This past year, the University of Colorado Board of Regents approved the creation of two new Bachelor of Arts degrees forthcoming for the CU Boulder School of Education: the BA in Middle and High School Teaching and the BA in Education Studies.
“These exciting new undergraduate degrees have the potential to help address significant teacher shortages or introduce graduates to non-teaching careers in education at a time when support for and understanding of public education is critical for a healthy democracy,” said Dean Kathy Schultz. “These majors build on the long-standing excellence of our education minor and teacher-education programs that have been seen as model programs across the country.”
The BA in Middle and High School Teaching program is for undergraduate students seeking a career in middle and/or high school teaching in a subject area they are passionate about, such as English, math, science, social studies, or Spanish.
These exciting new undergraduate degrees have the potential to help address significant teacher shortages or introduce graduates to non-teaching careers in education at a time when support for and understanding of public education is critical for a healthy democracy.” — Dean Kathy Schultz.”
The program will continue the highly regarded secondary teacher licensure programing in the School of Education, but now students will earn a BA in middle and high school teaching in addition to an initial teacher license in secondary education (grades 7-12) from the state of Colorado and a dual degree in their content-area major in other CU Boulder departments.
The BA in Education Studies is for students who are interested in education-related careers but not necessarily teaching.
With a degree in education studies, graduates can work in governmental and nonprofit agencies, community outreach, youth development and other non-school educational programs or pursue graduate studies in education. It also offers an alternative major for students who begin a teacher education program, in elementary education or middle and high school teaching for example, but decide they no longer want to be a classroom teacher. Rather than “sticking it out” when they discover classroom teaching is not a good fit for them or dropping the major entirely, students can transfer to this major that allows them to continue learning about and working in rewarding education careers.
Both degrees will open for applications in fall 2024.