State!
ED-981 Advanced Foundations of Education
The course explores historical, philosophical, psychological, legal, and cultural foundations for education and school practices.
3 credits
ED-958 Middle School Curriculum and Instruction : Strategies and Modification
The course is designed to give students the ability to design and present instruction in ways that are commensurate with the developmental needs and readiness of early adolescent learners. The issues of inclusion, cooperative learning, block scheduling, thematic, and integrated curriculum and interdisciplinary curriculum are examined.
3 credits
ED-959 Assessment, Differentiation and Data Analysis in Middle School
Designed to give students the ability to plan and implement overall assessment strategies appropriate for middle school grades including formative, summative, differentiated, performance based, and self assessment strategies. Analysis of assessment data will inform adjustments to practice.
3 credits
ED-963 The Understanding and Teaching of Culture
The course focuses on approaches to cultural analysis and survey of techniques used to teach culture in the classroom.
3 credits
ES-950 Disciplinary, Multimodal and Critical Literacies Across the Content Area
This course examines the language, literacy, and technology demands in history, math, the sciences, English language arts, Spanish and other academic disciplines and guides teachers to develop effective strategies to meet those demands. It focuses on the literacy and technology skills that students in all subjects need to be college, career, and world ready and strategies for effective differentiation and adaptation for English Language Learners and students with learning disabilities.
3 credits
ED-982 Research in Education
The course examines different research methods and designs, including writing hypothesis, reviewing literature, gathering data and preparing research proposals.
3 credits

Admissions requirements

In addition to the general admission requirements for graduate study at Worcester State University, candidates must possess the following attributes:

  • Possession of an Initial license that includes middle school grades (1-6, 5-8 or 5-12) from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the relevant field of licensure.

Program of study

This program consists of thirteen (13) courses for a total of thirty-seven (37) credits. Four of the courses (12 credits) are in core education requirements, while six (18 credits) support the content field of licensure. All students take ES  950 Disciplinary, Multimodal and Critical Literacies Across the Curriculum as well as five (5) classes in their field of licensure (Humanities, Math, General Science, World Language/Spanish, English, History, or Mathematics/Science) to meet the content area requirements. The final three classes in the program are the advanced education courses of Research, Thesis Seminar and a one credit program portfolio encompassing both content and pedagogy.

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