I noticed that most of the private for profit colleges and universities in the United States do not offer Education majors. Is it because it is operationally costly to offer such majors or is it because they believe they will not attract students?
I realize that most if not all of the colleges and universities we see in rankings such as the US News are either public or private not for profit institutions and they offer Education majors. My question refers to the for-profit institutions; a sector that is attracting “a gold rush of investors” and “growing a breathtaking rates” quoting:
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i27/27a02501.htm
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/23/ny
Many of them offer campus education and Business and IT are the most popular majors in these typically career institutions. But I have seen very few of them offer education programs; hence my question. I thought of the operational cost factor because I know a college of education needs to be supported by a breadth of science and arts disciplines which teachers need to be trained to teach. So it exists along with a liberal arts college. This is while for-profit institutions typically do not offer a breadth of such disciplines.
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Thank Professor X…well done
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:18 pm
First, the assumption underlying your question requires a bit of clarification.
Private colleges in the US are certainly not “for-profit” schools. They are most often specifically designated by their charters as “not-for-profit.” Most prestigious private colleges and universities (like Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Smith, Barnard, Vassar, Oberlin, Kenyon, etc.) do indeed offer majors in education.
“For-profit” schools are usually distance education or trade schools like ITT Tech, University of Phoenix, and Devry. These technical schools are generally for students who wish to learn a vocational skill in a two-year period, and thus are unable to offer majors in education, as education is a four-year program that requires a classroom internship experience.
Public universities (also designated as “not-for-profit”) also regularly offer education majors, because these universities are state-funded, and are mandated by their charters to offer a way for residents of their state to achieve teaching certification. As a matter of fact, many public universities began as “normal schools,” or “teachers colleges.”
Most students who wish to teach at the primary or secondary level attend public universities because these schools are specifically tailored to assist state residents to meet teaching certification requirements IN THAT STATE.
Students who attend prestigious private colleges are from all over the nation, and therefore education majors in these colleges are not prepared specifically for teaching certification in their home states, but in the state in which the college is located.
Education majors are not operationally costly at all. And they are very popular in the US.
I hope this helps to answer your query.