The International Schools Review Forum

Hello everyone,

I am curious to know about different Masters degree options that are out there that would be worth putting in the time and money. I'm about 5 years into teaching after getting my credential and I thought about applying to a few programs, but as a new parent, I haven't really been able to justify the time/money pay off. I'm 35, a native English speaker, and Spanish (C2) Portuguese (B2) level. I'm interested in Language Acquisition, Educational Technology, Reading Comprehension/ Reading Specialist, Sociolinguistics and comparative cultural studies. Ideally I'd like to enjoy any program I enroll in, as well as be able to use it in the International Teaching world. I have experience in bilingual public schools in the US and in Spain, as well as a tier 3 school in Colombia. Since I'm now based in Spain, the program would have to be online. Also, I do not have and IB Certificate nor have I taught in an IB school, although I did do one online PYP Program that was a complete waste of time.

Thank you for in advance for any help you can provide.

Plenty of UK unis offer distance learning MA's for £5,000-£7,000. Should pay itself back in around 3-4 years.

If you're British, and can give the address of someone you know in the UK (i.e. family or friends) you can even make a profit off your MA by applying for the £10,000 government postgraduate loan.

Johns Hopkins has an amazing Ed Tech program that is online. It's $25,000+ though, which might make it an untenable option for some people.

I don't have a lot of details about these programs and I couldn't speak to their quality, but the degree names sound right up your alley and the price can't be beat. And it's in Spain! I know they are designed for auxiliares, but I don't know if you actually have to be an auxiliar to enroll.

http://www.institutofranklin.net/en/aca ... ach-learn/

I would not consider doing an online masters through the US. I am currently finishing my online master's degree at a fraction of the cost through the UK. British universities charge less for online degrees because they believe you are receiving less than someone who is attending classes in person. American universities view online degrees as luxuries, therefore they charge twice, sometimes 3X's, the amount.

Something to consider

Jse217 wrote:
> I would not consider doing an online masters through the US. I am
> currently finishing my online master's degree at a fraction of the cost
> through the UK. British universities charge less for online degrees
> because they believe you are receiving less than someone who is attending
> classes in person. American universities view online degrees as luxuries,
> therefore they charge twice, sometimes 3X's, the amount.
>
> Something to consider

that's interesting. i was shopping for a masters program i liked in canada but found they were all about $20000 for online - i think that's a bit steep for a purely online program. i understand the idea that it'll pay for itself in a couple years but still!

i'm curious about the uk programs though - anybody have a particularly good program that is purely online? what about other countries (US and Canada included) and the prices?

v.

@Teach1010 Thanks, that program in Madrid does look right up my alley, but unfortunately I don't think they offer a distance option. I will email to check and see.

25K seems a lot to me, especially in WE where a yearly salary can be 30K. Ironically, I went to the John Hopkins website and their website was down...

Thanks for all of your responses

Skybluesky,

I would recommend a Masters if the major is something you are truly interested in pursuing. Schools generally prefer teachers with Masters who can articulate how it has helped them become a better teacher.

In terms of the money, the return on investment is between 5 and 7 years. Most schools give a 10% increase in pay for a masters. If you are making $40,000 to $50,000 base with a bachelors, you could make up $25,000 in about six years and then you are benefitting from the increase for another 15 to 20 years.

Michigan State University has a very interesting Educational Technology program with a one month summer program in Ireland that takes place over the course of three summers I believe.
Check this website out for more information. The cost per summer is a little over $8,000. I found it to be really reasonable. http://www.edutech.msu.edu

My general advice is that a Masters should do more for you than just get you into a classroom or a bump on the salary scale. This means you want an Ed.Ld program that leads to a leadership credential directly (DC has a pathway that doesnt require an EPP program) or school counseling, technology coordinator or librarian. The other option is to attend a Uni with an IB certificate program, the T&L programs are the best options. There may be some other niche options but its usually a poor investment of time and resources just to do a Masters for the sake of a Masters or a salary increase.

If all you are looking for is a pay increase (and while most ISs have a higher salary scale for advance degrees there are those that dont, and those that offer only modest increases) than I would agree with @joe30, the UK has some of the cheapest masters degrees programs. You could find some US Unis but the UK Unis have more status for that coin.

Lots of Unis have good programs such as John Hopkins but they are all pricey, and if your going to pay that level of coin you may as well go to Harvard or OxBridge, for the status increase.

I dont see $24K for Michigan as a good investment, its a glorified trip in Ireland, especially considering Michigans program is 4 times what youd pay elsewhere and doesnt afford any status.

I disagree with @Nomads, the average IT salary is right around $30K, and disparity between BA and MA shrinks as your salary and experience step increase.

@vandsmith

Bath, Nottingham, Keele, Sunderland, are all good places to start.
CAN Unis tend to be pricey even for online programs.
AUS has some good options but they tend to have more hybrid programs than full online or distance programs.

Any cheap online MA Ed. Leadership programs?

@SinaloaPaisa

Whichever one is cheapest for you, start with your HOR (Residence/Domicile) in state rate will be cheaper than out of state. Then look for EU and then UK Unis. Also understand time lengths. UK/EU masters are typically a year (10 months), where many US programs may stretch that out to 12/18 months or 2 years but will still call the 12 or 15 month programs a "year".

Id look into the EdX series of MicroMasters programs. The program at University of Michigan is 5 courses long and would cost you about $1K and earn you 12-15 graduate credits, thats about half of a Masters degree, which you could then continue at UM or transfer those course somewhere else. Half a degree for $1K is a very good price. The program is entirely online and a lot like Apple Uni.

The main thing is - make it an online degree. Otherwise the cost of the course will be dwarfed by the opportunity cost of not having a salary for a year.

I'm definitely on the side of keep it as cheap as possible, though also agree with PsyGuy that it should have some potential use in the future. Some UK unis are offering distance learning MA Ed.Ld courses. Costs range between £4,500 and £8,000. Even if it never gets you into leadership, it should pay itself back providing you stay in education and aren't near retirement age. And if it does get you into leadership, then it'll have paid for itself many times over.

Charles Sturt University in Australia has fully online Masters of Ed programmes and they run a three session year so you can finish faster if you work all year round. Their two big programmes that I'm aware of are Masters of International Education (School Leadership) which I'm doing and one for Teacher Librarians which may seem strange to most but in Australia, school librarians are fully qualified teachers first...

I'm nearly finished my first semester and I'm very happy with the course... the international flavour to a lot of the subjects is interesting and having seen my next two course outlines as well as the two I've done you have a lot of choice to follow up on areas of interest rather than be dictated what areas to research...

To justify, I also have a U.K. Master of Arts and it was done as distance but with residential school each term... it took fifteen months to complete.

@tafawke

The online fees for a Masters at Charles Sturt are AUS$22,080/year. At that rate you might as well go anywhere and get an IB T&L with Masters or just go to a better Uni.