Graduate Consortium Creates Faster, More Affordable Path to Master of Science Education at Jax State

03/16/2026

By Brett Buckner 

A novel partnership between Jacksonville State University (Jax State) and the Jack Miller Center (JMC) now offers current K-12 teachers the opportunity to earn a Master of Science Education (M.S.E.) degree in Secondary Social Studies in less time and at a lower cost than the standard graduate degree. Students pursuing an Alternative-A pathway M.S.E. in Secondary Social Studies are also eligible.  

This partnership brings together Jax State’s College of Education & Professional Studies (CEPS), the Center for Leadership and American Principles (CLAP), and JMC, which is a non-profit organization committed to teaching America’s founding principles and history.  

The cornerstone of this partnership is JMC’s Civics Foundations Graduate Consortium. Current K-12 teachers can complete reduced or free graduate history and political science courses through the Consortium. Current K-12 teachers, in Jax State’s M.S.E. programs in Secondary Social Studies, can use these courses to advance their degree. These students also can obtain a 20 percent scholarship on tuition for the professional studies courses they complete at Jax State. Finally, CLAP has received a $28,000 grant to offer a political science course during the summer of 2026 to benefit the university and Consortium.  

Any current K-12 teacher can apply to take a course through the Civics Foundations Graduate Consortium. Prospective students, at any point, can transfer these Consortium courses into the available Jax State M.S.E. options through formally applying to the graduate school.  

“This is an exciting time for teachers across the nation as we have effectively found a way for them to complete a M.S.E. degree in 14 months at potentially 50 percent or less of the standard cost,” said Dr. Benjamin Gross, director of CLAP. “This is because the students can take reduced cost or free content classes from professors at the University of Chicago, Arizona State, the University of Missouri, Jax State, and seven other locations, while completing their pedagogy courses here with the 20 percent scholarship.”  

Since 2024, JMC’s Consortium has offered affordable and accessible graduate courses that are designed for K-12 social studies teachers. In courses taught by top scholars, teachers expand their knowledge of topics in American civics and history, which spans from the founding through the modern era, with a special focus given to reading and understanding primary sources.  

“The goal is creating a partnership where universities and the Jack Miller Center work together to expand graduate coursework to draw teachers, not to just one course at one campus,” said Thomas Kelly, senior vice president and chief program officer for JMC, “but to an array of courses and degree programs across the country that will help them teach the foundations of American political and civic life.”  

Jax State joined the Consortium in the summer of 2025 with the plan to offer an individual course in the summer of 2026. Dr. Gross, however, began conversations with faculty members and leadership within Jax State’s CEPS to explore offering the first M.S.E. degree pathway in the JMC Consortium. The cross-university collaborative effort realized this idea provided worthwhile opportunities for current Jax State students while also inviting current JMC Consortium students to benefit from Jax State’s strength in education.  

“The Jack Miller Center has really sustained education programs and tries to provide curriculum and specific content for social science teachers for a very long time,” said Dr. Kimberly White, Dean of CEPS. “Providing a specific opportunity for us to pull all the different ways that they support teachers into a cumulative degree program is very exciting for us.”  

Teachers with M.S.E. graduate degrees are guaranteed an increase in salary, which, because of this grant, they will receive sooner than ever before. Teachers, however, will gain far more than just a raise from engaging in the collaborative program.  

“With an advanced degree comes advanced knowledge,” Dean White said. “We’re trying to prepare those creative thinkers because we are competing with things like AI. These teachers are working with students to help them think more deeply, help them process information and knowledge to help them see the world is smaller than we think. Having that advantage becomes so much richer, especially when you're talking about middle- and high-school level teachers.”  

Furthermore, K-12 teachers in this program gain access to top quality pedagogy training through Jax State and outstanding content courses and professors through the Consortium.  

“You’re getting access to these top professors at top universities for reduced prices, and then you can get your degree [at Jax State],” Dean White said. “So, it serves our current students and future students.”  

Jax State is now the third graduate degree program to join the Consortium, along with Arizona State University and Utah Valley University. Jax State has a unique status and position in the Consortium, however, as these universities offer an M.A. instead of M.S.E degree.  

“This hybrid degree, if you want to call it that, shows a real innovative spirit,” Kelly said. “Nobody had thought of doing that before. It provides a model that allows others to think outside the box when it comes to how they are offering degrees, how they're designing the degrees, how those degrees can work within the Consortium … and that can draw more and more teachers from across the country.”  

That has the potential to raise Jax State’s profile well beyond Alabama.  

“If we do this right,” Dr. Gross said, “we can serve the entire nation, by bringing together Jax State’s strength in education with the superior content being organized by JMC, to improve civic education and civics.”