In spring 2026, the New York State Education Department gave the green light for Syracuse University School of Education to unveil six revised degree programs, spanning the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels.
These revisions continue the curricular review initiative outlined in the School’s 2023 Academic Strategic Plan, as well as its commitments toward offering efficient programming, more versatile and marketable graduates, and courses focused around Signature Areas of Distinction in inclusive, digital, and experiential pedagogy and practice.
At the undergraduate level, the B.S. in Education and Society replaces the former B.S. in Selected Studies in Education program. The revised degree retains an interdisciplinary core and introduces three 18-credit tracks that now will be formally recorded on students’ transcripts: Coaching, Disability Studies, and Education and Social Change. Students completing the Coaching track are eligible for a New York State coaching license.
Four graduate teacher preparation programs also have been re-imagined. The M.S. in Adolescent Education replaces separate subject-specific certification programs for grades 7-12—in English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies—with a single 30-credit, 13-month program built around a shared pedagogical core and content-area concentrations. The M.S. in Childhood Education, for teaching grades 1-6, has been revised into a 33-credit program completed over 14 to 16 months. Both programs include two or more supervised field placements and incorporate clinical simulations as part of teacher preparation.
Two Inclusive Special Education master’s degrees—Initial and Professional—take the place of grade-specific special education programs. Both offer all courses online and prepare students for NYS Students with Disabilities All Grades certification (the Professional program is for teachers who already hold initial NYS certification in any content area).
At the doctoral level, the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership has been restructured to combine K-12 and higher education leadership preparation within a single program for the first time, replacing what had been a more narrowly focused K-12-oriented degree.
This fully online, 60-credit doctoral program is designed to be completed in three years, includes a part-time option for working professionals, and admits students in annual fall cohorts. Students choose between a K-12 Educational Leadership concentration and a Higher Education concentration while completing a shared core curriculum, including a required course on addressing systemic racism in education, and a doctoral capstone project in place of a traditional dissertation.