Greetings from the Office of the Dean at The W’s School of Education
Here are a few highlights of our 2024-2025 projects illustrating why we are the best choice for students looking for an education preparation program tailored to support their strengths as future teachers.
Mentorship and Support
Supporting our current students and recent graduates is our first priority. This is our foundation. Everything else we will do depends on providing the very best support for the next generation of educators. This year’s plan includes providing mentorship by a group of outstanding current and former teachers and administrators for our first-year professional educators who are in their first classroom assignments as new teachers. This mentorship is extended both to our undergraduate completers, many of whom are teacher assistants who will have their own classrooms for the first time in their careers, and for our Master of Art in Teaching (MAT) alternate route teachers while they are completing their MAT internship hours as newly employed educators.
Academic Program Growth
Creating new academic programs that prepare students for the educational opportunities of today is critically important to us. Innovating programming requires a certain degree of nimbleness that we’ve demonstrated, repeatedly, and is something we’ve take a little pride in mastering. Beginning this fall, all undergraduate teacher education students can earn an endorsement in special education to add to their teaching license. This is a highly-valued credential. We’ve built much of the coursework for this endorsement into our existing program. Elementary Education teacher education candidates, for instance, will only need two additional courses to add this endorsement to their teaching license. We are also working on significant improvements in our program in early childhood development, soon to be renamed Early Childhood Education, with a Mississippi educator’s licensure track as an available option.
Partnering to Improve Education
Our partners share in our vision and make it possible for us to prepare students for today’s education workforce. The expertise and support our partners provide allow us to grow student support and academic programs for students in ways that would be unimaginable otherwise. We have expanded our advisory groups and our partners within the community to enhance education-based programming both in and beyond the traditional classroom that includes new parent development education for the parents of the Child and Parent Development Center (CPDC) and additional community resources and workshops for the community through the Center for Education Support (CES).
Students Thinking about a Career in Education
You may be new to the School of Education at The W. You will discover tremendous opportunities here.
Browse our pages. Talk with people you trust who are in our programs and those who know us well. Think about your plans to be an educator. Contact our advising Navigator, Ms. Christi Dillon (cmdillon@muw.edu), to find out how we can help you become a future teacher.
Martin L. Hatton, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Education