Professional Education Courses for Maryland Certification/Recertification

(only for individuals who already have a bachelor’s degree)

These courses are for persons who already have a bachelor’s degree and wish to become a certified teacher in Maryland. Teachers who
are already certified also may complete these courses for recertification requirements. Four areas are required to become certified
in Maryland for any certification area.

1. All certification areas require Maryland passing scores on the appropriate basic skills tests. Check with www.ets.org or www.marylandpublicschools.org for required basic skills tests and scores. Check with www.ets.org for registration information. Basic skills tests are taken early in a student’s academic career and must be passed (along with Praxis II Content Knowledge Test) prior to transcript submission to Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE).
2. Certification courses: Students may enroll in these courses, prior to, concurrently with, or after submission of all college transcripts to MSDE, Division of Certification for transcript evaluation. Students must contact MSDE by logging on to www.marylandpublicschools.org or by calling the MSDE Certification Assistance Line at 410-767-0412 to learn about the transcript evaluation process. The courses listed below will satisfy most, if not all, of the coursework requirements on the MSDE Evaluation Form for Certification. However, there may be additional Professional Development Education courses required for some certifications and/or for some students. Using the MSDE transcript evaluation and the charts below, students can determine what courses Prince George’s Community College offers that meet the MSDE Professional Development course requirements. Fifty percent of the required Professional Development Education courses must be taken at the same institution.
3. Content Area Coursework: Each area of certification requires 30 credit hours of course work in, or related to, the certification area, in addition to the Professional Development Education courses discussed above. These requirements generally include 12 credits of math and 12 credits of science for early childhood and elementary certification. Academic Subjects (N-12), Middle School, and Secondary certifications all generally require 30 credits within the content area for certification with a minimum of 12 credits of these 30 credits required at the upper levels. MSDE will determine what courses may still be needed as part of the MSDE evaluation discussed above. Fifty percent of this content area’s coursework must be taken at the same institution.
4. All certification areas require documented teaching experience before an initial certificate is awarded. Prince George’s Community College does not provide this documented teaching experience or offer a student teaching course which meets the requirement for Teacher Certificate Candidates. Students should contact Prince George’s County Public Schools or MSDE for additional information regarding this requirement.

The options below alone do not provide a complete certificate program.