A proposed Master of Arts in Teaching degree will allow students who have obtained a degree in an area other than education to get a master’s degree in teaching for middle childhood ages or grades four through nine.

Claudia Khourey-Bowers, a professor at Kent State University Stark campus who has put forth the proposal for this degree, said that she knows of only one other university that offers a degree like the one she is proposing.

“We’ve had a lot of interest both at the Kent campus and at the Stark campus where we have middle childhood programs,” said Khourey-Bowers. “People have been calling us and coming in to see us asking for a program of this type.”

The university requires student interest before a proposal can be submitted and Khourey-Bowers conducted a survey to obtain this evidence.

Edward Bolden, academic program coordinator in the Research and Evaluation Bureau, distributed the survey to 10,000 students and it will be open until April 15.

Khourey-Bowers said that the initial findings of the survey show that a little more than 50 percent of the students are interested in the degree.

If approved, Khourey-Bowers said the program would require around 50 credit hours of coursework.

“They still have to meet master’s degree requirements,” Khourey-Bowers said. “They have to meet all the teaching licensure requirements, which the state has a lot of input on.”

Pending approval, the program will be available to students in the fall of 2014.

Contact Ashley Gerenday at [email protected].