Furman Now Offering an Online/Hybrid Educational Specialist Degree

With a reputation spanning over 100 years, Furman University has a storied history of preparing educators to lead in South Carolina schools. With a growing demand for more online course offerings following the Covid-19 pandemic, Furman is now entering into new territory: online/hybrid education. One particular program that is leading the charge here at Furman is the Educational Specialist degree (Ed.S.). The Ed.S. is a graduate level program geared toward preparing certified teachers to become effective leaders in their schools.

Over the past 7 years, Furman’s Ed.S. program has helped 34 graduates earn leadership positions across 34 schools in the upstate, a record that speaks for itself. The Ed.S. program has also led to international representation in educational leadership positions. This reputation for quality, has deeply influenced Furman’s handling of how they are transitioning this traditionally rigorous program to an online/hybrid format.

“We are more personalized and the rigor of our program exceeds that of other schools,” claims Ed.S. Coordinator Dr. Vernon Prosser. Dr. Prosser adds, “…we intentionally attempted to keep the personalization of the program and just not create a series of courses where a student had no contact with an instructor.” 

Personalized attention and mentorship continues to be a hallmark of Furman’s Graduate School offerings. What that translates to for Furman prepared educators is a 96% retention rate after 5 years in their profession, a statistic that blows away the national average of about 50%.

With a state-wide teacher shortage affecting our schools, Furman’s online classes make its stellar programs more accessible to working educators.

“The benefits of this move is that it opens the program up to anyone across the state since they do not have to come to campus for courses,” says Dr. Prosser. However, the benefits don’t just end at a growing reach for the program within South Carolina.

Dr. Prosser explains, “The majority of our students have responded favorably. Most of our students teach all day and they like the fact that they do not have to come to campus for 2-3 hours after a long day of teaching.”

 

If you are interested in learning more about the Ed.S. programs at Furman, please visit our website.