The Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction* program at Georgia College is a completely online degree devised to meet the professional development needs of educators in the high needs areas of student assessment, data-driven decision making, and curriculum planning for success.   This degree is considered a new field service certification and a candidate can be certified as a curriculum specialist by taking a GACE assessment.  This degree also equips candidates with one of the requirements to move up within Georgia’s new Tiered Certification for teachers.  Candidates completing this degree program and passing the GACE assessment, then, will earn a Master of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction, add a new field service certification to their teaching certification, and be certified as a Curriculum Specialist. The M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction is 36 hours, 24 of which are core courses and twelve which are content courses.