2012-2013 Education Program Information

Pennsylvania Teacher Certification has changed! The new teacher certification levels are:

• Early Childhood – Pre-K-Gr 4 Certification
• All students who want to teach pre-school, kindergarten, grades 1,2,3 will be ECE (Pre-K 4 certification students)
• At RACC they will be in the ECE (Pre-K – Gr 4) AAS program. This program is designed to meet the TAOC requirements for program-to-program transfer to the PA State system of Higher Education, therefore students who complete the requirements of this program will transfer as juniors and will be guaranteed to graduate in 60 credits (only state system schools)
•  Middle (Grades 4-8) Certification
• Students who want to teach grades 4-8 will need to focus on content areas, at this point they can be Elementary Education Transfer students or Liberal Arts students (we are still awaiting the finalized TAOC agreement to determine how best to accommodate this group of students)
• Students interested in this certification should contact the transfer institution and find out the configuration of content specialty (there will be 2 content specialty areas but colleges will approach this in different ways), students will want to work closely with the transfer matrix and the program requirements at the college they wish to transfer to, in some cases students may want to transfer before obtaining a degree
• Secondary (High-School - Content) Certification
• Secondary has not changed, we can continue to advise students in the same manner. It will be important that the student identifies the content specialty and begin to focus in that area. These students should contact the transfer institution and use the transfer matrix and program requirements.
• Special Education Certification
• Special Education is no longer a standalone K-12 certification; all special education teachers must have a certification in one of the above areas. The transfer colleges may configure their programs differently, it will be important for the student to check in with the transfer institution.
• For example at Kutztown University Students who want special education will be considered Special Education Majors, even though they still need certification in one of the above areas. Students who want Special Education/Pre-K 4 at KU should be advised into ECE (Pre-K –gr 4) AAS program, while they will NOT be able to use the TAOC agreement since they will be Special Education majors at KU, they will be able to use the RACC/KU agreement to obtain junior status and should be advised to sign the letter of intent before 45 credits

How to help a student decide on a program

1.  First ask what they want to teach (It is important to get them to think about this)
• If they talk about children – Pre-school, K, 1st 2nd 3rd they are candidates for the ECE (Pre-K-Grade 4 )program
• If they talk about content – they are probably more interested in Middle or Secondary
• If they want grade 4-6 – this is NO LONGER Elementary Certification it is Middle certification but when they are at RACC they can start in the Education Transfer Elementary (for now)
2. ALL students in ECE (Pre-K to grade 4) Teaching program should start the ECE courses in the first semester they are here if possible
3. PLEASE NOTE there are 2 ECE courses in the ECE (Pre-K-GR 4) Teaching Program with COM 021 as a pre-requisite: ECE 115 Integrated Arts and ECE 140 Health, Safety and PE. These courses have been added to the schedule for the Spring to help get students back on track since so many missed them in the Fall – Please start students here-do not fill their schedule with general education classes that are offered every semester (ECE (Pre-K-Gr 4) Curriculum guide)