Located on a 300 acre tree-lined campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is approximately 6-to-1. Rice is highly ranked for best quality of life by the Princeton Review and for best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
Students enter our program as undergraduates following a teacher certification path or a five year Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT). Post-baccalaureate students follow both a certification and MAT path. Experienced teachers hone their pedagogical skills and develop a master level research project for implementation in their home school. Students with master’s degrees are pursuing principal certification in the state of Texas.
The teacher preparation program is based on five key pillars: creating environments where students discover and construct meaning from content, understanding and serving needs of diverse learners, incorporating authentic assessments, integrating educational technologies and digital learning into curriculum and developing teachers as instructional leaders. The program’s teacher training encourages the use of culturally relevant content and pedagogy when working with English language and diverse learners.
All students work with a select group of instructional leaders as they participate in a small, cohort-based classroom and field-based experience. Rice is building a network of education leaders who are prepared and committed to work in high-need schools.
As one of the few Latina teachers, Rice taught me to model to students, and especially students of color, what it takes to navigate the world when they leave school—to equip them with the tools necessary to problem solve, inquire about the world around them and ultimately find success, no matter what challenges they face.
The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) for New Teachers, a 36 hour, non-thesis graduate degree program, fulfills all requirements for a Texas Standard Teaching Certificate. Coursework includes professional education courses and extensive field experiences. The program is designed for students holding bachelor’s degrees who are interested in pursuing graduate study in education while preparing for teacher certification at the secondary level.
The Rice Education program is focused on preparing teachers for urban public school settings. Alumni from our program are teaching all across the city of Houston, thereby strengthening the teacher corps in our city. The program develops teachers as instructional leaders who will remain in the classroom, emulate outstanding, inquiry-based pedagogy and coach and mentor their peers. The Rice MAT program places great emphasis on teacher leadership, reflection of the teaching practice and coaching and mentoring. The program impacts the development of teacher leaders who go on to influence their colleagues to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement; to foster a collaborative culture; to use research to improve practice; to promote professional learning and to provide mentorship support for beginning teachers.
Upcoming Deadlines
Deadlines
Program Start
Oct. 15, 2024
Spring
Jan. 15, 2025
Summer
Mar. 15, 2025
Fall
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Ways to Lower Your Costs
Students at Rice University have reduced the cost of their program using these methods. Check with Rice University to see if you can, too!
Amount
Description
Grants, Stipends, Scholarships
Raise Your Hand Texas, Raising Texas Teachers Scholarship; Rice University Teacher Fellowships
Art (Pre-K-12) English Language Arts and Reading (7-12) French (Pre-K-12) History (7-12) Latin (Pre-K-12) Life Science (7-12) Mathematics (7-12) Physical Science / Science (7-12) Science (7-12) Social Studies (7-12) Spanish (Pre-K-12)
Program Semesters/Steps Overview
Students begin taking up to three classes in the summer: Race, Class, Gender in Education, Teaching Diverse Learners and Assessment.
The fall semester begins in mid-August. Students attend in-service with an assigned cooperating teacher and work with this teacher throughout the academic year. Students also take Curriculum Development and Theory and Methods in Teaching in specified content area, as well as Teaching and Learning with Inquiry and-Literacy Across the Curriculum.
The spring semester begins with full-time practice teaching at an assigned school while also taking a Field-Based Studies in Teaching and Learning seminar and an Educational Psychology course.
The second year is a full-time, paid internship at a local public or private state-approved school. Students meet one evening per week in the Internship for First-Year Teachers seminar in the fall and spring semesters. Students receive the master's degree and standard certificate when they complete the internship at the end of the school year.
Program Hallmarks
The Teacher Education Program has deepened the training of new teachers by fostering academic learning, teamed with a year-long clinical (student teaching) experience in dedicated, urban Houston ISD schools. This emphasis on strong, field-based experiences and structured support has greatly strengthened our graduates’ success, but we know there is more we can do for them to ensure their development as instructional leaders in their schools and longevity in the field.
The department also conducts teaching workshops, for both current students and alumni, that address instructional strategies for diverse learners, learner-centered classroom, data-driven instructional planning and leadership from the classroom. The Life in Schools event is held every semester and focuses on educational topics such as teaching through inquiry, assessment and technology.
The Rice University teacher preparation program is an exemplary program that emphasizes effective pedagogy for diverse learners. The program is unique in that it provides fieldwork grounded in educational research and theory. All of the courses include field-based experiences that encourage students to compare and apply their theoretical work to what is actually happening in schools. Our 21st century mission is to prepare and support teacher leaders to work with diverse students and be responsive to the paradigm shift in education that moves us from teaching academic content to teaching skills and strategies that foster lifelong learning.
The Rice Teacher Education Program seeks to engage, prepare and support secondary teachers to lead student-centered classrooms in a diverse society. Our program for new teachers provides an academically rigorous, yet highly personalized clinical teaching framework. Teaching candidates begin with a strong academic foundation in educational history, philosophy, learning theories and human developmental processes. During their second year in the program, when our students become first-year teachers of record in Houston public schools, they apply their knowledge and analytical skills via their teaching internship, while receiving an exceptional amount of personal coaching and mentorship from Rice faculty. As our graduates enter their second year as full-time teachers, they have the opportunity to draw upon the experience and counsel of our extended network of students and alumni, as well as the benefit of a formalized mentorship structure that helps ensure their continued growth and retention.
The Rice Teacher Education program embraces a continuous improvement model for our teacher preparation program. We use available data to measure program effectiveness and drive improvement. We are continually striving for improvement and seek feedback from a variety of our stakeholders each semester (summer, fall and spring).
In addition to the aforementioned assessment methods and rubrics utilized by the program to assess effectiveness and the preservice teachers’ mastery of competencies, we seek additional feedback from others, including cooperating teachers, secondary students being taught by the clinical teacher, principals whose campuses we work in and the clinical teachers themselves. This provides our leadership team with an opportunity to identify and address our own strengths and weaknesses as it relates to our student support and their mastery of competencies.
Stats
Gender
Male
Female
33%
67%
Ethnicity
American Indian or Alaskan Native
Asian
Black
Hispanic/Latino
Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander
White
Two or more races
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
100%
0%
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