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The Secondary Master of Arts with Certification Program is designed to help you make strong connections between theory and practice. Issues related to curriculum, instruction assessment, classroom management, philosophy, psychology, history, and the social context of education are interwoven throughout the program, and connections are made between your day-to-day experiences in schools and assigned readings, discussions, projects, and assignments. School and classroom issues are discussed as they arise, and faculty members offer various perspectives for understanding these issues and their relation to current educational research and practice. Continuous attention is paid to studying the adult and youth cultures in a variety of schools throughout southeastern Michigan with an eye to understanding the various factors that shape teaching and learning.

Two unique features that shape the Secondary MAC Program:

Cohorts – Throughout your time in the Secondary MAC Program, you will be a member of a 20-25 person cohort and will work closely with the members of your cohort and with cohort faculty. This will provide you with the opportunity to make sense of and interpret your experiences with others sharing in those experiences. At the same time, you will be developing a network of colleagues who illuminate the multiple perspectives different individuals bring to the field of education. Secondary MAC students typically span an age range from 22 to 55 and have a huge range of work and life experiences.

Fieldwork – Program-long involvement with, and experiences in, schools is central to the Secondary MAC Program and its curriculum. This emphasis will make it possible for you to delve deeply into issues related to public school education and to work closely with experienced school colleagues as you begin to build a teaching practice. You will examine the tensions between the theories and practices learned in your courses and the realities of everyday life in classrooms in your regular interactions with faculty, experienced teachers, and Secondary MAC colleagues. Secondary MAC students work with 7-12 students in a variety of schools and school districts throughout southeastern Michigan. These sites will afford you the opportunity to work with youth from a range of social, cultural, economic, and linguistic backgrounds. For students specifically interested in an urban experience, the program offers the opportunity to work in Detroit Public Schools. If you are interested in teaching in an urban setting, please indicate this in your application to the program.

Another important feature of the 12-month Secondary MAC Program is a course schedule designed to allow program faculty to integrate most of the School of Education’s required courses into a series of interconnected topics. Rather than teaching a given Education course during a single term, the content of Education courses is taught across several terms. This arrangement allows faculty to transcend traditional term time constraints and teach topics when they are most beneficial to Secondary MAC students.

All Secondary MAC students take the following courses:

* In addition to School of Education and Secondary MAC Program requirements, all Rackham master’s students are required to elect and successfully complete two cognate courses.

The Year at a Glance

The MAC program is designed to be completed in 4 terms, over 12 months.

The Year at a Glance:

The Secondary MAC Program is designed to be completed in 4 terms, over 12 months.

Last Week of June – Orientation for all Secondary MAC students.
July and August – Students complete two university courses and participate in an “externship” experience several mornings a week.
Late August – Students meet with their assigned cooperating teachers and assist them with preparations for the school year.
September thru December – Students work two full-days per week in their placement classrooms, attend seminar, complete a methods course in their academic major courses, complete their cognates, and begin other Education coursework.
January thru April – Students are fully immersed in their student teaching, taking on the schedule of the cooperating teacher with whom they worked throughout the Fall term, meaning students are usually in schools all-day, five days per week. Students also take two university courses in the late afternoon or early evening.
May and June – Student teaching continues until the end of the public school calendar, and one university course is taken. The course is completed by the end of May.

PLEASE NOTE: The Secondary MAC Program does not generally follow the UM calendar. In summer and fall terms, Secondary MAC classes begin earlier than the University calendar indicates and, in spring term, Secondary MAC classes end earlier than does the University calendar.

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