The Nebraska Post-Secondary Education Coordinating Commission has approved a new degree at all 3 state colleges intended to help reduce the state’s teacher shortage.
The Master of Arts in Teaching degree will allow an individual who holds a bachelor’s in a field other than education to complete the initial teacher certification requirements without having to get an additional bachelor’s degree in education.
The new master degree will take 2 years to complete and be done entirely online except for one semester of student teaching. It will require 30 credit hours – 12 in core courses and 18 in electives. Additional courses may be needed for some endorsements.
The Masters of Arts in Teaching will complement two Nebraska Dept of Education permit programs – the Transitional Teaching and Alternative Program Teaching – that offer 7 pathways for those with a non-education bachelors degree to be hired as classroom teachers.
Data from last year showed that 218 individuals were teaching under a Transitional Teaching Permit with 315 teaching under an Alternative Program Teaching Permit.
The new master’s degree program is expected to attract both those thinking about a teaching career and those already in the two programs since they can take the needed courses while still teaching, and those just exploring teaching careers. Financial aid could be available.
Chadron State will begin offering courses this summer with the degree program to be added to the Fall 2025 CSC catalog.