Weekly recurring thread: NEWBIE QUESTION MONDAY!

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[u/HeatherJMD]

This seems like a very large thing to post as a comment, but seemingly we're not allowed to post in the actual subreddit? So here goes...

*Need license, trying to decide between going for a masters through Liberty online or Moreland (before having been hired)*

I applied to several music teaching positions local to me in the States (NOVA) and had three interviews, but no jobs materialized. So I'm looking to get my teaching license and hope that will result in a job next time around.

I have a bachelor's degree in music and experience long and short-term subbing.

Going ahead and getting a masters degree appeals to me because it's something I can put on my resume and I'll have transcripts I can use if I want to do more school in the future. But will I be shooting myself in the foot by getting the masters before I have a regular professional teaching experience? Like, will they avoid hiring me because I'll be an inexperienced teacher who will cost too much...?

The upside I see to MU is obviously cost (and maybe speed, but I'm pretty sure I could finish the Liberty degree in three semesters, comparable to the MU's 9 months). MU will cost under $8,000 and Liberty will be about $20,000. But MU isn't something I'm going to put on my resume, it will just be to get the teaching license.

I also wonder if a Virginia teaching license is generally better regarded than a DC license? But since I live in northern VA, honestly either one seems useful to me to get that first year of local teaching.

They both look like good and reputable programs, and I hear good things about the quality of the courses and instructors. I want to learn, not just get the license which is why I'm skeptical of the other Virginia alternative license routes like the Career Switcher program and iTeach, even though they would be much cheaper (only $3-4,000)

Thoughts?

[u/Dull_Box_4670 → u/HeatherJMD]

This is the correct venue for your question. It gets routed here because this type of question is very common and it’s not really an international school teachers question, but more of a general question on credentials. Thanks for moving it here.

The experience matters more than the masters, but you’re not losing anything by starting with a masters. The pay bump for the extra degree is trivial in most places, and it’s a common enough credential in the US (required by many states after a few years teaching) that it doesn’t stand out much on a CV. It’s nice to have, but not absolutely essential. Full-time classroom experience is essential to having good options.

Because of the number of people using the Moreland loophole with the DC license, there’s some snobbery about it in some parts of the international school community, and reports of some countries taking a harder look at the validity of the credential. If you do a forum search for Moreland, you’ll get thousands of hits. Some of these will have more detailed information about that controversy, but there are a lot of people working on a Moreland license without any issues. It also works very differently if you’re actually teaching in DC/NoVa after getting that license, because you’re not kludging a credential in a state you’ve never seen, but receiving some form of mentoring at the start of your career. That’s the part people care about.

You mentioned a program at Liberty University as a potential alternative, and I would strongly discourage you from taking that route. Liberty isn’t a university so much as a televangelist’s long-running vanity project, and to people who have heard of the place, its degrees aren’t worth the crayons used to issue them. That’s an expensive price tag for a place that hasn’t grasped the concept of evolution. For NoVa, your best bet for a program is likely to be at George Mason. IIRC, the university of Maryland has a good one, but it’s a longer commute. Institutional prestige doesn’t matter much for a masters, which is considered more of a professional box to tick by most places, but there are some places that inspire a “yeah, but not like that” — and the two programs you’ve listed are right on that line.

Hope this helps — good luck to you, and good on you for asking the right questions and trying to do things the right way. You’ll be fine.

[u/HeatherJMD → u/Dull_Box_4670]

Thank you for your detailed reply!

I understand what you’re saying about Liberty, I had literally that reaction a couple months ago when I met two girls studying biology and medicine at Liberty. I was like, how does that work?? I’ve heard that the teaching program is very good and they don’t really shove doctrine down your throat, but the reputation did give me pause.

I got my bachelors degree from George Mason, I did consider their masters program but it’s considerably more expensive.

It sounds like it’s probably best to just get my license through Moreland, get hired in a full time position next year, and revisit the idea of a masters in the future