The Middle Level Teacher Education program at Illinois State will prepare you with a unique expertise in teaching young adolescents with primary focus on grades 5-8 and a type 03 certification in grades K-9. The K-9 teaching certificate allows you to teach all subject areas. As an Illinois State Middle Level Program student, you are required to choose two subject areas in which to focus your studies. These concentration areas are supplemented with additional courses from the disciplines related to the concentration areas.

Middle Level Teacher Education is a vibrant, innovative program that prepares the majority of highly trained candidates for Illinois middle level schools. New candidates become part of the 50-year history of middle level education at Illinois State University. Illinois State is one of only two institutions in the state of Illinois with a middle level teacher education degree program.

Program features

Program objectives are the national standards for middle level education designed by the Association for Middle Level Education, making the program well-aligned with current research and the established needs of schools and new teachers.
Diversity training is included in every course in the program, so you move well beyond awareness to learn how to actually apply this critical knowledge base.
Technology skills are embedded directly into our methods courses, so you gain immediate practice using appropriate technology in your teaching.
Multiple clinical experiences throughout the program prepare you to assume your professional responsibilities. Prior to student teaching, middle level education candidates will spend more than 155 hours in clinical experiences in K-8 classrooms as a part of their program, including teacher institutes and parent-teacher conferences.
A senior-year block component prepares you for the student teaching term. You will take specified pedagogy courses and spend four weeks in an intensive pre-student teaching internship experience in a middle level school under the supervision of a classroom teacher.
A variety of student teaching options are available. You may choose an on-campus program with its varied clinical placement settings and its one-semester student teaching in a multitude of Illinois school districts as well as in Texas and in Great Britain. Alternatively, you can opt to spend your entire final year at one of Illinois State University's Professional Development Schools.
A high degree of professional readiness and satisfaction with our program is reported by our graduates. Performance on state certification tests is superior. Many principals and school districts across the state express a preference for our program graduates, telling us they come into classrooms well prepared to assume professional responsibilities.

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Middle Level Teacher Education