Community College Education

The goal of the Community College Education Program at Mississippi State University is to provide a high quality and interactive graduate education for working higher education professionals that is befitting of a land-grant research university. We intend to provide an innovative, interactive learning experience, which can be effectively pursued by those who are working full-time at community colleges and universities across the country.

Primary Career Paths:

This program furthers the pursuit of such a wide range of career ambitions by providing multiple tracks that move the student toward different career goals. Each student will receive a 12-hour core education that prepares them to thrive while working at a college or university. Students will also receive an 18-hour credentialing field education that prepares them to both work in a staff role at a college or university and to be credentialed as a faculty member.

While the program is designed to prepare students credentialing on the collegiate level, and not for initial k-12 licensure, graduates may be eligible for certain licenses depending upon their previous licensure and specific state requirements. Students should explore state licensure requirements if this is a personal goal.

Program Location and Availability

All tracks of the program have live, synchronous online core of four graduate courses in the teaching & learning, assessment, research, and the history and philosophy of higher education. Each course is taught from the perspective of access-oriented public institutions of higher education. These are all taught during the evening on weekdays to support the full-time careers of students. Each class meeting will be available through Webex and the classes will be archived for future use by students who cannot meet at the scheduled time. This is also done to support the work schedule of students. The required courses that are common to all program students are:

Core Courses:

CCL 8113 Community College History & Philosophy
CCL 8173 Community College Teaching & Learning
CCL 8313 Community College Instructional Assessment
CCL 8253 Community College Research Methods

Credentialing Field Courses

The credentialing field for each student will be an 18-hour graduate minor that both prepares for a faculty role and for field relevant staff roles. Click on a field label for specific course, prerequisite, and scheduling information about that field. The available fields are:

These credentialing field courses, and related advising are provided by different academic departments. Consequently, course delivery and availability vary by field. Some fields are regularly fully available from a distance outside of normal working hours and do not require any on-campus participation. This includes full distance availability of library, advising, counseling, and information technology services. Others are largely campus-centered with some combination of evening or asynchronous online courses, but are not recommended for students who are more than a comfortable driving distance from either Starkville or Meridian Mississippi.

Fully Distance Available Credentialing Fields

Campus Centered Credentialing Fields

Application Procedure

To begin the process, applicants will fill out an application with the MSU Graduate School. They will also need to provide three recommendations, a written Statement of Purpose, an undergraduate transcript, and any relevant graduate transcripts. The GRE is optional, but not required. The dates for when the application must be in are as follows:

For further information about the Community College Education Program, please contact:

Advisor

Mark Fincher, Ph.D.

• Associate Professor of Community College Education
• Program Coordinator

mfincher@meridian.msstate.edu 601-484-0188