The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, together with the University’s Curry School of Education, announced earlier this fall the creation of a one-of-a-kind education executive program that will award those who complete it with a dual MBA/MEd degree. The goal of the program is to inject innovation into educational reform by training business leaders with special interest in education reform alongside education reform leaders seeking business skills.
According to a release announcing the new program, three out of 10 American students will not graduate from high school this year, and after a decade of standards-based reforms and tests, scores are flat or declining. The new Curry-Darden MBA/MEd is an effort to respond to this growing challenge and to create a supply chain of innovators and innovations in education with the power to transform the current landscape.
“Darden’s program accelerates personal and professional growth and provides an entrepreneurial ecosystem that inspires innovation,” Darden Dean Bruner said in a statement. “Our two schools’ combined efforts to develop a new crop of educators grounded in the principles of school instruction and administration, and in business leadership, will be a boon for positive education reform. We also believe it will be of great benefit to students and ultimately, the world that they will inherit.”
Curry School of Education Dean Robert Pianta agrees. “Never before have two schools come together to create a program with such promising impact,” he said. “The idea to train the next generation of education leaders in a full curriculum of business and education concepts has the potential to radically change how children receive their education in this country.”
The new program will blend Darden’s case method instruction and team-building and entrepreneurial approaches with Curry’s evidence-based work in teacher effectiveness, curriculum innovations and measureable student gains. In addition to classroom-based instruction, students also will participate in residency/internships with partners for credit. These experiences will give students opportunities in real-world education settings, such as the Darden-Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education (PLE), charter schools and management organizations, state agencies and large high-need urban school districts.
The program will be spread over the course of 24 months, totaling 82.5 credit hours (52.5 credit hours from Darden and 30 credit hours from Curry). Course work will take place as part of five modules made up of courses drawn from both schools designed to give students a firm grounding in basic business and education subjects, their intersection, and a range of electives depending on the students own interests.
The new Darden-Curry dual degree program will welcome its first class in the summer of 2012. To learn more, click here.
Read the full article: University of Virginia’s Darden School, School of Education Launch Innovative Dual Degree Program