Teacher Preparation & Educational Leadership

Five CEHS departments are engaged in preparing our future educators.

• Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education (TLTE) – preparing undergraduate students for teaching careers in elementary and secondary education. Graduate students can earn master’s, Ph.D. and Ed.D. degrees. Additional teacher certification and endorsement programs are also available.

• Special Education and Communication Disorders (SECD) – preparing undergraduate students for careers in special education teaching through certification and endorsement programs. Graduate students earn master’s and Ph.D. degrees in special education. SECD also prepares students to become speech-language pathologists and audiologists with master’s and Au.D programs.

• Child, Youth and Family Studies (CYAF) – preparing undergraduate students to serve children birth to grade 3 with a bachelor’s degree in inclusive early childhood education. CYAF also offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Family and Consumer Sciences.

• Educational Administration (EDAD) – offers master’s and doctoral degrees in P-20 school educational administration.

• Educational Psychology (EDPS) – prepares graduate students to be national certified school psychologists through either an educational specialist degree or Ph.D. A master’s in counseling psychology is also available.

Every CEHS program that leads to certification is accredited by a national accrediting agency. Accreditation helps separate UNL from other teacher preparation programs. More than 3,000 colleges and universities nationwide offer teacher preparation programs, but only 300 are accredited. It makes a difference.

• It helps assure quality in educator preparation through external peer review

• Sets standards for what new teachers need to know and for clinical training, which allows teachers to enter the classroom ready to teach effectively

• Promotes ongoing self-assessment of programs

• Connects with national and state accountability systems

• Elevates the profession

• Educator Preparation – Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and Nebraska Department of Education.

• School Psychology – The Ph.D. in school psychology is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association*, and the Ph.D. and Ed.S. in school psychology are approved by the National Association of School Psychologists.

• Speech Language Pathology – The M.S. in speech-language pathology and the Au.D. in audiology are accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

See our accreditation page for more information.

*Questions related to the program's accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation:

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336-5979
apaaccred@apa.org
www.apa.org/ed/accreditation

The following programs prepare qualified candidates to fill the needs of schools:

Educator Preparation Programs Leading to Initial Teacher Certification

• Inclusive early childhood education – students earn a bachelor of science (B.S.) with a Nebraska teaching certificate endorsement (Birth to Grade 3).
• Elementary education – students earn a B.S. in education with certification to teach in grades K-6.
• Secondary education – students earn a B.S. in education with certification to teach in grades 7-12.
• Special education – students have a choice of dual major in elementary education and special education (K-6) or a special education (7-12) degree. Both are B.S. degrees with certification.

Evidence of Effectiveness

• Teacher Education Candidate Performance – a summary of results on various measures of teacher candidate performance.

Advanced Educator Preparation Programs

• School administration – students can earn a master’s or doctor of education in P-12 school leadership. The M.Ed. provides Nebraska principal endorsement and the Ed.D. provides Nebraska superintendent endorsement.
• School psychology – in a three-year program, students earn an educational specialist degree (Ed.S.) that meets the requirements to become a National Certified School Psychologist (NCSP).
• Speech language pathology – a B.S. degree prepares students to pursue their master’s or doctoral degree. The master’s degree meets requirements for the Certificate of Clinical Competence and a Nebraska teaching endorsement in speech language pathology.
• Audiology – the Clinical Doctorate in Audiology (Au.D.) meets the requirements for the Nebraska special services standard audiologist certificate.

The experience of student teaching is an essential component in the development of educators. CEHS faculty and staff consider it to be the “capstone” in the preparation process for teacher education. For more information, visit Practicum and Student Teaching. This page includes contact information for Sara Skretta, director of professional experiences.

Preservice teachers with questions about initial teaching certification or teachers interested in renewing a certificate can find details at Teacher Certification and Renewal. Contact information for Tom Wandzilak, certification officer, can also be found here.

Teacher education applicants must complete the Praxis I Core Academic Skills for Educators examination. More information is available at the Praxis webpage.

To review a summary of how CEHS teacher candidates perform academically, visit the teacher education candidate performance data page.

Criminal history background checks are also required of all teacher candidates. Details are available at the criminal history background checks webpage.

Clinical placements are an integral part of the school psychology program and the speech language pathology program. Please see the following links for more information.

• School psychology, clinical placement
• Speech Language Pathology, clinical placement

Average ACT Composite score

Graduates of UNL teacher education programs had the following average ACT Composite Score at the time of their admission to the university:

High School Rank of Completers

High School Class Rank

Students enrolled in UNL teacher education programs had the following high school class rank:

Undergraduate Grade Point Average

The cumulative Grade Point Average for graduates of UNL teacher education programs was:

Average Years to the Bachelor’s Degree

The average number of years-to-completion that graduates of UNL teacher education programs required to complete their Bachelor’s Degree was:

Performance on the CORE and Praxis II Tests

100% of UNL candidates earned a passing score on the CORE. A passing score is required by Nebraska statute for all teacher candidates for Nebraska certification. Teacher candidate completers are also required to take the Parxis II subject area tests. The average pass rate for all UNL teacher candidate completers for Praxis II for 2016-17 is 85%.

Employer ratings

Principals of first year teachers who graduated from the UNL teacher education programs complete surveys to describe the quality of the teachers’ preparation. An overwhelming majority of the principals agreed or strongly agreed that the program graduates were well-prepared to teach in their content area: