Graduate Intern Teaching Certification

Are you a college graduate who is looking for an accelerated route to the classroom? 

The Graduate Intern Teaching Certification is designed exclusively for Pennsylvania residents who hold a Bachelor's degree and who seek to qualify for the Pennsylvania Instructional I Certificate in order to teach at the elementary or secondary level. 

Completion of one of the core courses and the field experience (student teaching) leads to a temporary Intern Teacher Certificate issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. This feature makes the program ideal for those who would like to begin teaching in Pennsylvania in as few as six months while completing the remainder of the required certification courses.   

This program is available online.

Eligibility and Requirements

In order to be eligible, students must possess a baccalaureate degree related to their area of certification and a minimum 3.0 GPA. Students generally must have already completed the state-required content courses — at minimum having completed six credits of college-level mathematics, three credits of English composition, and three credits of literature.  

During the first term, students take EDUC 520 Professional Studies in Instruction (and a second core pedagogy course either EDUC 523 or 526) and can apply to do their Field Experience, EDUC 540, in the following term.  Two consecutive terms span six months. If a student begins the program in the spring term, the earliest he or she can begin his or her field experience is in the fall, thus stretching the duration of the program to nine months.

The Field Experience (EDUC 540) requires a minimum of six hours per day, five days a week for 12 weeks. Once a student has successfully completed 520, 523 or 526, and 540, and all Praxis exams necessary for their specific area of teacher certification, he or she is eligible for the Pennsylvania Intern Certificate.

Once a Pennsylvania Intern Certificate has been obtained, students are required to take a minimum of one course per term toward the remaining requirements for full certification or the Instructional I.

Please see the Pennsylvania Department of Education's website for the web version of their Intern Handbook regarding the PA Intern Certification Program.