Secondary Education Teach Mississippi Institute Certificate

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TMI is an option for a student who has a bachelor’s degree in an area other than education, and who is seeking an initial license to teach in a secondary content area and earn a certificate, not a degree. Candidates are required to take 9 hours (CISE 603, REF 632, CIS 700) intended to introduce the candidate to fundamentals of teaching. After completing the 9 hours, candidates must secure a teaching position in a Mississippi public school and register for a supervised internship (CIS 694). Recipients of the certificate are eligible for licensure in the following content areas: Biology, Business, Chemistry, Chinese, Economics, English, French German, Health, Home Economics, Latin, Library Media, Marketing, Mathematics, Physical Science, Physics, Social Studies, Spanish, and Speech Communications.

Admission Requirements

For admission, students are expected to:

apply through the Graduate School by filling out the “Application for Graduate Certificate Program”, as well as the “Non-Degree Enrollment Form” for each course during each term period. On the application, check “TMI”. On the enrollment form, check #4 and write TMI;
submit official transcripts indicating a bachelor’s degree in an approved major outside of education to the Graduate School;
have a 2.75 GPA on last 62 credit hours of bachelor’s degree;
pass the CORE, or ACT at 21+ composite with no scale score below 18 (all on same test date); and
pass Praxis II. Official scores should be sent to the Mississippi Department of Education Office of Educator Licensure and a copy of the scores should be sent to Southern Miss.
No GRE is required.

Once you have been accepted for admission, submit to a background check and purchase a subscription to Tk20, a teacher education assessment software.

The program has two admissions cutoff dates, per term. The deadline for applying to this certificate is as follows:

    For fall admissions, July 15 and the day before the term starts.
    For spring admissions, December 1 and the day before the term starts.
    For summer admissions, April 25 and the day before the term starts.

Plan of Study. The Plan of Study forms are available at www.usm.edu/graduateschool/planofstudy.php - click on the “Plans of Study” link. The plan of study requires 12 credit hours. The student mus make a “B” or better in all coursework.

Note:

Should a student start the TMI program and decide he/she wants to move into the MAT program to earn a master’s degree instead of a certificate, he/she may do so. Pursuit of the MAT will require another admissions process; however, 12 of the 36 hours will have already been completed as part of the TMI; and only an additional 24 hours is needed to earn the master’s degree. An interface between the courses required for the TMI and the courses required for the MAT is purposeful and intended to draw students toward a professional degree in teaching.