Teacher Certification

This program is designed for the student who has already completed a bachelor's degree or higher and seeks initial teacher certification. Courses are offered in the evening (and increasingly, with online components) through the graduate program. The majority of required teacher certification courses also count toward a Master of Science degree in either Elementary Education or Secondary Education, and many students choose to complete their master's degree simultaneously through the Master's and Certification Program. The master's degree requires 36 credits, of which 21-24 typically come from the certification program.

After finishing the majority of classroom work, students pursuing certification must complete a field experience. There are two options for satisfying this field requirement:

• Internship: Interns work as full-time teachers for two school semesters. The intern is the instructor of record in the classroom and is assigned a certified teacher as a mentor. Interns earn the full salary of certified teachers.

• Student teaching: Student teachers spend a 13-week period working full-time in the classroom alongside a certified teacher. Student teachers are unpaid.

The Master's and Certification program is newly redesigned to allow you to complete your master's degree, along with teacher certification, in as few as 15 months.

Certification areas and the graduate degrees they correspond to: