TEACHERS DO YOU NEED TO EARN YOUR PROFESSIONAL LICENSE? Enrolling Now for a September 15 Program Start

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1 TEACHERS DO YOU NEED TO EARN YOUR PROFESSIONAL LICENSE? Enrolling Now for a September 15 Program Start French River Education Center, located in North Oxford, MA, is accepting enrollments now for a September 15 start in our DESE approved professional license program for any teacher holding an initial license in one of the following DESE disciplines: Elementary Education, 1-6; Early Childhood Education, PreK- 2/3; Math, 5-8; and Teacher of Students with Moderate Disabilities, PreK-8 & PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS..All teachers, regardless of discipline, must take a DESE requirered literacy course (4 graduate credits) starting September, 2015 as well as the required math course (4 graduate credits) in January 2016 to complete program requirements for professional licensure by mid-may 2016! NOTE: Moderate disabilities teachers must also take an additional week-long summer course in special education (3 graduate credits) that will be offered July 6-10, Framingham State University (FSU) awards all graduate credits. (NOTE: The September literacy course will be taught as a "hybrid" or "blended course", i.e., approximately half your classes will be "face-to-face" classes at Oxford HS and half your classes will be on line and asynchronous, i.e., you can access your online instruction and assignment anytime of day and any day of the week). This means that you will travel to Oxford High School for class for only half the semester. Your instructor will give you a course schedule at the first class in September.)

2 Classes held in September of 2015 and January of 2016 are held one day a week, from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Class time for the week-long summer course for special education teachers is 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. All courses and are held at Oxford High School, Oxford, MA. Registrations are being accepted NOW for the professional license program on a first come, first serve basis for a September 15 start. NOTE: In addition to the coursework, the DESE has additional requirements for all teachers which must be met before awarding professional licensure. The actual professional license cannot be awarded to any teacher until he or she completes a DESE approved program like ours and has taught for three (3) full years in the role of their initial license. If you have been teaching for less than 3 years, even if it is your first year of teaching, you can still enroll in our program, complete the course requirements now, and receive your professional license as soon as you finish your 3 rd year of teaching under your initial license. What does this mean for you? Completing this program means that you don t have to enroll in or complete a Masters program to earn Professional Licensure within 5 years of teaching with an initial license---and you don t have to be concerned about changes in the licensure regulations, which are imminent. When you compare time and cost, most teachers will pay less than $2,800 (moderate disabilities teachers will pay

3 less than $3,800) to earn their professional license through French River. A Masters degree might be graduate courses and could cost as much as $14,000 - $16,000---plus hundreds of dollars in on campus program fees! NOTE: Again, our program is authorized and approved by the DESE as an alternative pathway to professional license. Your only other route to a professional license is a Masters degree, which is certainly much more costly and timeconsuming. (NOTE: The DESE does allow those who hold a Masters degree already to earn their professional license by taking 12 credits (4 graduate courses) in an approved program, in your content area.) Consider this..should you decide to get a Masters degree to satisfy your professional license requirement, you must get it, by regulation, "...in the same field as your initial license." But maybe you don't want to be, for example, an elementary education teacher for the rest of your career--- maybe you would like to be an administrator in 10 years, or a reading specialist, or an instructional technology specialist. What then? Another Masters degree? Costing more money and more time? Before you get your Masters, consider completing our program, satisfy the DESE with a professional license in your current initial licensed field after just two (2) or three (3) grad courses (the latter if you are moderate disabilities teacher), then, if you decide to change fields, you can get your Masters in whatever field you want, whenever you want!

4 Important To be eligible for our program, you: ~must already have your initial license or will have it by December 2014; ~must be employed and working in the role of your initial license; and ~must have completed your mentoring (induction) year or will complete your mentoring year by June Ready to enroll? If you would like to learn more about how you can earn satisfy DESE regulations by earning your professional license without having to enroll in a Masters degree program, call Mike Fields, Director, at , ext. 101, (mfields@frec.org), or Maddy Dudley at ext. 104 (mdudley@frec.org) or complete and return the form below. FREC Professional Licensure Programs NOTE: I know that to be eligible for a professional license program, I must: already have my initial license, or will have it by December 2014; be employed as a teacher working in the

5 role of my initial license; and have completed my mentoring year, or will complete my mentoring year, by June Name: Telephone: Address: (Street) (City/Town) (Zip) Employed as a teacher by: District) (School My Assigned School is: I teach: School) Grade) (Name of (Discipline and

6 Soc. Sec. #: - - Best address to contact me: My initial license is in (Discipline/Grade Level): I have been teaching in the same field as my initial license for years. (number) With respect to my mentoring (induction) year (choose one): I have completed it already. mentoring year as I am a first year teacher. This is my Return by fax to Mike Fields, Director, at , and, if eligible, an enrollment packet will be ed to you.