As a first-year student, you may apply for the Preferred Admissions program, which would allow you to complete your first two years at another of the university's schools (usually the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts) while receiving advising from the School of Education, before transferring to our program at the beginning of your junior year.

If you wish to become a secondary teacher, you may remain with another unit such as the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, while completing coursework at the School of Education and earning a recommendation for a Michigan provisional teaching certification. Students pursuing certification in music or physical education, however, must remain within their home unit.

Coursework is completed concurrently with a year-long teaching internship to provide greater opportunities for exploration of pedagogies through authentic classroom interactions. Our curriculum prepares master’s students with the theory, method, and practice to be successful educators. All classroom experiences are fully supported by field instructors.

Faculty from the U-M School of Education—comprising researchers, teachers, and advocates—are ranked among the top in the nation. Together, they share their passion for the intellectually challenging work of teaching and are known worldwide for scholarship that broadens understanding of effective teaching and student learning.

Each year, the Master of Arts with Teacher Certification programs draw students with diverse academic and professional backgrounds who are seeking a collegial and intellectually challenging environment to develop the skills and knowledge to become effective educators.

Students will explore questions such as:

• What is the relationship, historically and today, between education and power?
• How do individuals, communities, organizations, and societies leverage teaching and learning as tools for social change and social movement?
• Beyond schools and classrooms, what are the sites of educational and youth work that offer opportunities to advance justice, in the United States and around the world?
• How might we develop our imagination for humanizing educational spaces—both within and beyond schools—that recognize everyday people’s power in the ongoing struggle for justice?

There are two program pathways, one for Teach For America (TFA) corps members pursuing initial teacher certification, and one for practicing teachers who want to add endorsement areas to their existing standard certification without leaving the classroom. In both pathways, participants will begin teaching under interim certificates in their new content areas immediately upon entrance to the program, and will receive ongoing, content-specific training and development from University of Michigan teacher educators for three (3) years before earning their Michigan standard teaching certificates.