Master of Science in Education with a Concentration in Curriculum and Instruction Online
Advance your career and help shape the future of education inside the classroom and beyond.
12/23/24
Next Application Due Date
1/6/25
Start Classes
Program Overview
The online MSEd Curriculum and Instruction experience
$16,605*
Total Tuition
12 months
Program Duration
45
Credit Hours
Become a teacher leader or pursue higher-level positions in education with the Master of Science in Education with a Concentration in Curriculum and Instruction online program from Southern Oregon University. A teaching license is not required for this concentration — expertise in curriculum and instruction can be useful to anyone who designs learning experiences.
In this 100 percent online program, you will develop the ability to design innovative instructional strategies to support specific learners. You will also build a foundation for creating assessments that facilitate leveraging data effectively to determine teaching efficacy and learn pedagogical best practices with an emphasis on differentiated instruction for diverse learners.
You can also personalize this program to fit your career goals by choosing electives in your specialty area.
Traditional Education settings for those with a teaching license:
- District-Level Curriculum Leader
- Teacher Leader
- Program Administrator
- Curriculum and Assessment Director
- Curriculum/Instruction Specialist
Graduates of this online master’s in curriculum and instruction program will be able to:
- design innovative instructional processes and tools using pedagogical practices to support all learners,
- apply learning theory, research, and practices to curriculum design and assessment of specific subject matter, programs, or educational levels, and
- integrate learning data effectively to determine teaching efficacy.
Alternative Educational settings for those without a teaching license:
- Curriculum & Instruction Coordinator
- Training Specialist
- Instructional Coach
- Learning Specialist
- Instructional Designer
SOU is #1 in the “Best Colleges for K-12 Education Degree Programs” rankings in the U.S. by Schools.com, 2020.
Also available online:
SOU offers online graduate-level education programs in a variety of concentration areas. Explore all of our online education programs.
$16,605*
Total Tuition
As few as 12 months
Program Duration
45
Credit Hours
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Tuition
Pay-by-the-course tuition is easy on your wallet
Our online MSEd in Curriculum and Instruction program features the same affordable, pay-as-you-go tuition for all in-state and out-of-state students.
Tuition breakdown:
$16,605*
Total Tuition
$369
Per Credit Hour
Master of Science in Education with a Concentration in Curriculum and Instruction Program Tuition and Fees
The following is the tuition breakdown for the MSEd in C&I degree program.
| Program | Per Credit Hour | Per 4 Credit Hours | Per Program |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSEd in C&I | $369 | $1,476 | $16,605* |
Note: SOU credit hours are quarter hours. 45 SOU hours = 30 semester credit hours.
Fees: There is a $60 application fee and an $85 graduation fee. Proctoring fees, if required, are not included.
*Tuition and fees are subject to change.
Tuition breakdown:
$16,605*
Total Tuition
$369
Per Credit Hour
Calendar
Learn our application dates and class schedules
The curriculum and instruction master’s program online is designed to be flexible for busy professionals.
Now enrolling:
12/23/24
Apply Date
1/6/25
Class Starts
| Term | Start Date | App Deadline | Registration Deadline | Tuition Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter | 1/6/25 | 12/23/24 | 1/2/25 | 1/10/25 |
| Spring | 3/31/25 | 3/17/25 | 3/26/25 | 4/4/25 |
| Summer 1 | 6/16/25 | 6/2/25 | 6/11/25 | 6/20/25 |
| Summer 2 | 8/4/25 | 7/21/25 | 7/30/25 | 8/8/25 |
Now enrolling:
12/23/24
Apply Date
1/6/25
Class Starts
Have questions or need more information about our online programs?
Ready to take the rewarding path toward earning your degree online?
Admissions
Ready to apply? Check out our requirements.
The admission process for our MSEd with a Concentration in Curriculum and Instruction online is simple and streamlined so you can get started right away. Requirements for admission include:
Admission Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution
- 3.0 GPA cumulative on undergraduate coursework
- No GRE or teaching license required for admission
MSEd with a Concentration in Curriculum and Instruction Online Admission Requirements
- Applicants with a bachelor's degree in any discipline from an accredited institution and transcripts verifying a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale are granted admission status into the MSEd online degree program.
- We
encourage you to apply with a GPA below 3.0 if you have work or life experience
that would contribute to your success in our program. Applications with GPAs
under 3.0 are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and additional information may
be requested. You may be asked to provide:
- An additional explanation of your intentions in pursuing the degree and a description of your readiness to succeed in an accelerated online degree program, or
- Two or three letters of recommendation speaking to your ability to succeed in an accelerated online degree program, or
- GRE scores of at least 145 Verbal, 145 Quantitative, and 3.5 Analytical Writing.
- Applicants must submit official transcripts from all previous educational institutions attended.
- No GRE or teaching license is required to enter the program.
- International student applicants interested in enrolling in the SOU online MSEd program should contact the Office of International Programs for information related to international admissions and visa restrictions. Contact the Office of International Programs by emailing [email protected].
Southern Oregon University considers you an international student if you are NOT a:
- U.S. citizen or national;
- U.S. permanent resident or other eligible noncitizen.
Graduate Admission Requirements for International Students:
- Applicants must have a bachelor's degree equivalent to a four-year U.S. bachelor's degree from a recognized university in that country.
- Transcripts from all colleges and universities attended; documents must be official and include an English translation. Applicants are required to have documents mailed to SOU in a sealed envelope from the school, which have not been opened. SOU will not accept scans, faxes, photocopies, or already opened documents.
- If English is not your native language, you will need to submit a TOEFL or IELTS score.
- You do not need to submit a score if you earned a bachelor's or master's degree from a U.S. college/university or completed your education in a native English-speaking country.
If you need to submit official documents by mail, send them to:
SOU Admissions Department1250 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
Have a question? Call us at 800-490-7974800-490-7974.
Courses
What you’ll learn in the master’s in curriculum and instruction online
The master’s degree in curriculum and instruction online program is comprised of 11 courses (45 credit hours), including 25 credit hours of core courses and 20 credit hours of concentration courses.
You must take the following courses.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 5
Explores issues in education and the context in which they exist. Examines, analyzes and applies concepts in professional ethics and policies, foundational philosophies, research, leadership, and contemporary issues within their focused area of education. Learners will engage in a comprehensive review of research materials available for advanced studies in education. The intent of this course is to guide graduate learners in exploring the purpose of research, to answer questions and acquire new knowledge, thereby making important and valuable contributions to the various fields within the discipline of education.
By the end of this course, students will be prepared to:
- Explain the ideas, complexities, and stakeholders that shape policy
- Conduct research and make professional policy and practice recommendations on a contemporary issue
- Investigate and analyze contemporary educational issues at a local, state, national and international level
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 5
Equips learners with the necessary skills to become critical consumers of research related to their work. Learners will be introduced to a variety of research approaches common to the field of education. Learners will be able to evaluate, and interpret qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods and action research.
By the end of this course, students will be prepared to:
- Evaluate the quality of quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and action research
- Interpret the findings of quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and action research
- Describe the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and action research
- Assess for the most common flaws in quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and action research
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 5
Focuses on the development of culturally responsive discourse and practices in the workplace. Explores how cultural perspectives, experiences and histories shape individuals who work and learn together as members of groups. Diversity in the work environment promotes acceptance, respect, and teamwork despite differences in race, identity, gender, age, ability, class, language, religion, or communication styles. Students will develop the self-awareness and cross-cultural competence to promote positive and productive relationships in diverse contexts. They will learn to lead and collaborate effectively, to interact thoughtfully, to address barriers of bias, discrimination, and inequity, and to champion inclusive strategies that engage and integrate people of different identities, backgrounds, and worldviews.
Course learning objectives:
- Determine how beliefs, values, and attitudes about diversity developed and can be examined and revised
- Apply terms, concepts, theories, and practices used in diversity literature and discourse to knowledge, attitudes and skills
- Analyze individual and institutional systems of power and privilege as they pertain to equity, access, and opportunity for diverse populations
- Synthesize historical and contemporary conditions and challenges experienced by diverse populations and explain why they are perpetuated and how they can be changed
- Create a plan of action to foster responsive cultural communication across differences in order to establish and maintain positive and productive work environments
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 5
Translate learning theory, innovative curricular design and 21st century skills into instructional decisions and practice. Engages learners in applying 21st century knowledge and skills to instructional decisions and practices. Introduces learners to learning theory and innovative curricular design. Challenges learners to perform a comprehensive examination of the processes, content, and assessments related to the spectrum of curriculum areas to their professional arena.
Course learning objectives:
- Apply the 21st-century curriculum approaches, theories, and learning models to instructional decisions and practices
- Analyze the emerging policies, trends, and practices that influence educational design and student learning
- Incorporate systematic thinking and instructional design models to their personal practice of curriculum design
- Participate in a professional learning community of educational designers
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 5
Students are guided through the development of a professional project design. Provides students the opportunities to practice research and professional writing skills specific to their area of concentration.
Course learning objectives:
- Identify a problem in their specific professional area through a needs assessment and propose an informed solution that ethically addresses the issue
- Conduct a literature review providing a broader theoretical and contextual framework for the project
- Develop a systematic and ethical process for the design, implementation and evaluation that incorporates appropriate theories, concepts, and strategies for achieving the project’s purpose and goals
- Develop and present a professional project report in APA format
You must take the following courses.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
Explores research and strategies of various forms, uses and approaches to educational assessment. Learners will examine current assessment tools, strategies and methods to design culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate assessments, and learn how to evaluate and use assessment data to improve learning.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
Utilizes research and professional practice from the field to identify a framework for differentiation in the K-12 classroom. Investigates current trends in education to evaluate how to incorporate a differentiated approach to instruction to meet the diverse needs of all students. Provides professional educators with the key principles of differentiation and proven techniques to implement such strategies in today’s classrooms.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
In this course, learners will re-examine assumptions and habits in teaching and learning. We can no longer separate the mind from the heart and spirit in classroom and program practices. This course examines the pedagogical leader’s responsibility to help others embrace disequilibrium, discomfort and uncertainty while embracing inquiry, wonder, curiosity, and passion in their work with children and families. Learners will examine and design learning as a co-created relationship between children and educators using investigation, questioning, and understanding strengthening children’s thinking about their explorations.
By the end of this course, you will be prepared to:
- Explain the meaning of pedagogy and its impact in your work as early education leaders and champions for the field
- Describe how creating a culture of inquiry invites engagement and vitality in your work and possibly decrease burnout and turnover in the field
- Analyze professional learning as a pedagogical practice designed to nurture educators to be thinkers (eg, self-aware, reflective and responsive, creative and curious, excited by complexity, energized by your own and children’s inquiry)
- Reconceptualize the professional lens through which you view children, colleagues and families, using inquiry, reflection and research as a foundation for your work
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
Utilizes science investigations common in an elementary classroom to deepen scientific understanding for the adult learner while also exploring the developing mind of the young child. Addresses current societal problems and the role of scientific and technological advances in finding solutions through project-based inquiry.
By the end of this course, students will be prepared to:
- Analyze the value of integrating STREAM into the elementary classroom
- Define scientific concepts that are developmentally appropriate for young children
- Design an Integrated STREAM Unit connecting children’s literature to scientific concept(s)
- Demonstrate leadership skills in developing an action plan for integrating STREAM instruction in the elementary school setting
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
Equips teachers with a range of effective instructional methodologies for facilitating ELL students' learning. Examines innovative materials for developing culturally appropriate learning experiences. Presents approaches to instruction in specific content areas (reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies). Examines and integrates the use of current technology to enhance instruction for ELLs.
Course learning objectives:
- Culture: Candidates know and understand the major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to the nature and role of culture and cultural groups to construct learning environments that support ELL students’ cultural identities, language and literacy development, and content area achievement
- Planning, Implementing, and Managing Instruction: Candidates know and understand the use of standards-based practices and strategies related to planning, implementing, and managing ELD and content instruction; including classroom organization, teaching strategies for developing and integrating language skills and choosing and adapting classroom resources
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
Introduces project-based learning as a pedagogical approach that emphasizes student-driven inquiry and problem solving, and parallels the way in which project teams are organized in the workplace. The goal is to develop the educator’s knowledge of project learning and to develop an understanding for using multi-task inquiry-based activities in the classroom. This course will focus on a project plan that emphasizes critical thinking, collaboration and the appropriate use of technology.
By the end of this course, students will be prepared to:
- Analyze the pedagogical implications of project methods and develop their own standards-based project plan
- Develop collaborative methods using multiple technology standards, including ISTE standards for teachers and students and 21st century skills
- Develop learning experiences that engage learners in collaborative and self-directed learning and that extend learner interaction with ideas and people locally and globally
- Use supplementary resources and technologies effectively to ensure accessibility and relevance for all learners
- Engage learners in generating and evaluating new ideas and novel approaches, seeking inventive solutions to problems, and developing original work
- Engage learners in multiple ways of demonstrating knowledge and skill as part of the assessment process
- Promote learners’ understanding of PBL process development through reflective questioning and presentation of project overview
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
Explores how learning occurs within organizations and characteristics of effective professional learning. Examines standards, models and conditions for implementing and sustaining learning within and across organizations. Explores learning designs that reflect adult learning theory, incorporate stakeholder voice and choice, and support continued growth as individuals advance along the career span. Topics covered from theoretical and practical perspectives include understanding people, motivation, group dynamics, communication, leadership, power, politics, conflict, diversity, culture, decision making, change and organizational structure.
By the end of this course, students will be prepared to:
- Identify key theories and best practices of a learning organization
- Integrate objective, compassionate, inclusive communication into one’s interpersonal relations
- Evaluate effective team dynamics that foster a shared vision through team learning
- Create plans to holistically improve an organization by identifying a problem/issue within an organization, identifying leverage points for change, and mapping goals for systemic improvement
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
Develops competence in teaching the interactive processes of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and thinking across the curriculum. Focuses on strategies for teaching students of varied backgrounds and abilities (Grades 3-12). For students in grades 3-12 to be successful in the content areas they must be able to read and comprehend various informational texts and write for different purposes and audiences. This course provides teachers with the tools to improve student achievement in the content areas through the developmental appropriate integration of literacy strategies.
Course learning objectives:
- Students demonstrate the principles of discipline specific literacy practices for relevant content area(s)
- Students construct strategies for literacy instruction in their content area
- Students integrate literacy instruction strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners
- Students construct strategies to investigate and synthesize current literacy practices of their students into classroom literacy practices
- Students analyze classroom texts for students and professional texts for practitioners that support discipline literacies of diverse learners
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 4
Provides teachers an understanding of issues related to reading instruction and assessment. Practicing educators are provided research-validated strategies and assessment tools to inform instruction, meet the needs of individual learners, and develop an understanding of the issues related to effective reading instruction. Focuses on the integral relationship between informal classroom assessments and effective instructional strategies within the context of a balanced reading approach.
Course learning objectives:
- Analyze types of reading assessments and their purposes, strengths, and limitations
- Develop appropriate and varied instructional approaches, including those that develop word recognition, language comprehension, strategic knowledge, and reading– writing connections
- Apply a wide range of reading assessment tools and practices (that range from individual and standardized group tests to informal, individual, and group classroom assessment strategies) to plan and evaluate instruction
- Explore issues in literacy that impact our mindset and assessment practices
*Tuition and fees are subject to change.
