Founded by Joseph Baldwin in 1867, Truman State University was originally called the North Missouri Normal School and Commercial College. In 1870, the school received official recognition by the Missouri General Assembly, which designated it the first public teaching college in Missouri and the name was shortened to North Missouri Normal School. Between 1870 and 1968 the name of the university changed two times, however, the mission remained the same. In 1968, the Board of Regents changed the name of the institution to Northeast Missouri State College and implemented programs other than teacher education, and in 1972 changed the name again to Northeast Missouri State University. In 1985, the university’s mission changed from an open enrollment, regional, multipurpose university to Missouri’s only statewide public liberal arts and sciences university. The state’s goal was to provide a public institution that could compete with the nation’s finest undergraduate liberal arts colleges. On July 1, 1996 the name was changed to Truman State University.
Truman State University is a rurally-located public university in Kirksville, which is in the heart of northeast Missouri. Truman is committed to providing a high-quality liberal arts and sciences education to academically-talented students as defined by the Admissions Office (a holistic approach that includes performance in academics, improvement trends with grades, involvement in extra-curricular activities, leadership roles, and potential success) from across the state of Missouri, as well as from all parts of the world. Based on the academic caliber of its students, Truman State University is a highly selective institution, as designated by the Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development. The university has five schools: Arts and Letters, Business (including a nationally-recognized accounting division), Health Sciences and Education, Science and Mathematics, and Social and Cultural Studies.
Kirksville, the county seat of Adair County, is among the most populous cities in northeastern Missouri and accounts for 69.3% of the population of Adair County. The population of the town is 88.4% White, although there has been a recent influx of Congolese families leading to an increase in racial diversity. Truman is the second-largest employer in the county after Adair Foods (Kraft-Heinz). Thirty-four percent of people live below the poverty line in Kirksville and Adair County has 23.9% of the population living below poverty.
The student population consists of 4,939 undergraduate students and 292 graduate students across all programs. Truman’s student body consists of 82.9% Missouri residents with the majority coming from St. Louis and Kansas City. There are 401 total international students and approximately 900 students from surrounding states. Truman’s campus population is 79.2% White and 58.5% female. Truman has been called the “Harvard of the Midwest” based upon highly selective status with the Missouri Department of Higher Education, academic rigor, and the reputation of a Truman degree and has been ranked number one for public schools in the Midwest region for 25 consecutive years according to U.S. News and World Report.
The Master of Arts in Education (MAE)
Programs
The Education Department at Truman State University, which is housed in the School of Health Sciences and Education, offers the Master of Arts in Education (MAE), a professional teaching degree with initial certification. The process of developing the professional program is marked by strong cooperation with the P-12 community and based on established education research and essential knowledge of sound professional practice. The MAE program exemplifies an integrated approach to liberal education, professional studies, and specialty studies as Joseph Baldwin’s original school did. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has approved eighteen teacher education certification areas for Truman State University’s MAE program. There are thirteen areas for initial certification:
- Biology 9-12;
- Chemistry 9-12;
- Elementary 1-6;
- English 9-12;
- French K-12;
- Mathematics 9-12;
- Mild to Moderate Cross Categorical Special Education K-12;
- Music Instrumental K-12;
- Music Vocal K-12;
- Physics 9-12;
- Physical Education K-12;
- Social Science 9-12; and
- Spanish K-12.
Three areas are approved for add-on certification:
- English Language Learners K-12;
- Gifted Education K-12; and
- Health K-12.
Candidates enrolling in the professional program must have a baccalaureate degree and the majority of MAE students pursue their bachelor’s degree at Truman. (Truman does not offer an undergraduate degree in Education.) The basic components of the professional teacher preparation program are (a) graduate pedagogical coursework; (b) 12 hours of graduate content in the teaching specialty; (c) the teaching internship experience; and (d) research. For the majority of Truman students seeking certification, many of the additional courses required for Missouri certification are met by careful planning of the Dialogues (the liberal arts general studies program) or through electives taken during their undergraduate degree program. The MAE program graduated 89 students in 2018-2019, 80 students in 2019-2020, and 92 students in 2020-2021.
| Program Specification Table for AAQEP Accreditation | ||||
| Degree/Program Name and Level | State Certificate, License, Endorsement, or Other Credential | Number of Completers 2018-2019 | Number of Completers 2019-2020 | Number of Completers 2020-2021 |
| Master of Arts in Education (MAE) – initial certification endorsements at master’s level only | Initial Certifications | 89* | 80** | 90** |
| Elementary 1-6: | 36 | 32 | 29 | |
| Secondary 9-12: | ||||
| Biology | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Chemistry | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| English | 10 | 9 | 15 | |
| Mathematics | 3 | 2 | 3 | |
| Physics | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Social Science | 11 | 7 | 6 | |
| K-12 | ||||
| French | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Music – Instrumental | 4 | 9 | 11 | |
| Music – Vocal | 4 | 2 | 3 | |
| Physical Education | 6 | 3 | 5 | |
| Spanish | 5 | 1 | 6 | |
| Special Education | 6 | 9 | 6 | |
| Add-on Certifications: | ||||
| Gifted K-12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| ESOL K-12 | 3 | 3 | 2 | |
| Health K-12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Note. *Indicates that only one student earned an undergraduate degree from a different university. **Indicates that no students earned an undergraduate degree from a different university.
The specific programs within the MAE have core requirements that are similar to one another, but include some flexibility designed to meet the needs of the particular discipline. For example, the special education program has a professional school model and all students complete their internships in the spring. The music program offers vocal and/or instrumental options for students that includes parallel but more specialized attention (Advanced Instrumental Conducting versus Advanced Choral Conducting, for example). The English program offers an MA in addition to the MAE and many students earn both degrees. The length of time that each program takes is dependent on the candidate’s particular program, interests, and undergraduate experiences (e.g., AP courses transferred, knowing as a freshman they want to enter the MAE). This variability is a challenge at times with recruitment, because a blanket statement does not describe the specific programs well.
Faculty
Special Education and Elementary Education are the only programs where the faculty are housed within the Education Department. All the other programs have faculty who have additional roles within their individual content departments. These dual roles can be time-consuming for those faculty who have a primary contract in the other departments, but the advantage is that the faculty bring content knowledge and pedagogical skills to the MAE. These dual roles also create strong communication and camaraderie among the departments as faculty and staff work together to understand individual programs and program requirements. We are fortunate that our Department Chairs, Deans, and colleagues in other departments are very supportive of the MAE program and work with the MAE to create positive experiences for our students and support our faculty.
Initial Certification
Truman is the sole public institution of higher learning in Missouri with initial certification only at the master’s level. The structure of the program means that students must complete an undergraduate degree in a major of choice at Truman or another institution (students can also transfer to Truman prior to earning the bachelor’s degree) and then pursue the MAE degree to meet state certification requirements. Truman MAE completers enter the workforce with a graduate degree, with an undergraduate degree in a discipline. That means that when our graduates earn their initial certification that do so with a depth of content knowledge that exceeds DESE’s minimum expectations and, because they have an advanced degree, they are usually paid more than those with just an undergraduate degree. Our completers value this higher starting salary as a return for their investment in a graduate degree.
Implications of Geographic Location
Kirksville, the county seat of Adair County, is the most populous city in northeastern Missouri at 17,505 people according to the last census. Like many small communities, Kirksville enjoys a strong sense of community and the natural beauty of the area draws hunters and outdoors people from around the state. Unfortunately, there is a high level of poverty in Northeast Missouri, with Adair County’s rate at 23.9%. This surpasses the poverty rate of the City of St. Louis, which is 22.8%. Many of our candidates are from suburban areas of the state and the cultural differences they experience in the area rural schools provide opportunities to discuss culturally responsive teaching. For example, hunting is a favorite pastime in this area, and some schools will celebrate students’ turkey and deer kills with bulletin board displays, which is a very different culture for some of our students. While the opportunities to discuss culturally responsive teaching relative to rural environments is a strength of our location, we struggle to provide meaningful opportunities for students to experience the realities of urban schools. We have had completers who want to live in the St. Louis or Kansas City areas, but have limited urban teaching experiences from which to draw, which can represent a significant challenge if they are employed in urban settings rather than the suburban settings from which many of our students come, or the rural setting from which we draw many of our candidates and in which they get many of their field experiences.
Field Placements
Due to our rural location most early and mid-level field placements are made in school districts with enrollments varying from less than one hundred students to just a few hundred. These include districts with one building housing K-12 for an entire county. Our students must drive to these smaller districts on two-lane state highways. If we have large numbers of students who need placements in English (for example), there are fewer opportunities in our local districts due to the size of the schools. The Field Experience Director tries to keep these early and mid-level placements within a thirty mile radius of Kirksville, but, at times, students are placed further. In addition, several of our Northeast Missouri districts have moved to a four-day week with Mondays reserved for professional development for teachers and staff. This model yields one less school day for our candidates to observe or teach. This particularly impacts undergraduate pre-MAE students as their non-education undergraduate majors provide less flexibility with courses and schedules since these majors are not obliged to accommodate public school calendars.
The internship placements (student teaching), too, can be challenging when trying to fulfill the placement requests students have, which we honor unless there are extreme circumstances. Some students request northeast Missouri placements, while others may return to their home areas which are three or four hours from Kirksville. Financial and time issues become critical topics as University Supervisors from MAE Faculty housed at Truman make travel arrangements and changes to teaching schedules to set observation times with the interns/student teachers and cooperating schools. Furthermore, some of the MAE programs hire adjuncts to supervise their interns and communication with supervisors can vary among programs and supervisors with the MAE.
Accreditation
Truman State University has been accredited since 1914 by the Higher Learning Commission. Multiple undergraduate Truman State University programs are also externally accredited by discipline-specific bodies (e.g., music, chemistry, communication disorders). In fall 2016, the MAE at Truman received national recognition by the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). However, it is the Missouri State Board of Education that is charged with the accreditation approval of Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) in Missouri and their individual certification areas based on Missouri Standards for the Preparation of Educators (MoSPE). All individual certification areas are approved by DESE and continuing accreditation is granted on an annual basis. The Annual Performance Report (APR) is compiled by DESE each year and consists of performance data measured to determine whether or not an individual certification area continues to meet state standards.
Overview of Candidates and Completers
Our candidates and completers are extremely competent and it can be difficult to find a ceiling for our measures at times. Our assessment data is almost always higher than state-reported averages on all measures and our reputation precedes us with our P-12 Partners who are highly complimentary of our completers. Reflective practice is the cornerstone of the MAE program and is woven into every component of our program including being modeled by MAE Faculty. Therefore, our candidates and completers tend to refine their teaching frequently. Our completers stay in the field and often become leaders or administrators.
Despite the strengths of our candidates and completers, Truman does not have enough graduates to fill the needs of Missouri’s education employment opportunities. Our graduation numbers are small in high-need areas such as science, math, and special education. In addition, elementary education is in the top five needs for the state as reported by DESE; however, our cohort is consistently only approximately 30 candidates. While elementary education is one of the largest MAE programs it is small when considering the state need. Further, we have very few minority students who are pursuing the MAE. The Truman undergraduate population includes only 13% minority students, which contributes to the low number of non-White completers because almost all of our MAE candidates attend Truman for their undergraduate degree.
Impact of COVID-19
Due to the pandemic, all courses (Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 semesters) moved to remote learning opportunities and not all faculty had online teaching training; although that was quickly addressed. Some candidates experienced financial strain, the stress of moving back home, not being face-to-face, and learning how to engage in remote learning. During this period of time, DESEn waived MEES performance evaluations, MoCA content testing, and the required number of hours for student teaching internships in the spring of 2020. The MAE waived the professional development plan and professional disposition rubric for spring 2020. As a result, we do not have data from the spring of 2020 for most of our measures. While there were challenges, our recent programmatic focus on technology helped with the transition for our students who were enrolled in their internship during the spring 2020 semester. Several candidates reported supporting their grade-level teachers/mentors with technology for remote learning. Faculty and students exhibited flexibility and growth mindset to provide excellent learning opportunities during this crisis.
Summary
The MAE Program enjoys the benefits of high-performing students due to the nature of the highly-selective designation for admissions. The structure of the MAE Program means that our completers have strong content knowledge foundation and the professional and pedagogical knowledge to be effective educators. The Northeast Missouri area presents various joys and challenges due to our rural location. While we are continually striving to improve our program in service to Missouri’s schools and students, we are proud of the program we have created and the educators we have helped to prepare.