Macon State College will offer students the chance to pursue a bachelor of science in early childhood and special education on a part-time basis beginning this fall.

The college's School of Education has offered a bachelor's degree in early childhood and special education since 2005, but because of the way the program was structured, which included getting field experience at area schools, all students had to be full-time. Now, the School of Education has structured a program specifically to meet the needs of potential students who can only pursue the degree part-time.

"Especially since the economic turndown, with more people unable to give up jobs to go to school full-time, we've had many requests for a part-time program," said Molly Kimsey, a lecturer in the School of Education who designed the initiative along with Loleta D. Sartin, an assistant professor of education.

"It has always been the goal of Macon State College to provide students with affordable and accessible professional degree programs," Sartin said.

Students in the part-time program will take classes on the Macon Campus in the evenings. Part-time students will enter the program as part of a cohort, meaning they will advance through the courses with the same classmates. The part-time program will include all courses taught in the full-time program, including field/clinical work. Students will enter the program as juniors and be expected to complete it in two and a half years, including two consecutive summers.

A typical full load is 15 to 17 credit hours per semester; students in the part-time education program will take 9 or 10 credit hours per semester.

The program is designed for two categories of people. The first category is current paraprofessionals who can spend at least four hours per week in their schools fulfilling field experience requirements. The second category is people who, for whatever reason, need to take classes primarily in the evenings in order to finish a degree. Students in the latter category will still have to spend four hours per week at a school during daytime hours to fulfill field experience requirements. During the final semester of the program, each student will have to fulfill a full-time field experience requirement at a school during the day.

Courses in the program will be taught by Macon State's regular faculty, who will provide the same level of support that they do for full-time students.

Questions about the program should be sent to molly.kimsey@maconstate.edu or loleta.sartin@maconstate.edu.

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