Teaching

With over 50 colleges and universities in and around the city, Boston has become an international hub for education. Boston was on the forefront of the Extended Learning Time program, and guarantees a full-day kindergarten seat to every five-year-old in the city, in addition to free programs for four and three-year-old children. The city is now in the thirteenth year of the Pilot School program, an experimental program that gives individual public schools autonomy over the school budget, staffing, and curriculum, among other areas.

Still, the achievement gap remains a pressing challenge. Even though Massachusetts has the highest test scores on national assessments, African-American and Latino fourth grade students in Massachusetts are eight times more likely to be below basic math proficiency than whites.

Teach For America is eager to become another step in the Boston community’s ongoing efforts to close the achievement gap, and will be partnering in Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, and Revere Public Schools. We plan to expand our reach to additional surrounding districts in subsequent years.

Certification and Testing

All Boston corps members must successfully pass the Communication and Literacy Skills MTEL, which tests corps members’ own reading and writing skills. Elementary corps members must also pass the General Curriculum subject-matter MTEL, while secondary corps members must pass the subject-matter MTEL within their assigned content area. Special education corps members have the choice of passing either the General Curriculum subject-matter MTEL or a secondary content area subject-matter test. Additionally, elementary and special education corps members must pass the Foundations of Reading MTEL, which tests reading pedagogy. For further details about the MTEL exams, please refer to www.mtel.nesinc.com.

The MTELs are offered on several dates throughout the spring; however, out-of-state testing is only offered on one date, so corps members may need to travel to Massachusetts to complete testing. All applicants assigned to Boston will receive more information about test dates and locations once they are accepted.

Greater Boston corps members teaching special education are also required to complete certain content-specific seminars by the start of the school year to earn their preliminary license. We have a partnership where corps members can complete online seminars to fulfill this requirement. The cost of these seminars is $149.

After earning a preliminary license, most corps members are expected to enroll in Teach For America Greater Boston’s state approved alternative certification program. By completing the program, corps members will earn their Initial License, a five-year renewable license, by the end of two years of teaching. The program includes summer training and ongoing coursework at Boston University. The cost and time commitments of this coursework varies depending on the field of licensure, but will range between $6,000-$8,000 and one to two nights per week. Greater Boston corps members can also choose to pursue a master’s degree within their two years of teaching through our reduced tuition partnership with Boston University for approximately $13,000-$14,000.

Corps members may choose to allocate any grants or AmeriCorps awards they receive to offset the costs of ongoing coursework. We will provide further details about AmeriCorps funding as soon as it is finalized.

If a corps member already holds an Initial License to teach in Massachusetts, and the license is aligned with his or her Teach For America assignment, then the corps member is not required to enroll in the alternative certification program. Similarly, if a corps member has teacher certification in another state that has a reciprocity agreement with Massachusetts, and the certification is aligned with his or her Teach For America assignment, then the corps member would not need to enroll in the alternative certification program; the corps member, however, would need to secure a Massachusetts Initial License prior to the first day of school.