WGU Master's in Elementary Education - Progress Thread

[John tesy]

I am moving through this degree pretty fast despite not already being a teacher, paraeducator, etc so thought I would write about how I am doing here.


The WGU Master's in Elementary Education for Licensure (this license is valid for kindergarten through 8th grade) is what looks like around 20 normal courses + around 6 courses directly related to internship, classroom observation, student teaching or portfolio, totalling at 51 CPUs for the entire degree. On top of that, as additional rules for state licensure, you need to pass what is essentially a state GED test at the k-12 level, do an internship (may take 3 months to find placement, and is usually not possible to find in the summer months), get fingerprinted background checks, etc. All of this red tape means that even if you finish the actual WGU courses super fast it is almost impossible to graduate for licensure in just 1 term - especially if the schools are on summer vacation during any part of your term. 2 terms is doable by anyone however.

Why did I choose WGU? I actually contacted several schools and teacher licensing agencies, as I already had a Bachelor's degree. WGU was by far the cheapest and easiest option. Two companies had quoted me at around $20,000 to get a state license. I went to the local school district office to ask about how to get licensed in person - they refused to even glance at the resume I brought. After I submitted proof I was going to WGU though they offered me a job right away (see below!).

In the month between registration, acceptance, and term start:

• Created and studied Anki deck made from Quizlet flashcards on each course subject. This course includes a virtual classroom activity where student characters respond in real-time. Check the https://wgustudentportal.us/ for guidance on completing such assignments effectively.
  
• Got basic Complio background check (required for student teaching) through WGU.
  
• Filled out as much of the info on the OSPI e-certification (state teacher license) website and other places required for student teaching as possible.
  
• Applied for jobs at local school district. As I had no official WGU enrollment letter yet I attached a background check proving I did through WGU.
  
• Applied for contract work managing exchange students, which requires a state license to do. The idea is to boost my CV with some form of licensed child-related work.
  

What strategies can help WGU students complete their teaching degree faster while meeting all state licensure requirements?

[nykorn]

What strategies can help WGU students complete their teaching degree faster while meeting all state licensure requirements?

The major bottleneck is only two things. The internships and the way the courses are set up.

1) To speed things up, WGU should apply to as many schools as possible for the PCE (pre-student teaching internship) and student teaching internship placements from the start. As it is now, WGU applied to 1 school, waited a month and a half, then applied to a second school, waited a month, applied to 3 more schools, waited, then applied to 3 more. They should have just applied to these 8 schools all at once.

I only have 10 weeks left of term 2. I've ended up feeling dejected and started neglecting my studies, I feel like I'm sitting around waiting for schools to take action and I feel like I'm throwing away months' worth of money on the wait. My degree is going to have to be finished in 3 terms instead of 2. That's an extra $4,500 or so. For a total of around $13,000 for the Master's. I keep thinking that I could have gotten a cheaper degree at another school or I could have majored in a different subject at WGU like Accounting which would have been finished in just 1 term for $4,700. I do really like WGU but it certainly does cost money. I live in poverty (income of $1,000 or less, usually less, per month) so the tuition is a big deal to me emotionally.

You also can't even apply for a student internship until you've finished your PCE internship. That'll be another long wait to get accepted. I assume it's done this way due to state requirements regarding applications. What WGU could theoretically do is find schools willing to accept you early on based on your PCE application, and just not do any of the finalizing until you've actually finished your PCE, at which point they update your application and confirm the school is still willing to accept you for the student internship. They need to figure out a way to streamline this whole process with the schools.

2) The courses often have repeating info, which I understand is by design but it does take up your time to reread stuff you were already taught before, and is demotivating for some of us. I believe some courses should be merged and some should be re-arranged so it results in the sense of less work overall. For example if you are taking a Methodologies course, which tells you stuff like "find a way to teach about Health while in Math class", you should take that after you've taken the content classes on Math and Health. I noticed some courses like Pacific Northwest Methodologies have almost no new content (literally, it was only a couple paragraphs of new content, or so I felt) and should really just be merged with the Pacific Northwest Histories course.

Anyways, I started my degree in March, it is now December. I only have 3 assignments left I can do. I'm no longer accelerating as there is no point, but I'll finish these last 3 before the end of December. WGU's homepage says that for this degree, 64% of graduates finish within 2 years.