Clarke MAE Announces Partnership with Keystone AEA

Effective July 1, Clarke University is proud to partner with Keystone Area Educational Agency (AEA) to offer private and public Iowa teachers enrolled in the Master of Arts in Education (MAE) program (badge, certificate, or degree) the option of completing professional learning courses for graduate credit from Clarke University.

One to three credits of professional learning (PL) courses, up to nine credits total, may be applied as electives toward an MAE badge, certificate, or degree. AEA will collect PL course payment and graduate credit will be applied to the student’s Clarke University transcript by the semester following PL course completion.

According to Director of Education Graduate Programs and Assistant Professor of Education Elizabeth Jekanowski, “Clarke MAE graduate students are now able to take Clarke-approved professional learning courses for graduate credit. The courses are offered in a hybrid format, both face-to-face and online and vary in length – some are short, a few weeks, while others are offered over the course of a whole school year. We are so pleased to offer these courses at a tremendous value through AEA.”

Chair and Associate Professor of Education Ellen Spencer said, “We are very excited about this community partnership and new, exciting journey with AEA. Elizabeth has worked diligently with the team at AEA to make it possible for any licensed teacher to take courses through Keystone AEA and receive graduate credit from Clarke.”

Current Clarke-approved courses include Creative Curriculum, Physical Fitness 2, Autism Summer Training, Computer Science Methods for Grades 6-10, and Computer Science Methods for Grades 9-12. More course options are anticipated in the coming months.

According to Keystone AEA’s website, “Area Education Agencies (AEAs) were established in 1974 to deliver equal support services to Iowa’s children and schools. Keystone AEA provides quality services to 21 public school districts and 27 nonpublic schools, covering nearly 5,000-square-miles. Keystone AEA serves eight counties in Northeast Iowa.”

For more information about Clarke’s partnership with AEA, please contact Elizabeth Jekanowski at elizabeth.jekanowski@clarke.edu. For more information on Keystone Area Educational Agency, visit their website at www.keystoneaea.org.