MEd and Teaching License, Arts in Education
Earn your license to teach PreK-12 visual arts, dance, or theatre arts in just over a year. Our accelerated program will prepare you to step into your classroom with confidence and solid classroom experience. You will complete all of the required teaching hours through our unique co-teaching practicum model and required coursework in 13 months. Our license is highly transferable to other states.
This is a graduate-level, full-time program integrating educational theory with classroom practice. Beginning teachers will be ready to implement a contemporary, comprehensive art education program based on current theory and practice in the field.
100%
Arts-in-education graduates found teaching jobs within a year of graduation (2021-2022 cohort)
Timeline
Our program is sequential and each required course is offered once per academic year, beginning in the summer semester, and can be completed by the end of the next summer (12 months). Summer semester courses are offered in shorter two to three week overlapping intervals meeting in both the morning and afternoon. Each of our three fall courses meets once a week from 4:40-7:20 p.m. for 14 weeks. Eight weeks of student teaching at the elementary level and eight weeks in middle or high school is usually completed in the Spring semester.
Masters of Education
This program includes two components: initial teaching licensure and MEd degree. The Department of Curriculum and Instruction offers our teacher preparation programs at the graduate level because it affords you the opportunity to master your content knowledge through your undergraduate degree before being placed in a real classroom for an optimal learning experience.
This model offers the following advantages:
- Teachers who have a master's degree will see a roughly $7,000 annual salary increase [Teacher.org]
- Though the salary increase with a master's degree will vary by district and state, Minnesota teachers are on the higher end of the payscale.
- Teachers with advanced degrees can be promoted to school administration positions and become mentors to other teachers based upon their graduate training.
Program details
Program coursework
To look at the core curriculum and electives for the program, visit the University course catalog Teaching MEd page.
Admission, tuition, and scholarship information
See admissions deadlines, prerequisites, application requirements, and program costs.
Related Programs
- If you already have earned your initial teaching license, we offer an additional teaching license in visual arts, theatre and dance education.
- DirecTrack to Teaching is an exploratory education program that lets you experience schools and school culture in a K-12 education setting
- The Racial Justice in Urban Schooling undergraduate minor lets you explore school systems and offer support to advance educational equity.
Teacher Scholars of Color program
Do you identify, or are you identified, as a non-majority racial group? Consider participating in the Teacher Scholars of Color program. Students admitted to the MEd and initial teaching license programs have the opportunity to join a community of prospective teachers of color and get paired with a faculty mentor. International students are also welcome to this program. Find out more about the TSoC program.
What our students have to say
This is one of the only programs in the US that gives students a master's degree and teaching license within a single year. The University of Minnesota is also one of the only educational institutions that puts a strong emphasis on anti-racist curriculum. As a white educator wanting to create a safe and diverse environment for my students, I knew that I needed this program.
Talia Edelheit, MEd 2021
Theatre teacher at Fair Downtown School