The College of Education, in collaboration with the Pamplin College of Arts and Sciences, offers graduate programs leading to the Master of Education and Education Specialist degrees.

Graduate degrees in the College of Education are designed to build on previous course work and clinical and field experiences developed and delivered within the context of the conceptual framework principles. Utilizing experience gained through the undergraduate preparation process and the required two years of full-time teaching experience, these degrees have very specialized objectives and expectations. For example, the Master's degree, utilizing previous educational preparation, prepares individuals to become "master teachers," counselors or administrators in the chosen field of preparation. They are designed to extend and enrich the knowledge base, understandings, and pedagogical repertoire of the student by providing the opportunity for the utilization of critical thinking and analytical abilities to produce individuals with the ability to question and create new curricular programs, relate classroom practice(s) to research in order to contribute to the professional knowledge base, extend best practice, offer collaborative assistance to colleagues, and generally become the "Best of the Best" in the school settings.

The specialist degree provides the experiences necessary for these master teachers to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to transcend instructional expertise and become "school leaders" and change agents from the platform of the public school classroom. Because of these specialized objectives, each degree program has very special admission requirements, which must be met by the student.

Degrees and Programs of Study
The College of Education offers the Master of Education (M.Ed.) and Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degrees in the following areas: