The course work you do in the Rutgers-Newark Urban Teacher Education Program, together with your coursework in the arts and sciences, prepares you to be granted a teaching license in the state of New Jersey.

Overview of the Licensure Process

At Rutgers-Newark or NJIT:

• Complete your general education requirements for Rutgers-Newark or NJIT, the requirements for your major, and the 30 credit teacher education program. (To see which majors at Rutgers and NJIT are permitted for which licenses, see the Areas of Certification page on this web site.)

• DO YOUR BEST WORK! To be admitted into the teacher education program, you are required to have a 2.8 GPA. The state of New Jersey has a MINIMUM requirement of a 2.75 undergraduate GPA to be eligible for a teaching license. Your grades matter.

The Licensure Exam:

• You are required to take and pass a national test of subject matter knowledge called the Praxis II. You should plan to take the Praxis II during Junior Practicum, the semester before you do your student teaching. The test is administered by ETS. See the ETS web site at for dates and test locations, as well as New Jersey’s specific requirements for each teaching license. Go to http://www.ets.org, click on 'Praxis,' and then choose 'New Jersey' from the drop down menu to find out more about the state requirements. On that page you will find the test code for your test/s and a breakdown of the topics covered on each test complete with a few sample questions.
• Study! The Urban Teacher Education Program may have study guides that you can borrow in order to help you prepare for the exam. As with any standardized test, there are strategies that you can practice before the day of your test.

The Paperwork:

• At the end of student teaching, we send your paperwork to the New Jersey State Department of Education, where it will be examined to check that you have met all of the state’s requirements. They will issue you a license if you meet the requirements for that license. IN GENERAL: the state requires 60 general education credits, a major in an academic field, an approved teacher education program, and a passing score on the relevant Praxis II. There are variations to this formula, so make sure you see the Student Advisor, Jessica Vassallo.

Note: Once you have a license, if you have the coursework required for another license, and you have passed the required Praxis II in that area, you can apply on your own to the office of licensure in the state department of education for any additional license.