‘Out of the Blue’ features graduate education degree’s return to campus [+VIDEO]

Donald Snead, Chair of the Womack Educational Leadership Department at Middle Tennessee State University, spoke on this month’s episode of MTSU’s “Out of the Blue” television show about bringing a previously fully online concentration of the Master of Education in Administration and Supervision degree program back to campus this summer. (MTSU graphic illustration by Joseph Poe)

Donald Snead, education professor and chair of the Womack Educational Leadership Department, was interviewed on this month’s “Out of the Blue” episode about bringing a previously fully-online concentration of the Master of Education in Administration and Supervision degree program back to campus this summer.

Dr. Donald Snead, interim chair of the Womack Department of Educational Leadership — Dr. Donald Snead

“We’ve had a number of people who have inquired about this program,” Snead said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re bringing it back on campus because I think we have a local market for it, and this is geared toward the working professional who’s seeking this credential to become a leader.”

Snead is one of three MTSU faculty interviewed on the April 2023 edition of the university’s monthly TV magazine hosted by Andrew Oppmann, MTSU’s vice president for marketing and communications.

The instructional leader licensure track of the program is designed for working educators interested in moving from the classroom into educational leadership through its curriculum and a path to licensure. This summer marks the debut of a hybrid program — featuring both in-person and online courses paced out over five semesters.

“Three years in public school teaching is (also) a state requirement,” Snead said about program eligibility. “I think that’s reasonable because if you want to lead, you need to know what it’s all about and whom you’re leading.”

Snead said the program aims not just to give classroom teachers a path into educational leadership but to create and prepare educational leaders who will best lead students, teachers and districts within the state and beyond.

“I think our program is very well designed to help those individuals develop the skills and the knowledge necessary to meet those goals,” he said.

Snead concluded by sharing a positive outlook for the future of the teaching profession and spotlighting the College of Education’s top-tier faculty full of “difference makers.”

“The profession is not dead,” he said. “It is not going to die. It is very much needed. The teaching pool is probably one of the largest employment pools in the country….

Andrew Oppmann, vice president of marketing and communications — Andrew Oppmann

“We are difference makers. We touch lives. We change lives. We empower people to become the best they can be, whatever that is. That’s what we do.”

“Out of the Blue” is MTSU’s monthly TV magazine show and is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 3:30 p.m. Sundays and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings.

It is also available as a podcast on iTunes and Google Play.

Watch previous episodes of “Out of the Blue” at https://mtsunews.com/out-of-the-blue.

— Stephanie Wagner (Stephanie.Wagner@mtsu.edu)