I did not realize that scores of studies are being conducted to determine the effectiveness of a master's degree in education for classroom teachers. I do remember the long hours I spent studying in order to receive my master's degree. Most of my study hours were at night after my three children were in bed. All of my classes were intense and difficult. I learned how to interpret test scores, analyze research, and plan effective reading and math strategies for students with learning disabilities.
Getting a master's degree was also a test of endurance. One professor told us at the beginning of a summer school class that we had to read a 375 page book on remedial reading by the next day. After we finished laughing, she told us that we would also have a test the next day over the book. None of us could believe it. She dismissed the class early, and we realized that she was serious. I went home, ignored my children, and read. I read all night. Somehow I made an 87 on the test. I never forgot this awful experience when I made assignments to my students. It helped me to see things from the student's perspective.
The article "Are highly educated teachers worth the extra pay?" on dallasnews.com questions the automatic assigning of stipends for a master's degree.
"If we pay for credentials, teachers have an incentive to seek and schools have an incentive to provide easy credentials," said Arthur Levine, a researcher who once headed Columbia University's Teachers College. "If, on the other hand, we only pay for performance, teachers have an incentive to seek and schools have an incentive to provide excellent training."
A large body of research casts doubt on the value of master's programs, of any kind, in the classroom. A roundup published in 2003 by The Economic Journal, a publication of the international Royal Economic Society, unearthed 170 relevant studies. Of those, 15 concluded that master's programs helped teachers, nine found they hurt them, and 146 found no effect.
There are defenders of the stipends paid to teachers who have advanced degrees.
Richard Kouri, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association and its 65,000 members, has seen some of the studies and is familiar with the findings. But his experience and his gut both tell him that the scientists are missing some vital fact that would explain why so many teachers speak so highly of master's programs.
As for the stipends, he defends them adamantly. "Even if, when it's all said and done, some definitive report says that teachers are as effective with just a bachelor's as they are with a master's, I think there are other benefits to encouraging a culture where people pursue a lifetime of learning," he said.
Some feel that the stipends will continue because teachers "make up the nation's most powerful political lobby, and more than half of them hold master's degrees." Universities will also fight to keep their programs.
I haven't heard of any other profession where studies are being conducted to question the effectiveness of higher education. One of the things I did learn in graduate school was to be skeptical of research studies.