There are selected individuals and groups who are critical of the
master's degree in education. They believe that a teacher securing
the degree does not result in improved public school
instruction. Secretary of Education Ame Duncan, among others,
has come out strongly against the master's degree in educafion.
He maintains it cannot be shown that having the advanced degree
makes for a better classroom teacher. This is indeed difficult to
measure with many variables entering into the equation. For
example, those who emphasize testing pupils who are taught
with a master's degree will not achieve any more than those
pupils taught by teachers without a master's degree. This has
never been substantiated and there are too many extraneous factors
involved such as quality of pupils in one group as compared
to the other and/or
* a level playing field between the two groups in tertns of technology
used in teaching, updated textbooks, as well as library
books available for pupils, among other materials/methods of
instruction
* quality of teachers used in the experimental study with other
factors itivolved than the masters degree
* tneasurement instrument being used in terms of its validity and
reliability (See Wright and Grenier, 2009).