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if you have a certain district in mind see if the university places student teachers in the district. This can give you a big leg up in job placement if she has to do a student teaching assignment.
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<p>Great tip. Thanks, drizzit.</p>
<p>Do school districts care at all where an applicant's undergraduate degree came from?</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I hearing correctly that you're recommending that she go forward with the combined Masters/certification program rather than certification alone? And that prestige is not of particular importance for purposes of getting a masters in education?>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>Yes, you are hearing me correctly. Get the masters AND certification...and do it at a public university in the state in which you want to teach. It's financially the best way to go.</p>
<p>Drizzit, the reciprocal certifications do exist in some places...but not very many any more. This was very common until about 20 years ago when states instituted the Praxis tests for certification. I know folks who (in the last 10-15 years) have had to take the Praxis tests in multiple states due to moves...and some were abutting states to this one. It just isn't the same anymore as when I started teaching (back when the dinos roamed). When I moved to a different state, I just mailed my "old state" certification to the "new state" and POOF I was certified. NOW most states will require THEIR testing and in some cases a fulfillment of THEIR teaching requirements. Even back in the day...I went to an Illinois University...but I didn't intend to work in Illinois. I had never fulfilled the undergrad PE requirement and I was not eligible for certification in Illinois because of that. I think THAT has changed...I hope. it didn't matter to me because I was returning to my original state (where I already had certification) after completing my masters.</p>
<p>Now I'm understanding why so many of my children's teachers went to NIU, EIU or WIU instead of UIUC!</p>
<p>Agree with thumper get the Masters and certification together.</p>
<p>I guess it still survives in the West thumper and is fairly widespread in the rocky mountain region anyway. I know Wyoming maintains direct reciprocity agreements with 19 states. Out-of-state certificates will be recognized if they are current and comparable to a Wyoming certificate. You only have to take an open book test on the state constitution. Montana does not require the praxis although if that is all you have to do to get certified that is not to bad when moving from another state</p>
<p>There is this site
Teacher</a> Certification Publications - Requirements At a Glance</p>
<p>Look at this site for cross state movement agreements
[url=<a href="http://www.nasdtec.org/agreement.tpl%5DNASDTEC%5B/url">http://www.nasdtec.org/agreement.tpl]NASDTEC[/url</a>]</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>wjb my experience is that school districts don't care what the university name on the degree is but some tend to hire first year teachers from certain schools that are close or that they know about. After a few years the experience and recs are all that matter. Like engineering I think education hiring is all about hiring local for the most part.</p>
<p>Your daughter may want to look at Inner City Teaching Corps.</p>
<p>It is an Americorps program that allows students to earn credit towards a masters in education (from Northwestern) and alternative certifcation while teaching in under-resourced Chicago schools. </p>
<p>Students work in either Catholic or charter schools and live in group housing. No salary, but housing, living expenses, and insurance are covered.</p>
<p>Application is detailed and it appears program is fairly competive as to who is accepted. You can read more about it on their website, Inner-City</a> Teaching Corps - Educating Minds, Changing Lives in Chicago</p>
<p>Notre Dame has a similar program called ACES.</p>
<p>This is an interesting topic.
My soph son just expressed some concern about being able to make a living in his major. Studio Art.(he said he does not want to live in an apartment all his life and would want to make enough money to one day buy a house) He briefly thought of a switch to engineering but after a look at the requirements he ruled that out. After some conversation he came up with the idea of possibly getting a single subject credential in Math. He will have to look into the state requirements. It is possible to get a teaching credential in math with an undergraduate degree in another field at his school.
With the BFA I don't know if he can manage it. He is thinking he will take 2 math courses this summer at the community college to get back into the math groove.
Before the switch to Studio Art he had planned on majoring in Engineering. He enjoys working with kids.</p>
<p>At Northwestern, 1 "credit" usually means 1 course. 22 credits towards a master program should mean 2/3 of the way, if I am not mistaken.</p>
<p>I believe Loyola-Chicago has a program with school district 34 (Glenview consolidated), in which you'll work part time and go for your Masters.</p>
<p>It's been ten years or so since I've been directly involved, but when I was getting my own M Ed, it seemed to me that most people in my program were already certified, while those in the MAT program were pursuing certification plus the masters. </p>
<p>I did my undergrad work at a regional public university after getting an associates at a local community college. It would not be on anyone's list of top schools, and the attraction for me was simply that it was there, but it was known locally for a good teacher education program, and long before NCLB required majors in the certification areas in addition to the ed program requirements. It really was a so-called "no-name" university, but it offered a "guarantee" of sorts to school districts - if a first-year teacher proved inadequate, the university would take him/her back for remediation at no cost to the student. I don't know of it ever happening, but when I was interviewing for that first job, it was something administrators always mentioned as a positive. I say all that to say that I think having teacher training from a school known for that is important, but I don't think the overall prestige of the school would be so important. I do think it is important to have a strong transcript and especially important to have good enthusiastic recommendations from cooperating teachers and supervising professors (from the teaching experience). I was looking in a tight job market, and I think those are the things that got me interviews and offers from some of the most desireable districts in my areas.</p>
<p>In my state, we had a state-wide salary scale, and school districts received allocations from the state to cover salaries for basic education. The allocation was based on the state scale (number of teachers at each step for years of experience and education - BA, BA + 15, BA + 30, M Ed, M Ed + 15, etc). The extra pay for greater years' experience and education did not come out of the local district, so there was no reason for districts to prefer a less-educated candidate for budgetary reasons, and I think schools do prefer a more-educated staff in general, because it is one of the factors reported to the regional accrediting agencies. </p>
<p>When I started my grad degree, I considered my undergrad public but chose a well-regarded private instead (both offered evening programs). They were the only locally available options except a for-profit program that I didn't consider. Surprisingly, although undergrad tuition at the time was around 20K at the private (compared to $1400 at the public for undergrad), the costs for the grad programs were about the same. It seemed like a lot of money at the time, but it really was pretty reasonable. The programs were designed for working adults to finish within two years, so your daughter might consider something like that while also working; even if she were to get a job as an education paraprofessional, the experience would help her in her long-term job hunt. </p>
<p>One last thought - just as the current economy might be a factor for some districts deciding to hire a candidate without a grad degree versus one with the advanced degree, I would expect that future expenditures by the school district to cover employees' educational expenses might also be very limited. I think that, if the time required to get the advanced degree with certification is essentially the same as needed to get certification alone, it is better start out with the master's and a higher salary. That will pay off every year that your daughter teaches.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Renee. Most of the programs around here offer the MAT, but at least one (Northwestern) offers the MSEd. The Northwestern program is very, very expensive, and it's hard to tell from the website how the MSEd differs substantively from the MAT. Sounds like most candidates in my D's position go for the MAT. That's quite an interesting “guarantee” your university offered!</p>
<p>Your post further validates my D’s plan to go for certification and her Masters simultaneously, and also to evaluate the programs’ placement records in making her decision. (Plenty of options here, and I'm hoping she'll have some good choices. Her undergrad degree is from an excellent university, and though she hasn't yet taken the GRE, historically she is a fine standardized test-taker.) If high-quality school districts prefer a better educated staff for accreditation purposes, that’s one more reason to go for it.</p>
<p>You mention the possibility of working as an education paraprofessional while completing the program. My D’s current thought is to work part-time as a nanny while she goes to school. It’s something she’s enjoyed doing throughout college: flexible hours, great pay, and, of course, kids. I am woefully ignorant when it comes to the field of education. What sorts of paraprofessional positions might be available for prospective upper elementary teachers? All I can think of is the wonderful aides who helped out in my kids’ pre-school classes.</p>
<p>Most public schools are in great need of special ed aides. I also suggest your daughter consider enrolling with her local school district as a substitute teacher (which in my area does not require a teaching certificate). She'll be able to decide what grade level appeals to her and make valuable contacts with school administrators.</p>
<p>^^Substitute teaching is a great idea. Thanks.</p>
<p>Just offering my insight as someone who has recently been through the MAT program and lives in a neighboring midwestern state.</p>
<p>I was a midlife career changer. I have a BA, but after taking time off with my children, I found that I was drawn to teaching. My MAT program was designed to grant certification and licensure after a year of coursework and a semester of student teaching. But, I had to complete a year of teaching before I could finish the coursework and get the MAT. Our program did this because many districts do not want to hire a Masters candidate who has no teaching experience. I have participated in interviews with two potential teachers who went that route and neither of them were hired in our very large district.</p>
<p>Also, your daughter needs to make sure that the school she would be attending is approved by the districts she sees as potential employers. My district does not approve of all programs, and gives approval for only a certain number of online courses. </p>
<p>I contacted my district before I even started the program to be sure they would accept certification and licensure from the school I was planning on attending.</p>
<p>One last thing - all MAT programs are different. I realized after landing a teaching job that my school did an excellent job designing their program. We HAD to be hired and teach for at least a year before we could finish up the MAT - simply to make us more marketable. We were required to complete an action research project (reminded me of my undergrad thesis!) to get the MAT, and that wouldn't have been possible if I didn't have some teaching experience.</p>
<p>Check the programs out very carefully. The last thing you want is to invest alot of money (the program is expensive) and then not be able to get a job!</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Right now the job market in the northeast (I don't know about Illinois specifically) is not very strong for elementary education teachers except in some urban districts where teacher turnover is very high. There is stronger demand for special education/inclusion and for middle school teachers. Your daughter might consider a master's program that would get her dual-licensed in elementary and special education or she might look into options to get an elementary license and add a middle school license in English/social studies or math/science, depending on her undegraduate major. In some states, you can add a license through taking an additional teacher test although usually special ed licensure requires a program and student teaching. I would encourage her to look at job postings in areas where she would like to work and see the comparative availability of jobs for teachers with different kinds of credentials. Once you're hired in a district, it's easier to move between teaching areas (for example, switching from special ed to regular ed or from middle school to fourth or fifth grade). But it could be smart to plan to earn more than one credential through a master's program and make one of the credentials be in what's a high demand field in the areas where she hopes to work.</p>
<p>Agreed there is more of a market for special education teachers than elementary education..BUT I do not advise encouraging anyone to pursue special education unless they REALLY want to pursue special education.</p>
<p>Now having said that...dual certification in regular/special ed makes someone more marketable especially right now when many special needs youngsters ARE included in the regular education classes for much of their instruction.</p>
<p>wjb,
I went poking around a little on the Illinois Education Association website (IEA is the NEA state affiliate) and found this section where you can look at current job openings. I imagine more positions will be added as districts start to know their staffing needs for the next school year. IASA</a> - Illinois Education Job Bank I selected instructional position and elementary and got a list of current openings by county (I see you can also select certain counties when searching). </p>
<p>And I tried non-certified support, teacher aide, and elementary and got this:
IASA</a> - Illinois Education Job Bank
I noticed this district has 5 SPED aide openings and the ISBE paraprofessional certification is required. It looks to me like your daughter would just need to complete the application for certification, entering relevant undergrad info: <a href="http://www.isbe.net/certification/pdf/73-95_paraprofessional.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.isbe.net/certification/pdf/73-95_paraprofessional.pdf</a> I didn't look at it closely, but I imagine there would be a requirement for a background check, fingerprinting, etc.</p>
<p>As for the kind of work parapros do, in my school, they mostly do work with SPED, serving as liaison between regular ed and resource room SPED teachers, monitor "their" students and doing pull-out tutoring, etc., and we sometimes have a few students with more significant disabilities who require one-on-one aides. In a grade 4-8 school I used to work in, there were SPED, ESL, and "overload" aides. Class size was contractually limited, and teachers of classes with 28+ students each had a full-time aide. </p>
<p>When I was still several years away from my degree, someone gave me the tip of regularly checking the job listings in my state, and it really did help me to have a sense of what kind of possibilities I would have when the time came.</p>
<p>Even if your daughter is not interested specifically in SPED (teaching in a self-contained classroom), I think it is good to get as much SPED experience and training as possible. I've taught in quite a few different schools and always have had a number of mainstreamed SPED (and ESL) students in my regular ed classes.</p>
<p>I do agree with thumper - I don't recommend SPED just to enhance employabilty if that's not what she wants to do, but it is a great enhancement to any regular classroom teacher's skill set.</p>
<p>Another thought - check out job fairs that will be coming up in the spring (link below is one from last spring). They are good for teachers in training to be able to get a good idea of openings and actually talk to district recruiters - they will tell you what they are looking for and how to best prepare to get a job when the degree/certification is obtained.
College</a> Central Network Services</p>
<p>Renee, thumper, cammum, akamom, and everyone else -- Thanks, and thanks again. I'm passing the entire thread on to my daughter. Where else but CC could I post a question like this and get a treasure trove of information?</p>
<p>A little late to this thread but two thoughts, echoing two posters above:</p>
<p>Teach for America - a friend's son is currently in this program in NYC; at the end of his two year commitment he will be certified, and also have a masters in education. I don't know if that is also an option for TFA positions in Illinois.</p>
<p>Private schools - I know a number of private schools in our area hire students out of college to teach - typically they are assistant teachers in the lower school to start, and perhaps they coach a team too; at night the students get their masters degree, in some cases funded by the private school. It's a great deal for the private school - some of the best young teachers emerge from this program.</p>