Many Eckerd College Service Learning projects take Eckerd students into Pinellas County Schools classrooms for their first taste of teaching. Ava McLeod ’24 (pictured above) was one of several students who helped run an after school French club at Midtown Academy.
The idea had been talked about for several years. Could Eckerd College and the University of South Florida form a partnership that would allow Eckerd students and recent graduates to earn a master’s degree at USF, so they could step right into a teaching job?
That idea is now a reality.
After multiple meetings in recent months, both institutions reached an agreement that Eckerd seniors and recent graduates can gain acceptance into USF’s Master of Arts in teaching program. When they graduate from the program, they can enter the profession immediately. The USF program offers master’s degrees in elementary education, exceptional student education, mathematics education, middle grades mathematics education, secondary English education, and science and social science education. Upon completion of the master’s, students also will be able to complete their State of Florida teacher certification.
The agreement applies to Eckerd College graduates in the Class of 2024 and beyond. The requirements are that a student in any major at Eckerd completes at least 90 semester hours of coursework, with a minimum of 30 semester hours completed through Eckerd. Students must meet all requirements for an Eckerd College bachelor’s degree and have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in courses taken at Eckerd.
Graduates and students can apply to the program between October 1 and May 1. There is no graduate record examination requirement, and classes will be held on USF campuses in Tampa and St. Petersburg.
Getting to practice your skills is an entry point to a possible career in teaching.
“I reached out to USF, and they were very open to having a conversation about establishing this relationship,” explains Kat Robinson, Ph.D., dean of faculty for student success. “They want our students. In fact, their description of our students focused on the Eckerd student as being both kind and compassionate and also prepared and ready to go. USF’s [College] of Education has been very keen on getting more of our students into their education tracks.
“Many of our students from all disciplines—from chemistry to composition to communication—really want to do something to make the world a better place,” Robinson adds.
Earning a Master of Arts in Teaching helps new teachers feel more prepared for the rigors of the classroom and become less likely to burn out.
“And where they were seeing that kind of boots-on-the-ground work is not just in nongovernmental organizations and nonprofits but also in the education sector.”
Drawing on data from recent Eckerd graduates, Robinson found that a large percentage of them were employed in the education sector. “With the option of the USF MAT,” Robinson says, “students can come to Florida and go to Eckerd and get their degree in whatever area they want, and then they can easily transition into getting their master’s too. This is very similar to what we do with our 3-2 engineering program.
Eckerd College’s 3-2 engineering and applied science dual degree program is a five-year program that offers smaller classes and more attention from professors during a student’s first three years at Eckerd. But the program also is demanding; what most students accomplish in four years, 3-2 students are asked to do in three. Within five years, students complete all requirements for majors at both Eckerd and a second institution, either Columbia University or Washington University in St. Louis.
The University of South Florida program offers practical hands-on experience serving as interns in local schools. French club leader Breanna Muldowney ’23 got some experience by leading a craft project at Midtown.
“We started working on the admissions agreement, and that involved a summit meeting at USF where they hosted members of the faculty,” Robinson adds. “And what came out of that was a very direct path to getting our students into USF. We had to do some negotiations, because USF is a public institution, and we are a private institution, and we have some different requirements by the state and national accreditation boards. And so we worked to get those hammered out, and then we came to an agreement.
“This agreement now provides the students graduating from Eckerd a pathway directly into the USF master’s in teaching program. They can pursue the degree in a variety of ways. They can pursue it in disciplines. So they can pursue English education as well as history. They can pursue it in languages if they want to become certified to teach languages. They can also pursue it in math and science as well as in early childhood development and exceptional student education.”
Robinson says most of the programs are about 18 months long.
And if a student decides not to work in Florida, the master’s degree is portable. “It will not be a credential in all states,” Robinson points out, “but it will serve as a bridge to get into an educational space. It also helps graduates if they decide to go into curriculum development or educational leadership and things along those lines. There are some support mechanisms that USF is able to provide, such as book stipends and cohort development, because they’d like to keep cohorts together.
“And they’re also working on tuition and scholarship support for our population. So all of that is going to be part of it.”
As for why someone would pursue a master’s in teaching versus just graduating with a degree and going straight into the classroom, Robinson has the answer.
“One of the big things USF stressed, and I think our students are also looking for, is that the development of skills in a specific subject [doesn’t] always prepare you in the same way as having that skill and access to resources to become an effective educator,” she says. “Of course you can learn on the job, and many of our graduates have learned on the job and have become effective educators.
“But this gives them a credential and the experience that helps them to expedite their acceptance into the Florida education system.”
In addition, Robinson says, the USF Master of Arts in teaching program has an internship program, “which gets students into the classroom and also gives them another set of experiences that they can take with them.
“I think this also helps students, because the ones that do go into education often make that decision sometimes in a quick pivot in the spring of their senior year—because they’re not sure what to do and teaching sounds like it’s a good thing.
“And while that can be a great way to get into teaching, it also often creates situations where people only stay in the classroom for two or three years, because they get burned out because they don’t know how to do it and they’re learning on the job…
“So this gives them a little more preparation when they go into the classroom, which will help with the longevity of them being in there, their satisfaction with the life choice that they’ve made, instead of just kind of swinging on a rope until they get to the next rope.”
Robinson anticipates more than a dozen students will want to be among the first to take advantage of the partnership.
“I am thrilled that, after a number of years of conversations, Dr. Robinson and our partners at the University of South Florida have created this exciting collaboration,” says Eckerd College President James Annarelli, Ph.D. “We believe that a liberal arts education is an extraordinarily effective preparation for teaching, and this program will facilitate the path to a teaching profession for Eckerd graduates.”
