As part of its mission, the College of Education offers a sizeable number of degree and professional development opportunities for pre-K and K-12 professionals. Our six departments, Counseling and Personnel Services; Curriculum and Instruction; Special Education; Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation; Human Development; and Policy and Leadership each offer doctoral and master’s degrees in a variety of specialties. Three departments also offer bachelor’s degrees with teacher certification and post baccalaureate teaching certificates. In addition, our departments offer a range of degree and non-degree professional development programs for K-12 personnel. These programs are broadly classified as professional development schools, outreach teacher certification, professional development degree programs for teachers, professional development doctoral degree programs, non-degree professional development programs for teachers and other K-12 professionals, and other outreach programs. The following inventory is not all inclusive.

Professional development schools (PDS) are stable university-K-12 relationships that involve preparation of student teachers, continued professional development of current teachers, and action research designed to improve student learning. The college has 11 PDS serving a total of 40 schools in Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties and is developing one in Anne Arundel County. In Howard County, a Special Education PDS network includes Bollman Bridge, Deep Run, Fulton, Triadelphia Ridge, and Waterloo elementary schools; and a Master’s Certification network includes Bollman Bridge, Elkridge, and Fulton elementary schools, Elkridge Landing middle school, and River Hill high school. In Montgomery County, the Master’s Certification PDS network includes Wheaton Woods and Brookhaven elementary, Parkland middle, and Wheaton high school. The Early Childhood PDS includes Bel Pre, New Hampshire Estates, Montgomery Knolls, and Tacoma Park elementary schools. Elementary Team B PDS includes Jackson Road, Kemp Mill, Westover, Pine Crest, Oakview, and New Hampshire Estates elementary schools; and Elementary Team C PDS includes Burnt Mills, Gaithersburg, Harmony Hills, Highland, Maryvale, Rosemont, South Lake, Summit Hall, and Viers Mills elementary schools. The Secondary PDS includes Eastern, North Bethesda, and Takoma Park middle, and Walter Johnson and Montgomery Blair high schools. In Prince George’s County, the Elementary Team A-1 PDS works in conjunction with a Special Education Elementary PDS at Kenilworth, Yorktown, Glenn Dale, Rockledge, and Mt. Rainier elementary schools. The Elementary A-2 PDS includes Montpelier, Springhill Lake, Beltsville, and Hollywood elementary schools. The Secondary PDS includes Buck Lodge, Eisenhower, and Martin Luther King middle and Roosevelt, High Point, and Northwestern high schools. During the past year 269 student teachers completed year long internships in these schools.

During the 2003 academic year, college personnel provided 13,455 contact hours of professional development courses and workshops to K-12 personnel through the PDS networks: 8,358 in Prince George’s County, 3,700 in Montgomery County, and 1,397 in Howard County.

The college has a number of specially designed degree programs for K-12 professionals, often in partnership with specific school districts. Current programs include the following:

• Master’s certification programs in Montgomery and Howard counties serve 30 to 60 students, often career changers, who are certified to teach in one calendar year.
• The CITE program in Montgomery County provides master’s degrees and certification for approximately 16 current district employees every two years.
• Grant funded Project LINC in Prince George’s County provides Resident Teacher Certification and master’s degrees to math and science teachers; 11 are enrolled for Fall.
• Another grant funded project provides courses in teaching English to speakers of other languages for credit count certification and recertification to 80 teachers in Prince George’s and Howard counties.

• The teaching master’s leadership program helps currently certified teachers prepare for national board certification. Approximately 17 students are enrolled each year.
• A master’s degree program in human development is provided on site for Montgomery County teachers and currently enrolls 35.
• A new outreach cohort based master’s program for teachers that includes foci on reading, assessment, and technology, will begin during the coming year.
• A special education degree is provided through the Department of Defense Schools in Germany. Approximately 20-25 students graduate every 3 years.

• A doctoral degree in reading is provided to successive cohort groups in Carroll County. Currently, 14 students are enrolled.
• Currently, 11 Baltimore City Public School employees are taking courses for their doctoral degrees in school psychology. A similar arrangement is in development with DC public schools.
• A cohort group of 20-24 Montgomery County employees has just started studies for the doctoral degree in educational leadership. A similar cohort is being planned for Southern Maryland.

Note that, in some individual cases, credits from these programs may be applied to degrees.

• The corporate and grant funded Bladensburg project of the Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education offers courses in reading and mathematics to approximately 40 teachers each semester in a feeder pattern of schools.
• Through an NSF grant, approximately 10 science teachers per semester participate in a two course sequence.
• Approximately 100 teachers per semester participate in district sponsored courses on technology in education.

• Approximately 5-10 Prince George’s County aspiring principals take leadership courses each term.
• Each year, 25-30 state and district professionals from throughout the country participate in a 15 credit outreach certificate program in large-scale assessment that is funded by the National Center for Educational Statistics.
• Approximately 10-20 assessment professionals from throughout the nation participate each year in ETS funded distance education courses.
• Approximately 10 counselors per term participate in an online course on chemical dependency.