Michigan State University’s five-year teacher preparation program, which culminates in a year-long, post-graduate internship, is an innovative and demanding model for producing successful educators. The program, nationally accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, focuses on preparing teachers who have deep content knowledge and use the best methods for classroom teaching. Spartan teachers recognize the need to improve education for all learners. Many of them gain specialized skills for teaching in high-need settings, such as internationally diverse classrooms and those in under-resourced urban communities.

Students choose from elementary education, special education and secondary education, with many possible subject-area majors and minors, including a focus on language and literacy:

• In Elementary Education students can earn a Language Arts Teaching Major for Elementary Teacher Certification , which provides strong subject matter preparation in 4 main areas: (1) language, literacy and culture; (2) writing, rhetoric and design; (3) text, media and interpretation; and (4) speech, performance and communication.
• In Secondary Education , students earn degrees in the departments/colleges of their teaching majors, and must complete a secondary teaching major; all majors, except Art, Music and Physical Science must be accompanied by a secondary teaching minor. A variety of teaching majors and minors are offered, including a BA in English with Teacher Certification , and a teaching minor in English.
• Students who earn degrees in Special Education also complete the elementary certification program. Special Education majors who were freshmen in 2009 or later must complete one of four approved elementary teaching majors: Language Arts , Integrated Science, Mathematics or Social Studies.