Program Requirements
Complete a minimum of 37 credits from at least twelve courses including five curriculum core courses, four to five pre-practicum core courses, one practicum core course, and two concentration courses.
Concentration: Students may select a concentration in English as a second language, special education, digital literacy/computer science, or content (must be selected if the student did not major/minor in the subject they plan to teach). Students may also opt to mix and match concentration classes.
Capstone: Completion of a practicum portfolio.
Pre-practicum: Students will be placed in a classroom with English Language Learners for at least one full day a week or one period every day for a semester (at least 100 total hours) to conduct monitored fieldwork consisting of specified activities to complete course assignments. Students can opt to do five full days a week and combine their pre-prac and prac to have a year-long field experience. Prepracticum documentation and evaluations must be submitted with practicum applications.
Practicum: A full practicum is five-days a week for 14 weeks (one full semester) of supervised student teaching. All initial licensure candidates must take the 6-credit practicum seminar.
For both the pre-practicum and practicum, students must apply for approval and placement the semester prior to the one in which it is to take place.
Exams: Successful completion of the Communication and Literacy MTEL (must be passed before starting the curriculum core) and the Subject Area MTEL (must be passed before starting the pre-practicum core).
Schools and certain field sites will require CORI/SORI (Criminal/Sex Offender Record Information) and finger-printing prior to fieldwork. Allow enough time for results before planning your hours.
Competency 1 of the state’s regulations for licensure covers the knowledge base that teachers must bring to the classroom. For middle/secondary teachers, this is one of the disciplines taught in high school (e.g., English, History, Political Science/ Philosophy, French, Spanish, Biology, Mathematics, Physics, etc.). Most commonly, middle/secondary teachers are licensed in the fields in which they hold their BA or BS.
UMass Boston only endorses students for an initial license in a subject area. For an additional license, students need to pass the two courses in their chosen concentration core, complete the applicable DESE requirements listed on their own, and apply to DESE directly after obtaining a content area initial license.
Students should keep all syllabi, fieldwork documentation, assignments, and transcripts.
Minimum grade: At least a 3.0 cumulative GPA with no incompletes for courses in prior cores to move on to the next core.
Statute of limitations: Five years.
