The Touro College Graduate School of Education will partner this fall with Touro”™s New York Medical College in Valhalla to offer future middle school and high school teachers a new program to obtain a master of science degree in biology education.
Touro officials said the new degree will allow graduates to meet New York certification requirements to teach biology at the middle and high school levels as well as environmental and general science courses. The partnering schools are part of the Touro College and University System based in Manhattan.
“This unique relationship between New York Medical College and the Graduate School of Education addresses a real need that we see in this country today ”” to create teachers grounded in both science and pedagogy who will inspire our students to achieve in the sciences,” said Dr. Alan Kadish, Touro president and CEO, in a press release. Students in the program will be exposed to both the latest pedagogical techniques and training and the most current research and practices in biomedical science.
The two-year, part-time program will be offered primarily on the Grasslands campus of New York Medical College. It  consists of 10 courses for 30 credits and combines biology content, teaching skills and teaching practice in middle and high schools. To accommodate students with employment or family responsibilities, it will include evening and online classes.
Francis Belloni, dean of the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences at the medical college, said the program “will encourage those with stronger science backgrounds and interests to become teachers by giving them both pedagogical training and exposure to some state-of-the-art concepts in biology and biomedical science.”
The Touro Graduate School of Education will hire a chairperson to lead the newly formed department. Stevan R. Peters, the Touro education professor serving as interim chairman, said the new department head will meet with local school administrators and teachers to determine their needs.
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