If you think you may be interested in teaching high school English, you’ll be happy to learn that the State of California has approved our program for preparing high school teachers in single subject matter competency. Completion of the approved program waives the difficult CSET Examinations (Praxis and SSAT) that one must pass before teaching English in high school. You still need to take a sequence of education courses to earn your credential. These are available at the graduate level and some may be taken during your senior year.

It is important that students interested in a teaching career should consult both the coordinator of the Subject Matter Preparation Program in English (Jan Doane) and the director of the Single Subject Credential Program in the School of Education (David Krapf) to make sure that all the prerequisites are being met. The requirements for the SMPP can be found here.

The department recommends the study of foreign languages. Especially those students who plan to do graduate work should consult their advisors about work in other languages (e.g., German, French, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Latin and Greek).