Program Features
- Graduates of the program are licensed to teach high school English language arts.
- Teacher candidates have the opportunity to be placed in high school classrooms every semester during their academic program and minimally accumulate more than 750 hours of actual teaching experience in diverse settings.
- Teacher candidates will have two academic advisors to assist them in completing their program and planning for future careers.
The English/Language Arts concentration is for students who are also pursuing a Secondary Education License. The major is jointly administered by the College of Education and the English department. Students must fulfill requirements in General Education, the English Language Arts major (which includes a foreign language requirement), and a Secondary Education License.
The University of St. Francis is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org), a regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. College of Education programs are further approved by the Illinois State Board of Education (isbe.net).
The College of Education has several years of experience preparing teacher candidates to successfully complete the edTPA, a national assessment designed to lead aspiring teachers to a high level of professional performance. The assessment requires teacher candidates to demonstrate substantial academic and cultural knowledge of their students, as well as use data to improve instruction. USF teacher candidates can count on extensive support and guidance to ensure positive results on the edTPA.
Testimonial
“Why St. Francis? To be honest, every school is going to teach you to write lesson plans and implement them, but no other school is going to do it with the zeal of St. Francis. Here you do not simply learn methodology, you learn to cultivate the whole person. From my experience with the College of Education, I will never forget how I learned to view teaching as more than a profession and a class as more than a group of students. I instead walked away with the realization that teaching could never simply be just a job, and that a classroom of 30 kids is seen instead as a room of 30 unique and special individuals, each capable of changing the world.”
-Ashley Sichak ’15
