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Regents committee approves Washburn'proposed Master of Education in Science of Literacy
Summary
The Board of Regents committee approved Washburn University's redesigned Master of Education in Science of Literacy after Washburn representatives said the program reshapes an existing reading master's to align with current research and the state's literacy blueprint; the committee recorded a voice vote approving the proposal.
System staff introduced the proposal and confirmed it had been shared with SCOCCO for information. John Fritch told the committee Washburn is redesigning its existing reading master's rather than merely renaming it: many courses have been retitled and some course content reorganized to better reflect current research in the science of reading.
"We decided that it should be considered a new program just because so many of the courses are being renamed, the content in the courses are changing," said John Fritch, who introduced Washburn's presentation and turned the matter over to Dr. Cherry Steffen. "It actually this particular program has 15 courses, and the reason for that was we split things out."
Dr. Cherry Steffen, chair of Washburn's Department of Education, said the redesign aims to make coursework more accessible for teachers who are working while completing the degree and to align the curriculum with the state's blueprint for literacy. Regents asked about the scale of curricular change and SCOCCO feedback; staff said SCOCCO had a robust conversation but offered no objections to forwarding the proposal for approval.
The committee moved, seconded and approved the Master of Education in Science of Literacy by voice vote. The transcript records the affirmative voice vote but does not provide a roll'call tally.
