Contact: Sammy McDavid
More than two dozen educators from East Central and North Mississippi are members of the first class of Mississippi State University's newly reorganized educational administration graduate program.
The two-year master's degree program "follows a sequence of courses and clinical experiences that are consistent with state and national education reform efforts," said educational leadership department head Ned Lovell.
The new training sequence emphasizes problem-based learning, learning through doing and hands-on activities. A central part of the program is a 400-hour, 12-month internship during the second year that involves "high-impact activities and leadership training," Lovell said.
"This training has been carefully designed to prepare these graduate students to take off running in their new administrative positions," he added.
The 27 students in the first group are enrolled at both the Starkville and Meridian campuses of Mississippi State.
"Research has demonstrated that school principals can and do make a big difference in how well teachers teach and children learn," Lovell said. "That's why our faculty and our colleagues at the Mississippi Department of Education have high expectations that this new program will have both an immediate and long-term impact in the state."