Secondary Education

The secondary licensure program provides teacher education candidates broad content and field knowledge and prepares them as teachers for grades 7-12. Secondary licensure candidates may choose from majors in Biology, English, Geosciences, History, Mathematics and Spanish.

A minimum of 75 credit hours of general education and content area coursework must be completed with a minimum GPA of 2.80 before a secondary candidate is eligible to apply for admission to the Center for Teacher Education (CTE). Before students may register for any upper level education courses, they must be formally accepted to the CTE through a thorough application process. 

Once admitted, secondary education students take a semester of foundation and pedagogy education courses, during which they rotate through a variety of secondary field placements. In their final year, secondary students are placed in a two-semester placement for student teaching. During the first semester, referred to as the "pre-internship," secondary students complete their remaining content requirements and methods courses, and log a minimum of 140 field hours at their student teaching placement site.

During the final semester, secondary education majors complete their internship for which they are placed in the classroom full-time and take on the lead teaching role. All coursework and licensure testing must be completed prior to internship so that students are eligible to apply for Colorado teacher licensure immediately upon completion of the internship and degree.

Colorado Placement

CMU's Education programs meet the requirements for licensure in the state of Colorado, as such, students are required to complete their field hours within the state of Colorado. Placements are arranged between a local school district and the Center for Teacher Education, and are typically within our 14-county western slope community of school districts. Placements outside of this 14-county region are made on a case-by-case basis and are dependent on several factors including, agreements with cooperating school districts, qualified mentor availability, and student support and supervision. While graduates have successfully obtained licensure in other states, at this time, CMU does not offer placement outside of Colorado. To find out about licensure requirements for other states, see our State Licensing Resources page.

Already have a degree or graduating soon?

If you are close to completing a non-education bachelor's degree or already hold a bachelor's degree and want to explore licensure options after graduation, check out our Initial Teacher Licensure graduate program. The ITL program enables students to obtain licensure and complete most of the Master of Arts in Education in one year!