* Please note: Teaching licensure at Carleton will no longer be available beginning with the class of 2027.

Jump to: Title II | Requirements | Program

Carleton College is a four-year, residential college. Licensure through Carleton is available only to regularly enrolled students.

Adviser: Professor Deborah Appleman

Carleton College, in partnership with St. Olaf College, offers Minnesota teaching licensure preparation for grades 5-12 in communication arts, mathematics, life science, and social studies. Grades 9-12 preparation is available in physics and chemistry. K-12 preparation is available in French, German, Spanish, and visual art. 

Field experience helps to engage students in the critical analysis of educational discourse and to prompt them to imagine alternative approaches to educational studies. To that end, Carleton licensure candidates serve apprenticeships in local public schools at several points during their preparation program, whenever possible mentored by master teachers who are “reflective practitioners.” The Teacher Education Committee oversees the licensure program at Carleton College.

The joint Carleton and St. Olaf teacher preparation program is accredited by the Minnesota Department of Education and complies with the state Licensure Rules for training teachers of K-12 school children to meet Minnesota Academic Standards using the Standards of Effective Practice. Minnesota requirements compare favorably with others throughout the nation, so holders of a current Minnesota teaching license are able to use it as the basis for obtaining licensure in most other states.

Title II

The Carleton licensure program has been in full compliance with federal Title II regulations for disclosure of state-mandated MTLE examination pass rates. For 2016–2017, the most recent year for which data are available, the Carleton licensure candidate pass rates were 100% for all areas. See page 27 on this detailed Title II certified disclosure statement.

Please refer to the Education Department website at St. Olaf College for current information on MTLE pass rates.

Requirements for Licensure

  • Admission to the Teacher Education Program
    Access licensure forms. You may also get these forms from the Educational Studies Department in the licensure information packet.
  • Completion of a major in art, English, mathematics, French, German, Spanish, biology, physics, chemistry, or the social sciences (anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, sociology, or an interdisciplinary program such as American studies or Latin American studies so long as one-third of the total baccalaureate work falls within the realm of the social sciences). Major requirements in individual disciplines may be found in the department listings. Please note that for the purposes of teaching licensure, some courses may be required in addition to those required for the regular Carleton major.
  • 42 credits in designated educational studies courses
  • Satisfactory scores on tests required by the State of Minnesota
  • Satisfactory completion of student teaching
  • Submission of the state-mandated edTPA portfolio
  • License application to the State of Minnesota
  • Satisfactory completion of the Standards of Effective Practice for Teachers as mandated by the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (formerly the Board of Teaching).

Program for Licensure

The following courses are required for Carleton students seeking teaching licensure:

Two of the following four:

  • EDUC 110: Introduction to Educational Studies, or
    EDUC 250: Fixing Schools
  • EDUC 338: Multicultural Education or
    EDUC 262: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

All of the following:

  • EDUC 234: Educational Psychology 
  • EDUC 340: Differentiating Instruction (taken at St. Olaf)
  • EDUC 374: Teaching Reading in the Content Area (taken at St. Olaf)   
  • EDUC 385: Schooling and Communities           
  • EDUC nnn: Methods of Teaching (in major area) (taken at St. Olaf)
  • EDUC 389: Student Teaching (13th term; taken fall after graduation)

We recommend the following sequence, although individual paths may vary:

First Year

Discuss your teaching interests with at least one member of the Educational Studies Department as soon as you begin considering teaching licensure. Completing licensure requirements, as well as other Carleton requirements, requires careful advance planning.

We strongly recommend that you take EDUC 110 or EDUC 250 if you are able to do so in your first year, though you may have to wait until your sophomore year to do so. Other required courses technically open to first-year students are 234 and 338. However, under Carleton’s seniority registration system, it is very difficult for first-year students to enroll in these courses.

Sophomore Year

We strongly recommend that you take EDUC 234. You may also take 262 or 338.

Junior Year

As a junior, you should take 234 and either 262 or 338, if you haven’t already done so.

This is the year you should apply to the teacher licensure program. You can apply any term, as admissions decisions are made at the end of each term. Once you are admitted to the program, you will be assigned an educational studies advisor who, in cooperation with your major advisor, will help you with program planning, completion of requirements for both graduation and teacher licensure, and your student teaching placement.

Senior Year

In addition to taking any Carleton required courses that you have not yet completed, you will take three classes at St. Olaf. Because St. Olaf is on a semester system, senior year requires careful planning. The special methods course given in your respective teaching area is taken during the spring term of your senior year at St. Olaf. Schooling and Communities (385) is taken in the spring term, which integrates community service into your student teaching placement site.

The other two St. Olaf courses Differentiating Instruction (340) is only offered fall semester and Teaching Reading in the Content Area (374) can be taken either fall or spring semester.

Thirteenth Term

Student Teaching takes place the fall term after students graduate. Doing so affords the Maximum amount of time for completing major and distribution requirements, allowing students more time to both explore the liberal arts and carefully consider their commitment to teaching and prevents them from being encumbered by other campus commitments during their student teaching.

The student will be charged only a nominal administration fee in lieu of tuition. In addition to full-time student teaching for 14 weeks, students will participate in the student teaching seminar, offered by both Carleton and St. Olaf.