USM offering fully online graduate teaching degree

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) - College graduates with degrees outside of education have a new way to get master’s degrees and become teachers.

The University of Southern Mississippi is now offering a fully online Master of Arts in Teaching degree, leading to a Mississippi teaching license.

Faculty members say this will help put more teachers into Mississippi classrooms.

“We have now shifted that program fully online, so we can target students in rural areas, so that we can target students who are working full time, so that we can target students who otherwise can’t necessarily come to campus,” said Jay Howell, coordinator for the alternate route program and assistant professor of secondary education at Southern Miss.

“It allows people who pursued a degree in something other than education to become a classroom teacher through alternate route certification,” Howell said. “In fact, you’re not even eligible for the program if you pursued an undergraduate degree in education.”

Howell says the degree is a 33-credit hour program for students seeking a license to teach grades 7-12.

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