My daughter will be graduating with her bachelors degree in May and would like to go to grad school to pursue a career in elementary education. It appears to be much more difficult finding information about grad schools than it was for undergrad. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Her current school does offer a program, but she would like to compare different schools. Southern California is where she’s looking at attending grad school and to find future work.
If she’s a Calif resident, then usually all one has to do is attend their local CSU for el-ed grad school. It’s really not rocket science. No point in spending tons of money.
Do you live near a CSU?
If you’ll pay whatever it costs, then go to USC. My niece got her masters there in education, but money is no object for them.
There is no aid for this, so what can you/she afford?
It depends on what’s important to the schools who hire in your area. In New York, any accredited program is fine; but experience as a teacher’s aide or similar job is a big factor in hiring, as is getting certified in a high demand area, such as special education or ESL.
Look at the National Council on Teacher Quality rankings:
http://www.nctq.org/teacherPrep/review2014/findings.do
<<<
any accredited program is fine;
<<<
This is probably true for all states. Grad programs for El-Ed are a staple. Offered everywhere, and not hard to have a good program. No need to spend a lot of money. The student or parent will be funding it, so don’t go into big debt for it.
Schools do NOT pay you more based on where you got your grad degree.
Our elementary districts seem to hire teachers who have done their student teaching in the area. I would recommend she look at schools in Ca and in areas where she might want to settle.
Agree with mom60. Our elementary district has agreements to place student teachers from 2 local colleges (one UC and one private). We tend to hire teachers who have been successful student teachers in our district.
@guitars101 - what is (or should I say will be, you said she was graduating soon) her bachelor’s degree in?
Does she have an elementary education teaching certificate as an undergrad? Teacher certification requirements vary from state to state, but most require student teaching, which is usually done as part of BS in Education. A graduate degree in education is usually for existing teachers to pursue advanced professional studies. There are some grad programs which will also give required teaching certifications as part of the degree, but they usually consist of many more credit hours than a standard grad program. You have to do your due diligence to make sure the degree you are going after will actually lead to a teaching certification in CA. Here’s a link to CA state government website detailing the requirements.
http://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/teach-elementary.html
There seem to be a bewildering number of paths for teaching eligibility in CA (I am in NJ where it is a little more straightforward). If you’re in-state for CA, my advice would be to go to a grad school open house at a CSU near you and talk with the Ed program person there. Master’s in Education programs are fairly ubiquitous and are cash cows for the universities, and vary widely in the amount of information given. So it is worthwhile to check it all out before applying.
If you are out of state, then you will be paying OOS tuition for a grad school degree. Is that affordable?
@mom2collegekids is right - where you went to grad school for your graduate ele. ed degree is not a biggie. Schools that are hiring first want to make sure you have met all the requirements for teaching eligibility, which is not automatically granted by a Master’s from an ele. ed program . (A lot of people misunderstand this part )
Also, a MS degree in Ele. Ed with no teaching experience will not necessarily put someone on top of the pile, because union rules dictate a Master’s degreed person must be paid more, and school districts don’t see why they should pay more for someone with no experience. I dissuade all my math education undergrads from directly going to grad school for this reason.
^^“Also, a MS degree in Ele. Ed with no teaching experience will not necessarily put someone on top of the pile, because union rules dictate a Master’s degreed person must be paid more, and school districts don’t see why they should pay more for someone with no experience. I dissuade all my math education undergrads from directly going to grad school for this reason.”
This isn’t the case everywhere; in New York public school teachers have to get a masters’ degree; there are exceptions for some areas but usually if you don’t have one when you’re hired you need to get one within a few years.
Many states require teachers to get a master’s degree, so I don’t think that will keep you at the bottom of the pile.
When I went to grad school for education, I kind of just arbitrarily applied to schools and then picked the one with the best name. Let me tell you from experience that the BEST thing to look at is how student teaching works! At my grad school, we were in the classroom from September to May, lead-teaching several sections. After I graduated, employers considered this to be a year of experience and were really impressed that I could say I taught the same class for an entire school year and was able to get to know the students, differentiate based on their needs, plan multiple units, plan start-of-year activities, end-of-year activities, and everything in between…
Some masters programs only have you student teaching for a few weeks. Or you’ll spent a month at one school and then a month at another school. I’m certain it was the extended student teaching that ultimately got me a job. And to be honest, it was a million times more useful than the grad school courses.
Having a masters in no experience teaching for the NYC DOE would definitely put a new grad at a disadvantage and by no means will it put you at the top of the pile.
When it comes to having 2 applicants with no experience, a principal/hiring committee is not going to pay the differential in salary (which is ~6k) when it comes between choosing between a 1A teacher straight out of undergrad with a BA and no experience for 49.9k vs paying 56.1k for a 1A teacher with no experience who is coming in with a BA + masters unless that teacher with the masters is bringing something extraordinary to the table, which is highly unlikely.
Also in NY, especially NYC, there is a glut of common branch/elementary ed license holders.
Also in NYS you have 5 years from the time you get your initial certification to get the Masters and the 3 years teaching experience required for your professional certification
<<<
When I went to grad school for education, I kind of just arbitrarily applied to schools and then picked the one with the best name.
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Exactly…or pick the one that is the most affordable or that you like the best (if money isn’t a concern.)
It can be shocking for some who got "great aid for undergrad to suddenly have “only loans” for their masters in education. This is probably why many just commute from their parents’ home to a local state school.
With so many teachers getting or needing to get masters degrees, it’s not as if there are only 100 good programs in the US. There are probably 300+ good programs in the US.
Is it possible or affordable that your daughter can achieve her initial certification, doing a double major and staying a 5th year at her current school in order to do the course work/student teaching ?
Once she gets a job, she should look at graduate programs since the majority of grad programs are designed to take place after work.
With massive cuts in educational funding in NY state a couple of years ago, it became rare for a teacher to be hired with no experience, especially at the Elementary level, where so many applicants had already done long term sub jobs, or had been victim of budget cuts. This led teachers to go straight into a masters program after undergrad. Now with some of the funding restored, some of those cut positions are coming back. As far as what college for Masters? I would recommend the best state school in your area.
If she has a specific job market that she is targeting, she should do her best to find out which programs get their graduates hired in that market.
If by “Southern California” you mean the area covered by LAUSD, she should see what education schools that district hires from. LA is a huge district – >600,000 kids and >30,000 teachers.
Student teaching in a classroom for a significant amount of time and not just shadowing helps make teachers more likely to be hired.
I believe the teacher hiring situation in California is much different than in NY. Google “California teacher shortage” and you will get a lot of hits. Here’s one: http://edsource.org/2015/california-can-no-longer-ignore-teacher-shortage/78829
Our small elementary district has had trouble maintaining a large enough substitute teacher on-call list. We’ve had to raise the substitute pay to maintain parity with other local districts (who have also raised substitute pay) and have sent flyers to all parents letting them know that they can take the CBEST test to be qualified as a substitute. And, this is in a generally well-off area. I’m sure there are bigger shortages in less desirable locations.
Depends on state.
If she is interested in teaching in private schools, she may not need an education degree.
Oldest attended a top prep school where I would say less than half the teachers had an education degree, but they were great teachers.
Our state has several schools with a 5th yr program that will give you the qualifications to take the states certification tests.
Minimal certification, may give her an advantage in hiring in some districts that are trying to save money.
But she may also not feel as prepared as she could be with a longer program.
Lack of classroom experience is often cited as a reason for teacher burnout.
Ironically, while D earned her MAT in a program where she was a full time classroom teacher for two years, she opted to take a job in education that wasn’t in the classroom.
She should look for schools in the state where she wants to live.
i have been on teacher hiring commitees, and I value teachers, but getting hired can be political.
I was on one committee, where a woman would have been WONDERFUL, was not hired, or even given a second interview. She was relocating from the east coast, where she developed curriculum and had taught for many years, at The Bank Street College in NYC. She was very personable and IMO, would have been a great resource and burst of energy for the school. However, the head teacher, for the dept that she would have been in, nixed her selection. My impression was, that she didn’t want this woman to show her up, even though she would have been an asset to the school.
Thank you all for the suggestions. she will be getting her undergrad degree in Liberal Studies. She would like to stay in the Orange County area, but is looking in LA and San Diego also. She’s my youngest and we’ve put our son through law school so we are aware of the details involved with loans and such. I was looking to see if anyone had any experience with grad schools for elementary education. thanks again!