USC Online Teaching Degree a Hit

The University of Southern California has slowly moved into the elite educational institution column, in large part because of the quality of its law school, medical school, film school and other focused departments like their Rossier School of Education. Like most high-end traditional schools, USC has been leery of online education due to questions about the quality of distance learning and fears of diluting their higher education "brand."

A recently arrived dean at Rossier named Karen Gallagher and a new firm that seeks to partner with elite institutions in moving them into the online education world, has resulted in an experiment at USC that is showing signs of success. USC is offering one of its critical teaching degrees online, the Master of Arts in Teaching. The program is an accelerated, thirteen month assignment that provides the critical student teaching hours as well as the (virtual) classroom learning.

The results have been outstanding. Rossier has been graduating 150 students with the MAT per year. In May, their first online enrollment numbered 144 students, more than the 100 that enrolled in the campus program. This fall the online enrollment has tripled to 302, putting USC in the position of quadrupling the number of its graduated teachers prepared for certification in just one year. Moreover, a higher percentage of online students are pursuing teaching degrees in the sciences, an area where the teacher shortage is particularly acute.

A relatively new company called 2Tor is partnering with the University and providing some critical elements not usually found in online degree programs. 2Tor was founded by the man who founded Princeton Review, the company that administers college entrance exams. The company will provide the technology for the program as well as some other unique contributions.

2Tor has agreed to help establish a system whereby the substantial tuition for the master's program is paid for in return for a graduate's agreement to teach in a school where they are needed for three years. Moreover, 2Tor will find the student teaching opportunities for each enrolled student, whether they are in Los Angeles or Cleveland.

It has taken an innovative dean and a for-profit startup with a lot of clout to make this program possible. Dean Gallagher has also redesigned Rossier's education administration degrees, which was a bold step in itself. Now the online master's program is taking off, another step for another established university in the gradual drift towards online education.