Tennessee’s Top Online Education Master’s Programs for Ambitious Educators

The curriculum and instruction specialization teaches K-12 educators to design, apply, and evaluate resources and provide curriculum leadership in classrooms, schools, and school districts. Programs often allow their students to tailor their studies to focus on their individual career interests (elementary, middle school, high school, ESOL, STEM teaching, etc.). Curriculum and instruction is most often a specialization in MEd programs that may or may not lead to initial teaching licensure.

Students seeking to begin or advance their careers in administrative and managerial roles should consider educational leadership. Through concentrations or course options, students are able to meet their particular career interests for positions in pre-K, elementary, middle, and secondary schools, at two-year and four-year postsecondary institutions, or at the school district level.

The educational technology specialization is for education professionals interested in developing and implementing technologies for enhancing education practices. Graduates may work in individual schools — in fact, they may even be classroom teachers or librarians who also work in this area. However, they’re often employed at the school district level or as curriculum, development, or training specialists with private businesses, educational consultant firms, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

Special education master’s programs prepare students to work with students with physical, emotional, and learning disabilities in classrooms, social services agencies, educational consulting firms, and more. Sample course topics include learning and behavioral disabilities, introduction to autism, diagnosis and treatment of reading disabilities, gifted education, and technology in special education.

Online master’s programs in math education, of course, prepare students to become math teachers. Many often pair this with an endorsement to teach at a particular grade level (e.g., high school) to help ensure they can teach what math topics most interests them. However, those who complete this specialization may also become department heads, district administrators overseeing math or STEM, curriculum developers, and more.

Many people in online master’s in education students pick a specialty. Therefore, you should settle on a concentration before choosing a program. To do this, consider the following:

• Your professional strengths, talents, and interests
• The specialization’s curriculum
• State certification requirements
• The grade level(s) you want to work with (if relevant)
• What the job market looks like

How long your Tennessee online education master’s program will take to complete depends on the program you choose, but typical program lengths are from one to two years full-time and two to three years part-time.

In-person field experiences are almost always part of a master’s of education program. For students in teaching programs, classroom experiences are required for obtaining licensure in Tennessee and elsewhere. Specific hours and grade level requirements vary by state license/certification type. For students in non-teaching programs, in-person experiences—at least those working with students — may or may not be required. In most cases, field experiences are unpaid.

The Tennessee education licensure exams you need to take depend on your career choice, though you may even have to take one or two before you can enroll in your program if you aren’t already licensed. In addition to generalized educator exams, potential administrators, instructional support personnel, CTE teachers, and other educators need to pass a subject-specific endorsement test.

The State of Tennessee requires educators to possess educator licensure to work in the state. Generally speaking, the state offers practitioner licenses for early-career educators, and renewable professional licenses are for those who have been in the field for three years. Regardless of where you are in your career, your license will fall into one of the following categories:

• Teacher (Academic) License: For those intending to teach in an academic setting
• Occupational Licenses: Necessary for those wanting to teach career and technical education (welding, accounting, hospitality, and more)
• School Services Personnel License: Required for those intending to provide professional education services to students not involving direct instruction (school counselor, school psychologist, speech-language pathologist, etc.)
• Postsecondary Educator License: For current or previous college professors or instructors who want to teach high school
• JROTC License: Exclusively for active or retired military members who want to work as a JROTC teacher
• Instructional Leader License: For school administrators and supervisors; those training for these positions also need a specific license during their schooling

Beyond your overarching license, you need an endorsement in your chosen subject(s).

Licensure requirements generally include completion of a formal education program, practice experience, and submittal of qualifying scores on all required content assessments. (See Step 5). Regardless of type, you’ll apply for your Tennessee educator license through this TNCompass portal.