The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education board of governors on October 14, 2010, approved a new Master of Arts degree in Spanish to be offered by IUP.
The program was designed largely for Spanish teachers, who, under new requirements developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, essentially must hold a master's degree after three years in the field in order to receive the appropriate certification.
Those enrolled in the new program will be required to complete 30 credits of courses plus a thesis or 36 credits without a thesis. The five core courses will be taught in Spanish. The program expects to enroll approximately twenty full- and part-time students annually.
The Department of Spanish recently was awarded special recognition by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, which lauded the department as “the new face of language teacher education.”