The Educational Specialist degree is designed to provide students with a masters an advanced degree. Please see the Specialist section of the STL website to learn more about specialist degrees.

Admission Criteria

1. Earned masters degree in a social science field
2. Minimum of 1000 on the verbal/quantitative portions of the General GRE. Applicants must have a minimum of 450 on the verbal section of the GRE.
3. Upper division undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher
4. Statement of purpose describing why you want this degree and how obtaining this degree can help you meet personal and career goals
5. Three letters of reference from college/university faculty members. To use the letter of recommendation form, please click here.
6. Two or three years of relevant work experience, preferably in classroom teaching or a school setting.
7. Strong content background.

Minimum Coursework Requirements

Students must have 36 hours of graduate coursework beyond the master’s degree for a total of 72 hours of graduate coursework beyond the bachelor’s degree. Specialist students will have required coursework in the following areas:

• Area of Specialization: 15 hours of graduate coursework in Social Studies Education
• Curriculum/Foundations: 12 hours of graduate coursework in curriculum or foundations, including areas such as teacher education, technology, media/literacy, or social/historical foundations
• Research Methods: 3 credits in research methods courses such as EDF 6403 or EDF 6475
• Supervised Research: 6 hours of EDG 6910, Supervised Research
• Written examination/project and an oral defense of the examination/project

Enrollment Requirements

The specialist degree can be completed part-time or full-time. Students must register for at least 6 credit hours during each semester of specialist work.