Making a Difference in the Educational Landscape
Now that we have reached the end of the academic year, once again I find myself celebrating God’s blessings at the School of Education. I am grateful for strong undergraduate and graduate enrollment, dedicated and talented faculty and staff, capable school partners, and supportive alumni.
While so many good things are happening in the SOE, in this edition of On Point I want to highlight two in particular — the strong job market and our new program in Digital Education Leadership.
We’re seeing a dramatically improving job market this year for graduates of our teacher, principal, and school counseling programs. A significant increase in school job openings, combined with a strong reputation for graduates from our programs, means that we are hearing many more sentences starting with “I was just offered a teaching position at —” or “I will be the new building principal at — .” Our annual job fair in April had the highest attendance yet, and a number of our students were offered jobs on the spot.
This year the SOE also launched a new master of education in Digital Education Leadership, intended for teachers who will serve as digital coaches or leaders in their schools. This unique program provides instruction in how best to use technology to support learning in elementary and secondary schools, as well as sorely needed support for all those schools that may have received funding for laptops, tablets, or other technology —but still need help with implementation.
I hope you will join us as we celebrate these and other ways God enables us to make a difference in the educational landscape. We take seriously God’s calling to serve the educational community by training graduates of character who are ready to shine as teachers, school counselors, and school administrators.
Rick Eigenbrood, Dean
School of Education