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Bachelor’s Plus, Graduate Licensure and Endorsement Program

*This program has an addendum to the Admissions to Teacher Education Reading Pathway Requirements:

In addition to the Ed. D and M.Ed. programs, the Dwight Schar College of Education offers a number of licensure and endorsement programs for individuals who would like to earn an initial teaching license or add additional licenses and endorsements to existing licenses or certificates.

Accreditation of the College

The teacher education programs have been approved by the Ohio Department of Higher Education. The Dwight Schar College of Education at Ashland University is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) 1140 19th Street, N.W. Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036. This accreditation covers initial teacher preparation programs and advanced educator preparation programs. CAEP is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation to accredit programs for the preparation of teachers and other professional school personnel.

These two agencies serve to (a) assure the public that Ashland University offers an educator preparation program that meets national standards of quality, (b) ensure that children and youth are served by well-prepared school personnel, and (c) advance the teaching profession through the improvement of teacher education programs. Licensure requirements are subject to the authority of the Ohio Department of Education, Ohio law and the Ohio Department of Higher Education. Course and field experiences may change, subject to requirements approved by the Ohio Department of Higher Education and/or Ohio law.

Title II, section 207, of the 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965, requires that institutions of higher education that conduct teacher preparation programs must report their licensure test pass rate to the public. The Ashland University and Ohio licensure test pass rate information is available at this website: https://title2.ed.gov/Public/Report/StateHome.aspx.

The Bachelor’s Plus Initial Licensure Program at the Graduate Level

The Bachelor’s Plus Program is a post-baccalaureate program designed to provide initial teacher licensure to people who hold bachelor’s degrees from accredited colleges or universities in fields other than education.

Bachelor’s Plus courses which have undergraduate and graduate courses are generally taught in online, late afternoon, and evenings, so that candidates may hold full- or part-time jobs while doing the course work. Courses are taught by qualified faculty from the various colleges/departments and are designed to provide the candidate with the necessary background in the College of Education values, planning, teaching styles, classroom management, and area content. Classroom field experiences are included and scheduled early in the program to provide actual classroom experience. Student teaching is completed near the end of the program. Note that these school-based experiences require students to be available during regular school hours. The length of time needed to complete the program is dependent upon the number of courses to be taken by individuals based on their pre-admittance evaluations.

Course credits obtained from accredited colleges or universities may apply to this program if they match Ashland University course content. A grade of C or higher for undergraduate courses in education, C or above for undergraduate content area e.g., Science and Music a grade of B or higher for graduate courses is required to be accepted for credit. No course work taken pass/fail will be accepted for credit.

The student who fails to take courses or otherwise continue to pursue the degree for a period of three consecutive semesters will be terminated from the program’s active file and will be required to apply for reactivation of his or her records to the current catalog year.

Each Bachelors Plus program contains both graduate and undergraduate courses. Licensure may be at the following levels:

Early Childhood (PreK–5)

Intervention Specialist Dual (PreK-5)

Middle Grades (4–9)

Two Concentration Areas are required from:

Language Arts

Mathematics

Science

Social Studies

AYA Grades 7–12

Integrated Language Arts

Integrated Mathematics

Integrated Science

Integrated Social Studies

Multi-Age PreK-12

Music

Visual Arts

Intervention Specialist (K-12)

Intervention Specialist Mild/Moderate/Intensive

Admission to Teacher Education (Entrance and Licensure Testing Requirements):

Bachelor’s Plus students are not officially admitted into the Teacher Education program, and may not take field or internship courses, until they have successfully: completed 12 credit hours of course work at Ashland University, achieved a 3.0 GPA for the first 12 credit hours of Ashland University courses, and submitted evidence of having achieved the College of Education Pathway Requirement. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA for the remaining courses.  Education courses below a C must be repeated. Students not meeting these requirements will not be allowed to continue education course work until these requirements are achieved. Transfer credits are accepted if C (B for music and science).

To be officially admitted to the Teacher Education Bachelor’s Plus program, students must satisfactorily complete the following College of Education Testing or Academic Pathways for Reading, Writing and Math.

Reading – One of the following:

  • ACT minimum score Reading: 20

  • SAT minimum score of Critical Reading: 490 (pre 3/16/2021) or 530 (post 3/16/2021)

  • Praxis Core minimum score of Reading: 156

  • Reading Pathway: A grade of B or above in a Historical Reasoning, Humanities or Religion Core  course and a score of 263 or higher on the Reading 

  • Accuplacer exam*

    *Reading Pathway not applicable for AYA Integrated Language Arts or Middle Grades Language Arts concentrations

Writing – One of the following:

  • ACT minimum score of English: 19

  • SAT minimum score of Critical Reading: 490 (pre 3/16/2021) or 530 (post 3/16/2021)

  • Praxis Core minimum score of Writing: 162

  • Writing Pathway: B or higher in English 101, English 102 or equivalent

Math – One of the following:

  • ACT minimum score of Math 18

  • SAT minimum score of Math 500 (pre 3/16/2021) or 520 (post 3/16/2021)

  • Praxis Core minimum score of Math 152

  • Math Pathway: A grade of B or above in any course with a MATH prefix 108 or above. *

*Math Pathway not applicable for AYA Integrated Mathematics or Middle Grades Mathematics concentrations

ACT/SAT/Praxis Core test scores should be submitted directly to Ashland University or the student must provide an official copy of test scores to the appropriate office.  Registration and preparation material for the Praxis Core tests are available at ets.org/praxis. The College of Education will accept the following Praxis Core test codes: 5712, 5713, 5722, 5723, 5732, 5733; and if the tests are combined the test codes: 5751 or 5752.

Field and Clinical Experience

All education students are required to complete the field experiences as determined by their licensure program prior to their student teaching. The departments have established an excellent working relationship with area schools to provide these experiences.

  1. Prior to any field experience students must Sign a “Good Moral Character” statement verifying his or her awareness of the law in order to become licensed in Ohio.

  2. Students are required to have a baseline Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and FBI criminal background check prior to their first field experience at Ashland University.  The BCI and FBI background checks must remain current for any additional field experiences.

  3. Students enrolled in field experiences and student internship are responsible for providing their own transportation to and from the field site locations.

  4. Education students are not permitted to request a school district in which he/she attended or the experience may be compromised by pre-existing relationships with other personnel or pupils (siblings, children, or relatives) who attend the school.

  5. Student must meet dispositional guidelines as outlined by the College of Education.

  6. An online application must be completed for each field through the Field Office.  Application for a field is separate and different from registration or admission to fields. The online application can be found on the Field experiences & Internship Webpage.  Be aware of due dates.

Recommendation for Licensure

The Ohio Department of Higher Education has approved all of the Ashland University Bachelor’s Plus licensure programs. This initial teaching license is the same license that is issued to the four-year teacher education undergraduate candidate.

To be recommended for licensure students must:

  1. Complete the prescribed program (including student internship).

  2. Receive passing scores on the Teacher Licensure Examination.

  3. Apply for the teaching license within one year of licensure program completion. After one year, additional course work may be necessary.

  4. BCI and background checks must be no older that one year at the time they are used for initial licensure.