<p> 25 years old, 2.78 GPA from UC Davis, BA in Political Science/minor in History
currently teaching ESL in Korea, will have almost 2 years teaching experience (elementary + middle) by the time I leave in September.</p>
<p>My long-term goal is to become either a high school teacher or community college professor teaching history or government in California. I'm currently looking into master's programs at some of the California State University programs, and I'm aware that I will have to go back to undergrad school and get straight A's to boost my GPA and get the required units to try and get into a master's program in History. What I'm trying to decide on is if I should:</p>
<p>A) Just go straight into a program to receive my teaching credential or B) the more risky approach, go back to undergrad and if I can manage to pull off straight A's, possibly get into grad school with the minimum required GPA. </p>
<p>My questions are as follows:</p>
<p> Is a teaching credential worthless if I go for a master's? It would be more convenient for me to get a teaching credential first, but I don't want to bother spending a year of my life doing that if a master's degree would automatically supersede it.<br>
I know the job market is bad for teachers, esp. in CA, but just HOW bad is it, and is it roughly the same for community college professors?
If I don't boost my GPA by going for a master's, how much does my low GPA hurt me in getting a high school teaching position? And is my time spent teaching in Korea relevant at all?
My understanding of teaching community college, esp. with a high-demand subject like history/government/political science is that they don't like to hire full-time professors so they can pay lower wages, so basically the pay grade wouldn't be more than a high school teacher anyway, plus you have to travel around because you're working at multiple community colleges. Is this accurate?</p>
<p>Another one I forgot to ask:</p>
<p>• Is a teaching credential program 1 or 2 years? I’m getting mixed answers on this one.</p>
<p>I am not qualified to answer your questions, but I wanted to point you to the [California</a> Community College Registry](<a href=“https://www.cccregistry.org/jobs/searchForm.aspx]California”>Search Form). Among other things, it’s got a job database that will tell you what range salary to expect. I noticed in particular that most colleges were looking for part-time or adjunct professors with very few open tenure-track positions.</p>
<p>
A master’s qualifies you to teach at a private high school, and that’s about it. You need teaching certification to teach at a public school (with the glut of teachers in non-STEM, few schools are accepting teachers through the alternate certification route), and most community colleges are preferring to hire PhDs these days.</p>
<p>and I’m aware that I will have to go back to undergrad school and get straight A’s to boost my GPA and get the required units to try and get into a master’s program in History. What I’m trying to decide on is if I should:</p>
<p>I don’t think I would agree with that. I think a better strategy would be to take some graduate level history classes as a non-degree student to prove that you can succeed in graduate-level history classes, and perhaps to do some research with a history professor. Either that, or get a job teaching history or social sciences, and then try to get into an M.Ed program. Your GPA will matter less with the more time and experiences you put between grad and undergrad.</p>
<p>A teaching credential is not worthless if you get a master’s, since you will need a teaching credential to teach regardless of whether you have a master’s or not. But you can get certification and a master’s at the same time in an M.Ed program. One of your public universities probably offers it.</p>
<p>The job market is even worse for community college professors, especially in history. The market is so competitive that most full-time history CC professors have a PhD in history. Just having an MA most likely won’t get you a full-time job, although you may be able to adjunct.</p>
<p>Adjuncts typically get paid $2,000-5,000 a class depending on location and school. The most common number I hear is right around $3,000, which means that to make a $30K salary (no benefits, no health insurance) you need to teach 10 classes a year - either 5 classes fall/spring or something like 4-4-2 fall-spring-summer. That’s assuming you can get 10 classes a year; as you said, they most likely will be at multiple different colleges.</p>