Areas of Licensure

Students at Grinnell can earn a license in secondary education with endorsements in at least one of the following:

  • English
  • foreign languages (French, German, Spanish, Latin, Chinese, Russian) 
  • mathematics
  • the natural sciences (biology, chemistry, general science, physics)
  • social studies (American government, American history, anthropology, economics, psychology, sociology, world history). 

A GRINNELL MAJOR IS NOT THE SAME AS AN ENDORSEMENT. Licensure in a second area is not possible without licensure in a major area, but a dual endorsement is highly recommended. Students can earn a second endorsement in any of the subjects offered for a first endorsement. Thus, a student can earn licensure in English and math, for example. The education courses required for licensure are EDU 101 (4 credits), 1 of the EDU 210-216 series (4 credits), EDU 221 (4 credits): EDU 250 (4 credits), EDU 340 (4 credit)and 34X (2 credits) for a total of 22-24 hours.

General Education Requirements for Secondary Licensure

Although Grinnell students are not required to complete a core curriculum, students seeking licensure through the State must complete an interdisciplinary core of courses including one course in each of the following: American history, mathematics, biological science, physical science, and humanities.

Licensure Requirements

In many cases, completing a major in a discipline will not insure that a student can acquire a license in that discipline. Please consult endorsement requirements, when advising a student, which explains the courses a student needs to take in a discipline to earn a license.

Non-Certification Seeking Students

Students who are not interested in seeking teaching certification but who are interested in educational policy and theory may take any or all of the theory and policy courses at the 200 level if they have taken EDU 101. Students interested in teaching in some other venue may enroll in the upper level theory and methods courses if they have taken EDU 101 and EDU 221 (Educational Psychology) or EDU 250 (Differentiating Instruction for all Learners).  Students who are interested in home schooling, teaching at the college level, pursuing ESL or Bilingual teaching, or who may want to teach in environmental science programs associated with public schools may be interested in taking these courses.

Planning Ahead

Because students who wish to obtain a license to teach from Grinnell are also pursuing a major area of study, they must plan carefully to insure they take all the necessary courses. With planning, however, students, regardless of major, can complete the courses required for a major and for licensure and still enroll in a wide variety of courses and participate in study abroad programs.

Ideally, students should plan to begin their education sequence by no later than the first semester of the sophomore year. Waiting until the junior year makes it difficult to complete all the required coursework. However, the department will make every effort possible to help late deciders obtain licensure.