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Teacher Education

Secondary Program

Secondary Teaching (grades 5-12)

Lewis & Clark’s program for beginning educators in middle and high school (grades 5-12) is grounded in social justice principles and empowers candidates to address issues of equity in schools. By combining candidates’ specific content area passion with comprehensive knowledge of adolescent development and finely-tuned instructional skills, the secondary program prepares graduates to effectively meet the unique learning needs of diverse populations of young people.

Program Overview

Master of Arts in Teaching with Preliminary Teaching License, Secondary
Total credit hours: 40
Program start date: June
Program length: 13 months
Option to apply to the MAT with ESOL Endorsement
Program Director: Liza Finkel

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View program of study

Choose Your Focused Content Area

Art
Program Coordinator: Amy Turnbull

English Language Arts
Program Coordinator: Kimberly Campbell

Mathematics, Foundational and Advanced
Program Coordinator: Lisa Lavelle)

Science (Biology, chemistry, physics, integrated science)
Program Coordinator: Liza Finkel

Social Studies
Program Coordinator: Dyan Watson

Make a Difference

When you enroll at the graduate school, you will learn to be a transformative educator who is dedicated to promoting democratic school reform in a diverse and multicultural society.

You will have the opportunity to draw upon the resources of an outstanding faculty, your highly capable cohort of peers, and educators and students in the culturally-rich schools in the greater Portland metropolitan area.

We believe the best preparation for this incredibly important work is for our students to spend their entire year student-teaching in one school, starting by working with one class of students under the guidance of a skilled mentor, becoming lead teacher for that class between Thanksgiving and winter break, and then taking the role of lead teacher in additional classes prior to graduation.

What to Expect

Our program begins in mid-June and ends the following summer (exact dates will depend on your content area). During your first summer term you will take classes, build relationships, and prepare for your student teaching experience. Beginning in late August, you will join your mentor teacher at your school site to prepare the classroom for the arrival of students and the start of the school year. During fall and spring semesters you will split your time between your school classroom and Lewis & Clark; you will have full-time classroom experiences between Thanksgiving and winter break and again after spring break.

Unparalleled Teaching Experience

Lewis & Clark’s MAT programs include a yearlong, bell-to-bell, student teaching experience. This will uniquely prepare you to:

  • Meet the needs of adolescents in ways that honor and extend their experiences while enhancing their capacity to solve problems
  • Develop strategies to create democratic learning communities, drawing on research in theory and best practices
  • Cultivate connections between learners and the world beyond the classroom
  • Incorporate a range of teaching and technological resources
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Work With Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

Public schools are experiencing significant demographic shifts with sometimes dramatic increases in speakers of languages other than English. For this reason, all Lewis & Clark Master of Arts in Teaching candidates are trained to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students through rigorous coursework in this area.

If you are interested in more extensive preparation, consider applying to the MAT with ESOL Endorsement program, which allows you to earn an ESOL Endorsement concurrent with the MAT degree.