good schools for teacher wanna-be's

<p>Does anyone know what schools have good programs for kids who want to be teachers?</p>

<p>A really big thing is where you wish to live and work in the future. There are a lot of issues with being certified in some states, but having to get recertified in order to work in other states.</p>

<p>That’s not really true diontechristmas-- most states have reciprocal agreements and those who don’t generally have less requirements, not more, than the states with reciprocal agreements.</p>

<p>That being said, it is critical to think about where you want to teach and what kind of teaching you want to do-- if you want to teach in a particular area there are often schools of average to above average quality that serve as local feeders. Many top schools, especially the Ivies and top LACs send many graduates to TFA and new teacher project programs.</p>

<p>One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is that you should 100% have a major in something other than education. Unequivocally, principals would rather hire someone with more content area knowledge rather than less, and my experience has been that programs which train undergraduates who do not need another concentration tend to not be very strong.</p>

<p>You may have an easier time with a degree in your content area looking for a teaching job while pursuing an education master’s at night than having only a teacher-preparation education degree coming straight out of undergrad, if you want to do secondary education.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure what it is in most states, but PA makes it pretty tough.</p>

<p>I"m asking for a friend … so a follow up question for MM … so you are suggesting a degree in a content area …and a masters in education? I’m guessing that most schools will not hire without some kind of education degree or certification - right? Do you have any advice if the interest is for primary or middle school - or does the same thing apply? thanks.</p>

<p>Generally, these 44 states have reciprocity agreements which make changing certification trivial:

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<p>Primary education is a bit difference, a straight-up education degree is probably best there. For middle school or high school, many undergraduate education programs require that you essentially double major-- generally, these programs are better, IMO. However, I also don’t think it’s bad to go for undergrad in a field and master’s in education. These kinds of teachers, according to principals I’ve spoken to, tend to be more sought after because of their content-knowledge depth.</p>