February 25, 2025
Dear Campus Community,
Our nation is in urgent need of highly qualified and compassionate K-12 educators—teachers who are not only experts in their field but who also possess the creativity and leadership to transform education for the better.
Today, I am pleased to announce that Gettysburg College is stepping forward to meet this pressing need by launching a new online Master of Education degree program in Educational Design and Inquiry. As the first program of its kind in the region, our new M.Ed. blends educational access with the principles of design thinking. The program will equip practicing teachers with a foundation in inclusive education, design thinking, and teacher inquiry.
The new master’s program has been submitted to the Middle States Commission for Higher Education for approval. Applications for this year’s inaugural cohort will open from March 1 to April 15, with classes beginning on May 19.
This two-year program accommodates the demanding schedules of working teachers by offering a flexible online format that incorporates three summers and offers optional in-person learning opportunities within Gettysburg’s own Innovation and Creativity Lab.
With an average class size of 8-10 K-12 teachers, Gettysburg’s M.Ed. students will progress through their courses as a tight-knit cohort, exploring topics such as place-based education and classroom culture. All students will also develop their own instructional strategies and materials through a capstone project, which will identify opportunities to create new inclusive pedagogical initiatives or address existing educational challenges.
At Gettysburg College, we are committed to preparing students to rise to the unfinished work of our time. Our new Master of Education program will ready K-12 teachers from across the nation to answer this call by both fostering innovation and advancing access in education.
I’d like to offer a special thanks to Divonna Stebick, Professor of Educational Studies in Sociology and Director of the Office of Teacher Education and Certification, for her leadership in working with colleagues to bring this new M.Ed. program to fruition. I would also like to express my deepest thanks to our entire faculty body for their refinements to and support of this innovative program.
Please take a moment to learn more about Gettysburg’s new M.Ed. degree program in Educational Design and Inquiry. I look forward to us welcoming our first cohort in a few short months!
Sincerely,
Jamila Bookwala
Provost