Curriculum and Instruction

Curriculum and Instruction is a pair of master’s programs — one for elementary teachers and one for secondary teachers — designed to help teachers advance their knowledge and skills in curriculum design, classroom-based instruction and assessment strategies and to prepare for curriculum leadership roles in K-6 or 6-12 schools respectively. Coursework prepares teachers to apply theoretical insights and research findings to the practical problems they encounter in their work as classroom teachers.

Program applicants choose either Elementary Education, focusing on grades K-6, or Secondary Education, focusing on grades 6-12.  Both are 30-unit MA in Education programs (33 if doing a thesis).

Two pathways are currently offered to meet individual needs:

• Pathway 1 is a fully online program designed for classroom teachers who completed an accredited post-baccalaureate credential program. These students complete 6 core classes and would potentially use 12 post-baccalaureate semester units to reach the 30 unit minimum required for the degree. Students may finish the program in three semesters.  
   
• Pathway 2 is designed for non-credentialed teachers who work in a private school or internationally and do not have a teaching credential. These students also complete 6 fully online core classes as well as an additional 4 classes (12 units) that support their educational interests to reach the 30 unit minimum required for the degree. Students may finish the program in three or four semesters and classes are offered in a combination of online, hybrid and in-person. This is not a pathway to "clear" a credential. 

• Develop and apply theoretical insights and research findings to curriculum, instruction, and assessment in K-12 schools.
• Analyze how the major philosophical and historical paradigms of elementary or secondary education have influenced contemporary reform movements, curricula, and instructional practices.
• Identify and analyze current multicultural issues and policies in education in the U.S. and globally from a critical perspective
• Analyze how knowledge in their subject area is conceptualized, created, organized, and assessed by analyzing a curriculum and assessment system
• Design and conduct an action research study, using appropriate data gathering and analysis techniques.

Candidates emerge with enhanced skills for implementing school improvement reforms.  In addition to preparing graduate students to make useful connections between theory, research, and practice, the program also sets the goal of strengthening students’ ability to effectively communicate their knowledge and understanding of current educational problems to diverse audiences such as students, parents, colleagues, school and district administrators, and policymakers.