An online education specialist degree (online EdS degree) helps you qualify for a more competitive administrative position in the academic domain and positively impact school and education community.
Whether you're a classroom teacher seeking to extend your academic expertise and teaching skills or an administrator aiming to sharpen your leadership qualities and problem-solving skills, education specialist degree online program trains you become authoritative and influential leader in your subject matter and achieve your career goals.
The objective of this degree is to prepare professional educators for a post-master's degree that will facilitate them achieve the research-based knowledge and specialized skill sets required to act as a change agent in education field.
The degree allows you to focus on a certain subject area within teaching and administration and master it. Some of the specializations include educational technology, curriculum and instruction design, educational administration and leadership, adult education, school counseling, assessment and evaluation and special education. So, if you choose an educational specialist degree online with core focus on Mathematics, you will be trained to develop and administer mathematics programs in K-12 schools, as well as, make a contribution to post-secondary school mathematics.
As an education specialist, you will collaborate with teachers and administrators to design and improve coursework, assessment and testing methodologies; bring latest technology to the classroom and find solutions to problems affecting various stakeholders in education. You will also develop and strengthen innovative teaching methods at various grade levels.
Potential careers with an online education specialist degree include curriculum specialist, instructional leader, assistant principal, principal, school administrator, evaluation specialist, or teacher.
The specialization you choose determines the degree curriculum. If you plan on specializing in English Education, the coursework can include language and linguistics, English language arts classroom and curricula, assessment, integration and curriculum in secondary English language, theory and practice in teaching English language/global literature and many more.
Or if you plan to specialize in Elementary Education, the coursework can include evaluation and assessment practices, designing curriculum, research and analysis in education, creative thinking in elementary classrooms and others. Likewise, curriculum and instruction specialty focuses on instructional strategies and classroom management, curriculum and instruction development, school program improvement, instructional methods etc.
The idea is to give you a further understanding of a subject that you've chosen to study and improve your knowledge and skills in that particular subject from a teaching and management point of view. The coursework of an online education specialist degree offers you highly advanced and contemporary research driven learning and helps you get better clarity on all the best practices related to imparting the right education to students.
As an education specialist, you'll be able to make effective and progressive contributions in the field of learning. Your specific duties will be determined by your specialization and where you work, whether at the school district level, individual public or private or charter school, college or university or continuing education facility.
As a curriculum specialist, your core job responsibilities will include curriculum planning and evaluation of teaching methods. As you gain more experience, you can be given charge of setting the curriculum and even determining the pertinent study books. In a role of school principal, you will provide leadership and guidance to teachers and counselors, oversee routine functions and manage school's budget and finances.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for educational specialists who will be required to play a leadership role will keep growing until 2022. With the government focusing more on accountability, schools have begun giving more importance to putting in place efficient evaluation and teaching methodologies to improve learning. The role of an education specialist becomes very important in such a scenario and therefore an online EDS degree will put you on course for a bright future.
According to statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, growth in education specialist field through 2022 is very positive:
The median salary of instructional coordinators and school principals worked out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2012 gives us an idea about the salaries education specialists can expect. The median wage for instructional coordinators in 2012 was $60,050 and the top 10% earned in excess of $93,500. The median pay for elementary and secondary school principals was $86,970 per year.
As is the case with every profession, the location, your job responsibilities and the organization you are working for will determine your salary. But there is no doubt you can expect a good salary package that will go northwards as you keep accumulating quality experience.
Technology is going to be the growth driver in education. Future trends in a career as an education specialist will center on the use of technology to improve learning.
As an education specialist, it will be your job to ensure the use of technology is leveraged optimally to improve teaching methodologies and curriculum. Pedagogy is going to keep changing for the better, and your role will be to act as an incubator and facilitator of this change with the use of the latest technology.
If you've lots of ideas about improving the field of education and the way learning is imparted in our classrooms, it's time to do something about it. eDegreeSteps helps you get your hands on the kind of online education specialist degree you want.