<p>I have a friend who is sure she wants to go into elementery education. She's a good student- got 800 in CR and she's a good student. She's been looking at Eastern and a few other schools like Rowan. She wants to go to a school that would prepare her well for teaching. She doesn't feel the need to go to a super competitive school, but wants to not be completly bored either. She likes smaller schools that are friendly and preferably have a town/city not too far away. She's a really nice girl and I wish I could help her out, but I know nothing about good teaching schools. Does anyone have any suggestions? </p>
<p>Thanks,
E </p>
<p>(also she'd like something not too far from NJ, maybe penn, ny or anything within reasonable driving distance)</p>
<p>If she wants to return to her home state, usually the best place to go to would be an instate public university since those are the primary places where her state's schools probably recruit teachers from. </p>
<p>She'd probably get good advice about where to go by talking to her teachers.</p>
<p>Not sure whether she would consider schools in MA, but there is Lesley University (formerly Lesley College) in Cambridge; Wheelock College in Boston. Tufts University has a very well-known early childhood education program also.</p>
<p>My daughter is a senior ed major. She will be certified to teach K-9. She is attending a private school in IL. IL has a reciprocal agreement for education certification with 38 other states including her homestate of PA. Frankly, I'm not sure how her degree will play out since she wants to teach middle school and may have to get certified in a certain subject, but she'll figure that out.</p>
<p>She also looked at Elon college in NC. We made sure that whatever college she was interested in had a reciprocal agreement with PA, even though we didn't know then (and still don't know now) where she would end up. I talked to a friend that is in the administration in our school district and asked her what they look for when they hire new teachers. She said number one is experience so your friend will want to ask each school how much time is spent in observations and how much time student teaching. I would also look for the percentage of students that pass their teacher certification (Praxis in PA) test from each school. I remember seeing that information somewhere and it was quite enlightning. </p>
<p>While I agree that it's good to stay in state and go to a state school because the school districts will be more familiar with the state programs and will use those students for their student teachers and sometimes new hires, I don't think that should stop someone from looking out of state. Just make sure that there is a reciprocal ageement with NJ. My daughter was accepted at PSU and Millersville University of PA, honors program as an ed major and still chose to go out of state because the college she chose was a better fit for her and she believes that the ed program is better there.</p>
<p>She is doing her third stint as a student teacher which is more then any of her other friends who graduated HS with her and are also ed majors and attending state schools. One of the things we liked about the PA state schools was their high standards. If you want to enter as an ed major, the standards are higher then a regular admit but even then you have to attain a 3.2 (I think it's a 3.2) gpa to be admitted to the program as a sophmore, maintain it through the whole four years and pass all the teacher tests.</p>
<p>The principal of our elementary school though very highly of SUNY Oneanta. (Of course I hated the only teacher that I knew was a graduate.) But it might be worth looking into.</p>
<p>You might want to check the programs at Syracuse and the University of Delaware. Schools might be larger than your friend is interested in, but my daughter and I were impressed with the elementary ed. programs at both schools.</p>
<p>I just thought of a couple of other things that we looked at. My daughter really wanted to do a study abroad but an ed major sometimes has a hard times squeaking one in depending on when the ed classes are offered and student teaching timing. Some have the student teaching done abroad and encourage the abroad experience. Many colleges require a double major if your first major is education, so you would want to look at what second major would be enjoyable too.</p>
<p>A friend of mine who received her teaching credentials at Syracuse after raising her young children is thrilled with the experience she had there, particularly with the quality of the faculty and the resources available to students. She teaches 6th grade and feels that she could not have received a better preparation for teaching than what she found at Syracuse. </p>
<p>Though it may be too far from NJ for your friend, Vanderbilt's Peabody School is highly regarded and fits some of her other criteria: friendly (very!); near a city (on the west end of Nashville, with a nice combination of city access and green, well-contained campus); and on the small side (only 1100 undergrads in the college; about 8K undergrads at Vandy). Though admission is very competitive, the atmosphere is co-operative. The special ed dept. at Peabody has been ranked 1st or 2nd by US News for 10 years; the grad school in the top 10. One of my daughter's good friends is an elementary ed major from NJ and is very, very happy there.</p>
<p>the requirements for elem ed will vary by state since it is such a regulated field - but many states are part of an interstate agreement so that you can get certification in another state. </p>
<p>in some states, it will not be considered a "major" - just an additional set of requirements in addition to your liberal arts major. (this can make it hard to find schools that offer teacher certif simply by using some of the on-line college search sites since you can't search by education as a major). in other states, it is a major, but you generally then need either a second liberal arts major or a "concentration" in a liberal arts subject. then in addition to the actual education courses, the ed program generally requires a number of distribution requirements (math, science, english, history).
it can depend a lot on the school and its other requirements as to how easy or hard it is to fit all of that in during your 4 years of college.</p>
<p>personally, i would suggest looking for a school that will still offer a great liberal arts experience as well -- you never know - just because they think they want ed now doesn't mean they'll feel the same way in a couple of years -- best to be at a school that offers the type of education that will allow the student broad options if they end up not going for teacher certif.</p>
<p>Given what you describe your friend as looking for (smaller school) - i would suggest looking at Vassar, Barnard Muhlenberg. Boston Univ and Syracuse both have excellent schools of education -- but those are much bigger schools with much bigger programs. in general, it might be a good idea for your friend to look at different types of schools (big, small, schools with sep education schools, schools where its a smaller dept) and meet with someone from the ed program --- this can be very helpful in letting your friend get a feel for what type of program they really want and where they will be happy.</p>
<p>The College of New Jersey would seem an obvious choice. Does she not want to go there? Smaller public college with a strong history of teacher education, plenty of other bright kids, near to Trenton and Princeton.</p>
<p>When you are researching/visiting programs, check to see if it is a four year or five year program. Also, although states do have reciprocity, some states (Mass, for one), still require that you pass MTEL and have a master's degree before you get a "real" certification from the state. Finally, when looking at schools, check to see when you actually begin to spend time in classrooms. You want to be in a school observing as soon as you can.</p>
<p>one more thing i thought of for your friend to look out for -- some schools offer educational studies minors that DO NOT lead to teacher certification. (not sure why - could be they havwe grad programs and want to expose undergrads to it without dealing with state regs for undergrad certif? i don't know). but if your friend wants to be able to obtain certif after her undergrad studies, she should not assume that because a school has an ed dept or ed minor that they will offer certif.</p>
<p>My daughter is also looking for a school with an elementary teaching major. We have looked at Elon and College of Charleston. At College of Charleston you have to specify if you want K thru 2 or 3rd thru 8th. She didn't know if she would rather have a K-6 credential. At Elon, you also have an opportunity to study abroad, something my daughter would love to do. She is also looking for a smaller school. Vanderbilt has a great dept, but it would be a reach and not so sure about the location. Looking at each school's departments of Ed is very important.</p>
<p>candace - something you may want to check (which i don't know the answer to) -- if the school where she is studying breaks it down by K-2 or 3-8, but she then seeks certification in a state (thru reciprocity) where they use K-6 breakdown, how does the reciprocity work -- ie, could she still get the K-6 certif since that is what the state where she wants to work offers? would it then matter if she took K-2 or 3-8 in college for the purposes of the reciprocity?</p>
<p>Good point, Unbelievablem, that is a reason that I did not like the way the school divided it. She doesn't know what state she will seek a job. And also she might want to teach third, who knows?</p>
<p>My wife's recommendation (a school principal) is to get the best liberal arts education available. And, if math or science is an interest at all take plenty of it. There is a tremendous demand for quality teachers in that area. Once completed, spend the next year getting a teaching credential in the state in which one wants to live, perhaps a master's degree. One will be extraordinarily marketable at that point.</p>
<p>we asked a lot of people in the education field about the relative advantages disavantages of going for certif undergrad or waiting to do it in grad school. several people tell us that many teachers wait until their masters to get certif, but we also we had some people in the field give different advice -- ie, get certif undergrad and then go for your masters (which many states require for pemanent certif) part-time while you are already working as a teacher. the advantages we were told for this: (1) generally those with only a bachelor's degree are hired at a lower salary than those with masters, so some districts will prefer to hire cheaper hires and (2) getting the masters while teaching allows you to get more from both - the contemporaneous masters education helps you in the classroom and being in the classroom helps you get more from the masters. we were also told that if you waited to get certif as part of a masters program, to make sure you knew what the programs required as prerequisites so that you then didn't have to take additional courses after you graduated to meet their basic prerequisites (eg, how much history, english, math, science, etc they might require).</p>
<p>can't comment myself on which is the "right path", just passing along input we received. (though personally - i can't help but feel that whether or not the certif is gotten as part of an undergrad program, strength of the overall college experience is important since it allows a teacher to bring more to the classroom, not to mention prepares the student in case education ends up not being their true calling in life).</p>
<p>Wherever you decide to go to school, remember that institution is preparing you to complete the requirements for state certification in that state only. It will be your responsibility to complete the requirements for other states, and even states that are right next to one another may have very different requirements. Plus, certifications issued today are more narrow in scope (K-3, 1-6, 5-8), as opposed to my K-8 issued over 30 years ago. Although the rules may seem tedious, I am so impressed with the young teachers graduating from colleges today. They are so prepared and I agree with idad that someone in elementary education needs the best liberal arts education available. In our state, you are able to get a provisional certificate with an undergraduate degree and if you have passed the state test. You then have 5 years to complete your masters and be issued a permanent certificate. I actually think that is the best way to do it. I think you should be in a classroom for a few years to decide if you really want to stay with it. I think people really underestimate the skills necessary to be a successful teacher in today's society. I see many young people who realize after a year or two that it is a very hard job and maybe it is not what they really want to do for their entire working career. Perfectly alright, but better to see that before they invest the time and money in a masters.</p>