Initial Certification

[dabuabdo]

I'm looking into initial certification masters programs in elementary education. So far the programs at Stanford, UC Santa Cruz, Teacher's College and College of Charleston have caught my interest. Does anyone know of any other initial certification masters?

[queenleblanc]

UNC Chapel Hill offers a Master of Arts in Teaching through their school of ed, which is an ILT track (initial license, not for currently licensed teachers).  I did mine there, and it is a GREAT program. 

[dabuabdo]

Awesome! I wanted to go there for undergrad but being an out of state student I didn't get in. Do you know if Chapel Hill is as specific with their out of state students at the graduate level too?

[queenleblanc]

I don't think there is any kind of ratio of in-state and out-of-state for grad level like they had for undergrad.  The state legislature forces them to have that ratio for undergrad so the college is accessible and available for NC residents due to the tuition advantage, but I don't remember reading anything about grad school entry facing any similar rules for ratios. 

[dabuabdo]

That's great   Thanks and good luck with your SLP studies!

[ctcpx084]

dabuabdo: I've been out of the market for an M.Ed, MAT, or MA for a long time, but I wanted to add one suggestion. If you're looking to teach, I would give more weight to MAT programs than many MA/M.Ed programs. Based on people I've met and talked to in the past, I think the MAT programs do a much better job preparing people to teach. I know I did an M.Ed, which included initial certification, and we spent a hell of a lot of time on research methodology and very little on more practical matters. I'm happy that I had that experience now, as I'm heading back to graduate school, but six years ago this training wasn't too useful to me as I headed into the 7-12 classroom.

 

My colleagues who had MATs didn't seem to share in this experience, and they seemed much more versatile than I was. Perhaps some of that comes down to personality and/or experience, but I feel like I've observed a definite trend among people who have a MAT (versus the other graduate degrees).

[dabuabdo]

wjdavis, I've sort of felt the same way. At first I was limiting my search to strictly MAT programs because I feel like they'd better prepare me but there's not as many to choose from-at least that's been the case for me. I'm definitely leaning in favor of an MAT over an MA program so if you have any suggests, I'd really appreciate it!