Is Getting a Masters in Special Education Worth It?

Is Getting a Masters in Special Education Worth It? My answer is that it depends on your circumstances! In this episode I talk about my own experience going through a masters in special education program. Topics covered are methods, networking, the slight pay bump, and cost.

Transcript

Host 0:00  
Welcome to inclusive education IRL. Today's episode is getting a master's in special education worth it.

Host  0:15  
Before I started today's episode, I would like you to rate this podcast five stars on the platform that you're listening to me on right now and share it with a friend. In short, what I want to say about getting a master's in special education is, it's kind of worth it. It depends. It's going to be different for everyone. But I'm going to talk about my experience. And similar like the big things that I'm going to cover, or talk about briefly, are going to be the methods class, the network, you get the slight pay bump, which is a reality, and then costs, and then overall tips to kind of get through it all. Everyone has their own situation, and you have to know what your goals are, and how, if you can make it through or not. So I'm going to tell you some of the obstacles. And hopefully you can make an informed decision for yourself. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me if you're thinking about becoming a teacher, or if you're thinking about getting your masters, you can find me at Twitter, or Instagram under inclusive education IRL methods. The most useful part of the actual education of the master's program for me was the courses that were titled methods, which I never really heard or have heard since those classes. But that was when like an experienced teacher would come and actually tell you some of the ways that they would teach them material. For example, this is how I teach probability I would teach it with poker cards and things like that, or they will come and bring like fidget toys and like alternate seating. So we could see how that would look in a classroom. So that was, I would say, the most useful thing or like service learning, like our classes were, we would come and we would get taught in a way that would be useful for special education students. So it was like project based learning, like you guys had to collaborate and think about a structure that would hold this amount of weight, things like that. So it was definitely fun to be a part of that and kind of see how people were structured their lessons. And like, what are some of the things that are effective for students with disabilities, and it's different for every group that you have. But you know, the more kind of tools that you have in your teaching toolbox, the easier it is to help students understand what to do, when you get down to it. There's no one way that's going to work for everyone. But if you're exposed to like different methods, then you can actually use them when you need to, even if you have to take some time to plan it out. And like maybe you launch it or do it in your classroom, and it doesn't work, right. And it's just not engaging, or they still don't get it, at least to have like a starting point. So I think that was the most useful thing. For me in the special education. World, another way would just be to observe, or if you were part of a program like that, or like talking to other sped teachers, or like good teachers still have like these things, it's just hard to kind of get that information out of people, since it is like really laborious to make these lessons and then to share them without context to people that don't know you. So I mean, that was worth it for me. Network. So this word is thrown around a lot. But network in the special education world would be definitely your classmates there. There are going to be resources during the program. And afterwards, like, you know, they're going to be like, like minded with you. And then like your professors and stuff can help you get jobs because they are, you know, special education teachers themselves, or they have worked in education and they know people. So they could definitely help you get a job and you wouldn't really meet these people unless you're in their program. So it is helpful in that sense, but I think currently in 2022 and moving on in the future, it's not going to be too difficult finding a teaching job because there's not that many teachers out there and there's even less special education teachers so

Host  4:51  
I wouldn't say this is that big of a deal. But there are some cool people you'll be in the program and that that's all right. So far, none of these reasons are like super compelling. I think that the biggest reason people would actually want to be special, again, a master's in special education is because there's a slight pay bump. Depending on what state you're you are in, you might get a much bigger pay bump. But from what I've experienced is very slight pay bump it, I think it adds up over the years, which is worth it, I guess, in terms of the math, but then you have to factor in the cost of the program? And is it actually going to? Is it doable for you, I would say the payoff is worth it. If you can kind of navigate some of the challenges of getting a master's while you're working, that's the biggest challenge, I think, usually you're getting your masters while you're working. So like, while you're working like your first year of teaching, or you could go back, but I would just get it over with just because it's gonna suck no matter what your first year of teaching. So just go ahead and add on some more work. And that's going to pay you in the long run cost. My tips to kind of survive the challenges of the cost of a master's degree, it's going to cost you some money. So you're gonna want to do it in state, I would lean towards the online program, if at all possible, because usually they are cheaper, from what I've recently seen. And the part that kind of killed killed me during my master's was having to drive after work to the campus, and then drive back home online program, you can just, you know, do it online, whether you're at school or at your house or, and by school, I mean, your workplace, that flexibility saves you a lot of miles, and frustration and gas money, and parking tickets and car accidents that you might have during your master. So that's good. The other so I said in state, try to do it online, it is a lot of writing. But it's things that you're working on already. A lot of the assignments are case studies on specific students, and you have to like track their growth, which is something that you need to do for special education students anyway, it's probably going to be the more the most rigorous, like tracking of growth of a student that you'll ever do, because that's what I that was my experience, like, I do quarterly reports. But I have never done it, like how it that I did it in in my master's program where it was just like a lot of data on just one student in our reflecting on that, which is good practice. But it's unsustainable for a whole caseload of 26 students that sped teachers usually have. So I mean, you're kind of double dipping, and a lot of the work that you're going to going to have to do. And if writing comes easy to you, I would say just go ahead and do that. Like you might be able to use a lot of reuse a lot of the writing that you did for your undergrad, and then kind of shared data for several different papers, like from the same students. So you don't have to do as much work. And yeah, I mean, I I remember when I did it, there was like a lot of scanning of student work, but you could just have to do it on Google or Google Docs, and just do it that way. So I think it's a little bit easier now to get student data. So I think that's if you can do that you can do it. And then the long term growth, if you're looking at education, to stay in education, like it's definitely worth it. For the price. Like if you can make it past that five year mark, I feel like it's only going to benefit your salary, which, you know, we need to eat. So, I would say do that just know, that talked about the challenges, which are the cost of the program, the costs of your energy during the program, and then like the writing challenges, and then the benefits will be the pay. I don't think there's any, like prestige in the master's in special education. Like no one really cares. Some people you know, are impressed but institution going to school again, but it's not like it's not super fancy, like no one really cares. In my opinion. I would say that, you know, sped teacher with like 10 years of experience and

Host  9:47  
Master's in Education probably has a lower social standing in a school environment than like a third year gen ed teacher with a bachelor's degree and that I'll make an episode about that. A gen ed teachers versus fifth teachers, because sometimes it feels like that. So that's, is it worth it to get? Is it worth it to get a master's in special education? I would say, maybe if you're planning on staying in education for more than five years, yes, do it. It pays off over the long term. If you're not too sure about it, teaching overall then work for maybe two, three years. If it seems like something you want to keep doing, then, you know, join an online master's program in state and then your profit afterwards. That has been today's episode. Thank you so much for making it all the way to the end of the episode. I would love it. If you gave me a five star review on the app that you are listening to this podcast right now. That would be super awesome. And if you have any questions or want to talk about any of this stuff, you can find me on Instagram and Twitter at inclusive education IRL.