Nondegree Course Descriptions

Mount Holyoke College Graduate Programs offers intensive credit and non-credit options for many of our courses. While both options provide you with valuable skills for career advancement and the opportunity to network with other professionals, they are geared towards learners with different goals and needs.

Read more about the differences here: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/admission/professional-and-non-degree/coursework-fees

Important Note: After a class begins, it is not possible to switch between the non-credit and credit options. If you need additional guidance, please call 413-538-3478 or email graduateadmissions@mtholyoke.edu.

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Mathematics Education

Teacher Leadership

June 2025

Equity and Social Justice: A Teacher's Role
Description: In this course, participants will learn to address issues of social justice seamlessly and incorporate social justice into the design of their learning environments. This will be accomplished in three steps: First, participants will be assigned a self-awareness partner to process socialization around social issues. Second, participants will produce narratives about their social justice development. Finally, participants will create action plans that will create learning environments that don't shut down dialogues about difference, but open them up. Participants will then take this new learning and self-awareness and apply it to education systems outside of their classroom.
Format: Online.
Meeting dates: June 2- July 3, 2025
Meeting times: Monday and Wednesday 5:00-9:00PM
Noncredit Cost: $895.
Credit Cost: $1860. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit
Apply for credit

Fostering a Collaborative Culture
Description: This course is centered around Domain One of the Teacher Leader Model Standards, with an emphasis on creating cultures in our schools that support educator development and student learning. Modules include defining teacher leadership, exploring formal and informal teacher leadership roles, adult learning theory, facilitation of group learning and discussion, mitigating difficult discussions and building consensus, organizational change and the change process, building trust, and other skills to create inclusive cultures for professional growth (and student learning!).
Format: Online.
Meeting dates: June 2- July 3, June 18 2025 (No class on Thursday, June 19)
Meeting times: Tuesday and Thursday 6:00-9:00PM, Wednesday, June 18 6:00-9:00PM
Noncredit Cost: $895.
Credit Cost: $1860. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit
Apply for credit

July 2025

Register for noncredit
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Making Meaning for Operations
Description: This course provides opportunities for participants to examine the actions and situations modeled by the four basic operations. The course will begin with a view of young children's counting strategies as they encounter word problems, moves to an examination of the four basic operations on whole numbers, and revisits the operations in the context of rational numbers.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: July 14 - 18, 2025.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm ET; Friday, 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.
Noncredit cost: $895.
Credit cost: $1860 for 2 credits. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit

Developing Mathematical Ideas Facilitator Training
Description: This course focuses on understanding the process of facilitating Developing Mathematical Ideas seminars. Students will analyze key mathematical and pedagogical ideas, examine the affordances of various instructional formats, learn how to respond in writing to the ideas of their seminar students, discuss issues of engaging adult learners, become familiar with the links between Developing Mathematical ideas and the Common Core content and practice standards as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) teaching practices, and explore how to situate Developing Mathematical Ideas seminars in their own systems. Students will be actively engaged in every session, working in small group and whole group formats.
Pre-Requisite: Building a System of Tens or Making Meaning for Operations
Format: In Person.
Meeting dates: July 21-25, 2025.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am – 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am – 12:00pm ET.
Cost: $1095.
Credit cost: $1860 for 2 credits. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit
Apply for credit

Developing Mathematical Ideas: Examining Features of Shape
Description: Participants examine aspects of two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, develop geometric vocabulary, and explore both definitions and properties of geometric objects. The seminar includes a study of angle, similarity, congruence, and the relationships between three-dimensional objects and their two dimensional representations. Participants examine how students develop these concepts through analyzing print and video cases as well as reading and discussing research articles.
Format: Online
Meeting dates: July 21-25, 2025.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am – 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am – 12:00pm ET.
Cost: $895.
Credit cost: $1860 for 2 credits. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit
Apply for credit

Coaching, Mentoring, and Facilitating Instructional Improvement
Description: This course provides opportunities for teachers to design, develop, critique, implement, give, and receive feedback on professional development experiences that align with the Common Core standards and the particular needs of the school/district's participating staff. Modules include staying focused on content while developing collaborative relationships, engaging in reflective dialogue with teachers and administrators, developing leadership skills, professional growth, and technology for collaborative learning. Participants will be able to individualize their learning experience based on an area of choice for personal and professional growth: instructional coaching, mentoring, or peer coaching.
Format: Online.
Meeting Dates and Times: July 2025, meeting times TBD
Noncredit Cost: $895.
Credit Cost: $1860. Scholarships available.

Apply for credit
Register for noncredit

Outreach and Advocacy for Educational Change
Description: This course integrates Teacher Leader Model Standards for Domains VI and VII: assessing community needs and values, engaging families and colleagues in partnerships, and advocating for students and for the teaching profession. Participants will explore culturally responsive teaching approaches and strategies for collaborating with families to support meaningful and relevant student learning and development. Participants will also learn how to use research, policies, and persuasive communications to help build appropriate programs, interventions, and advocacy efforts that promote positive outcomes for both students and teachers.
Format: Online.
Meeting Dates: July 7-July 16, 2025 and July 21-July 25, 2025
Meeting Times: Monday and Wednesday July 7-July 16 5:00PM-9:00PM and Monday-Friday July 21-July 25 8:30AM-4:30PM
Noncredit Cost: $895.
Credit Cost: $3720. Scholarships available.

Apply for credit
Register for noncredit

Owning Assessment and Data
Description: Built around Domain 5 of the Teacher Leader Model Standards, this course helps teachers build the skills to do just that, as we explore organizational improvement through assessment design. Learn to facilitate and support colleagues in using assessment tools to inform decisions to improve practice and student learning. One module of this class includes an exploration of Improvement Science, a new methodology brought to education from the health field, where teachers will learn how small ideas can be tested and taken to scale, potentially impacted organizational change. Embedded in practice, focused on your personal and professional growth.
Format: Online.
Meeting Dates: July 16, July 23-July 25, July 30, and August 6, 2025
Meeting Times: July 16 and July 30 6:00PM- 9:00PM, July 23 1:00PM- 4:30PM, July 24-July 25 8:30AM- 4:30PM, and August 6 6:00PM- 8:30PM
Noncredit Cost: $895.
Credit Cost: $1860. Scholarships available.

Apply for credit
Register for noncredit

September 2025

Reasoning Algebraically About Operations
Description: Participants examine generalizations at the heart of the study of operations in the elementary grades. They express these generalizations in common language and in algebraic notation, develop arguments based on representations of the operations, study what it means to prove a generalization, and extend their generalizations and arguments when the domain under consideration expands from whole numbers to integers.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: September 3 - December 16, 2025
Meeting times: TBD
Noncredit cost: $895.
Credit cost: $1860 for 2 credits. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit

Connecting Arithmetic to Algebra
Description: Connecting Arithmetic to Algebra (CAA) is a year-long professional development experience in which teachers consider generalizations that arise from the study of number and operations in grades 1 through 7. They examine cases of students who are engaged in the process of articulating general claims, working to understand those claims, and learning how to prove them. The course also focuses on how this approach to mathematical thinking supports a range of mathematics learners, including those who have difficulty with grade- level mathematics and those who need additional challenge.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: September 3 - December 16, 2025
Meeting times: TBD
Noncredit cost: $1495.
Credit cost: $3720 for 4 credits. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit

Rational Numbers Assessment and Instruction
Description: Rational Numbers Assessment and Instruction focuses on how students working with whole numbers can more meaningfully understand fractions. In this course we explore fractions as relationships between the whole and the parts, as measures, and as unique numbers with meaning. Educators will learn how to observe their students' mathematical thinking through activities, and strategies for engaging students. Throughout the semester educators will be asked to implement strategies with students in a classroom setting, and share and explore what they found together.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: September 4 - December 4, 2025
Meeting times: Wednesdays, 6:00 - 8:30 pm ET.
Credit cost: $2790 There is an additional $150 materials fee for this course. Scholarships available.

Apply for credit

Institutes

Instructional Coaching and Mentoring Institute
Description: Our program supports educators in becoming effective and emotionally intelligent leaders and mentors for the next generation of educators. Join a network of colleagues from across the globe who share your passion for quality, equity, and longevity in the independent school workforce!

Educators are being asked to be increasingly adaptable, innovative and trauma-sensitive. This is an important opportunity for institutions to build the leadership capacity of veteran educators who can mentor colleagues and facilitate professional development on best practices in distance learning, equitable pedagogy, and emotional resilience.
More information:https://www.mtholyoke.edu/academics/find-your-program/instructional-coaching-and-mentoring-institute
Format: Hybrid.
Meeting Dates and Times: Starts June 2025
Credit Cost: $930/credit. Scholarships available.

	Introduction Track	Foundation Track	Comprehensive Track
Noncredit Cost**	$1,750	$1,750	$3,500

Apply for credit

Register for noncredit

Developing Mathematical Ideas Facilitator Bundle
Sign up for the noncredit version of all three courses: Building a System of Tens, Making Meaning for Operations, and DMI Facilitator's course for only $2500! That's a savings of $385!

Building a System of Tens
Description: Participants will explore the base-ten structure of the number system, consider how that structure is exploited in multi-digit computational procedures, and examine how basic concepts of whole numbers reappear when working with decimals. They will study the various ways children naturally tend to think about separating and combining numbers and what children must understand in order to work with numbers in these ways.
Format: Hybrid.
Meeting dates: July 7-11, 2025.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am – 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am – 12:00pm ET.

Making Meaning for Operations
Description: This course provides opportunities for participants to examine the actions and situations modeled by the four basic operations. The course will begin with a view of young children's counting strategies as they encounter word problems, moves to an examination of the four basic operations on whole numbers, and revisits the operations in the context of rational numbers.
Format: Live online via Zoom.
Meeting dates: July 14 - 18, 2025.
Meeting times: Monday - Thursday, 8:30am - 4:30pm ET; Friday, 8:30am - 12:00pm ET.

Developing Mathematical Ideas Facilitator Training
Description: This course focuses on understanding the process of facilitating Developing Mathematical Ideas seminars. Students will analyze key mathematical and pedagogical ideas, examine the affordances of various instructional formats, learn how to respond in writing to the ideas of their seminar students, discuss issues of engaging adult learners, become familiar with the links between Developing Mathematical ideas and the Common Core content and practice standards as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) teaching practices, and explore how to situate Developing Mathematical Ideas seminars in their own systems. Students will be actively engaged in every session, working in small group and whole group formats.
Format: In Person.
Meeting dates: July 21-25, 2025.
Meeting times: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am – 4:30pm ET. Friday: 8:30am – 12:00pm ET.

Register for the noncredit course bundle

Social Justice and Advocacy Institute
Join us for the Social Justice Institute, a two-part exploration on how to incorporate culturally responsive teaching approaches and strategies in the classroom as well as with colleagues and parents. Learn to incorporate culturally responsive teaching approaches and strategies in the classroom as well as with colleagues and parents.

Equity & Social Justice: A Teacher's Role
Description: In this course, participants will learn to address issues of social justice seamlessly and incorporate social justice into the design of their learning environments. This will be accomplished in three steps: First, participants will be assigned a self-awareness partner to process socialization around social issues. Second, participants will produce narratives about their social justice development. Finally, participants will create action plans that will create learning environments that don't shut down dialogues about difference, but open them up. Participants will then take this new learning and self-awareness and apply it to education systems outside of their classroom.
Format: Online.
Meeting dates: June 2-July 3, 2025.
Meeting times: Monday and Wednesday 5:00-9:00PM

Outreach and Advocacy for Educational Change
Description: This course integrates Teacher Leader Model Standards for Domains VI and VII: assessing community needs and values, engaging families and colleagues in partnerships, and advocating for students and for the teaching profession. Participants will explore culturally responsive teaching approaches and strategies for collaborating with families to support meaningful and relevant student learning and development. Participants will also learn how to use research, policies, and persuasive communications to help build appropriate programs, interventions, and advocacy efforts that promote positive outcomes for both students and teachers.
Format: Online.
Meeting Dates: July 7-July 16, 2025 and July 21-July 25, 2025
Meeting Times: Monday and Wednesday July 7-July 16 5:00PM-9:00PM and Monday-Friday July 21-July 25 8:30AM-4:30PM

Noncredit cost: $2,685.
6 graduate credits: $5,580. Scholarships available.

Register for noncredit
Apply for credit

Nondegree Course Descriptions

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