GRADUATE OFFICE
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Applicants to this program must have certification in:  Art, Elementary, Childhood, Music, Secondary or Adolescence English, Math, Modern Language, Sciences, or Social Studies

Application for Admission Part II Professional Program

Part II Essay

As part of your application for admission to the MSEd program at SUNY Oswego, the Admission Team asks you to write an essay addressing the questions raised below.  The Admission Team uses the essay as part of the information to determine whether your academic preparation and professional background meet the graduate admission criteria of SUNY Oswego and whether they match the principles laid out in the conceptual framework of the School of Education and the unique learning environment SUNY Oswego offers for the students.  Thus, the content of the essay and the quality of writing are both critical in assisting the members of the Admission Team in their deliberations.  In assessing your essay, the Admission Team will be examining:

    1)  your ability to conceptualize ideas clearly and succinctly
    2)  your ability to organize and communicate ideas effectively and in grammatically 
         appropriate forms
    3)  your ability to think and analyze critically

SUNY Oswego's Conceptual Framework
 
Each program in the School of Education has goals that work toward meeting the spirit of the conceptual Framework.  The framework states:

The Faculty of the School of Education at Oswego State University believes that the role of schools is to promote authentic learning by all students.  The role of educators in meeting that goal is to function as socially conscious catalysts for change who create and sustain school environments where excellence is cherished and social justice flourishes.

The act of weaving a braid is a visual metaphor for the interactive, recursive and transformative nature of the teaching and learning process.  Educators continually weave strands of knowledge, practice, reflection, collaboration, and leadership thus creating a complex braided school fabric in which authentic learning is an everyday reality for diverse students.  Concern for social justice anchors the educational process; it is the knot at the top of the braid.

Essay Topic for MSEd Professional Program

In examining student performance data (i.e. grades, test scores, etc.) for your class, you notice some of the following trends:

    a)  In the language arts class, boy's achievement is much lower than that of girls.
    b)  Students with high artistic abilities achieve much lower in the math classroom.
    c)  Students from low social economic status perform poorly in all subjects.
    d)  Students with physical disabilities achieve lower in physical education than their
         counterparts.
    e)  Students for whom English is their second language achieve lower in social studies.
    f)   Boys out perform girls in the science classroom.

Each of the six trends presents a situation that you may have encountered as a classroom teacher or a hypothetical situation you are likely to run into once you become a classroom teacher.  Your task is to select one (1) of the trends and describe in five hundred (500) words or less:

    i)   what might be going on in this classroom
    ii)  what you as the teacher would do to make changes to address the needs of all students

In constructing your essay, you are strongly urged:

    i)    to relate your discussion to some of the seven (7) key ideas in the School of 
          Education's conceptual framework:  social justice, authentic learning, knowledge,
          practice, reflection, collaboration and leadership;
    ii)   to relate your discussion to your personal and professional experiences, where
          relevant;
    iii)  to use outside references to support your points, where applicable;
    iv)  to organize your response in an essay format with an introduction; a body and a
          conclusion;
    v)   to provide a clear and precise title for your essay.