Accelerated B.A./M.A.T. Program

The Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program is an intensive, full-year program designed to qualify students interested in elementary, middle or high school teaching in urban settings for the initial teaching license in Massachusetts. The program requires successful completion of ten courses, including two summer courses and a practicum in the spring of the fifth year. The initial Massachusetts teaching license qualifies students to teach in 31 other states. The M.A.T. degree culminates a five year “accelerated degree” program for Clark students. The accelerated degree is available to highly qualified students, and includes a tuition-free fifth year. The five year program includes courses in Clark’s program of liberal studies, a liberal arts major, and a slow immersion in education courses and field work beginning in the senior year. Prior to their senior year, students take a foundational course in the program, EDUC 152 - Complexities of Urban Schooling . As seniors students take 2-3 courses that apply to the M.A.T., creating room for a concentrated full year internship in a Worcester partner school during the fifth year. The fifth year includes a set of summer courses, and an integration of several more courses with the full academic year internship-a scaffolded immersion approach. Students assume increasing teaching responsibility over the course of the year and complete an electronic portfolio illustrating their development as teachers and the progress of their students as learners. The program functions to provide a pool of strong beginning teachers for the Worcester Public Schools, although each year a good number of students are lured elsewhere by districts with shorter hiring timelines. Many recent graduates of the program have been hired in partner schools in Worcester, with many now in a position to act as mentors for graduate students.