New freshmen and transfer students are admitted directly to the School of Education as Pre-Elementary Education students (PRE classification). On-campus students wishing to be admitted as Pre-Elementary Education students must formally apply for admission to the School of Education. Click here for a pre-professional application form. Contact Education Academic Services (EAS), 115 North Orchard Street, 608-262-1651, for more details.
Resources limit the number of students who can be served by some UW-Madison teacher education programs; thus, admission to the Elementary Education program is limited and may be competitive. Obtaining or exceeding the minimum criteria for eligibility does not guarantee admission. Requirements and admission criteria may be modified from one admission period to the next.
Students will be admitted to the program only once a year, effective in the fall. Selection is made in the spring. Half of the admitted students are assigned to begin the professional sequence in the subsequent fall semester and half are assigned to begin in the spring semester. The specific start semester is based on cumulative credits earned. Students are notified of their semester start assignments at the time of program admission.
To be eligible for admission to the professional program, applicants must
Applicants will be considered who have met either the minimum GPA or all minimum PPST scores, but will not be eligible if both GPA and PPST scores are below the minimum. Students must take all three sections of the PPST (reading, writing, mathematics) to be eligible for consideration.
Two grade point averages will be calculated to determine candidates' eligibility and selection to programs. GPAs will be calculated using (1) all transferable college level course work attempted, and (2) the last 60 credits attempted. The higher GPA of these two will be used for purposes of admission. If fewer than 60 credits have been attempted, all credits will be used to calculate the GPA. Graded graduate course work will also be used in all GPA calculations. ("Attempted" course work indicates course work for which a grade has been earned.) For more information on this rule, click here.
Applicants who are not already enrolled on the UW-Madison campus must be admissible to the University to enroll in a School of Education program. Admission to UW-Madison requires a separate application and admission process. See UW-Madison Undergraduate Admissions for application information. Find more detailed information for prospective transfer students at this link. Prospective transfer students are strongly advised to meet with an Education Academic Services advisor in advance of their application.
The Elementary Education program admissions procedures are intended to result in an academically qualified student body that is diverse in terms of both academic strengths and life experiences and has a commitment to providing the best possible education to elementary and middle school students. Having students with diverse life experiences, backgrounds and attitudes is critical if faculty are to prepare students to teach in schools that themselves have diverse enrollments. A diverse student body enriches the Elementary Teacher Certification Program as well as the profession in order that all public school students are afforded an education that is both intellectually rich and accepting of their diverse backgrounds.
Faculty will accept only those students judged to have the potential to be successful in the academically challenging Elementary Education Program. In making admissions decisions, no factor will outweigh judgment that a particular applicant’s credentials, taken as a whole, represent unacceptably high academic risk.
Because admissions to the Elementary Education program is competitive, faculty realize that applicants are interested in knowing how best to present their applications–and whether they will have reasonable possibility of acceptance. The Admissions Committee will take the following into consideration when making admissions decisions: Academic Competence, Multicultural Competence, and Reflective Competence. Applicants will provide evidence of these competencies in the materials that they submit–academic transcripts from all campuses where course work has been completed, an admissions essay, an autobiographical sketch, and letters of recommendation.
The Mission Statement of the Elementary Education Area points to the role that our graduates have in creating academically rigorous classrooms that lead to high academic achievement in all students. For elementary and middle schools to promote academic achievement, elementary and middle school teachers must have demonstrated high levels of success in core disciplines throughout their university studies. Therefore, program faculty expect that students admitted to the program will have demonstrated high levels of academic preparation.
Academic achievement is, in part, reflected in an applicant’s grade point average; however, GPA alone does not provide an adequate picture of academic performance. Therefore, the Elementary Education Admissions Committee will also closely examine the unique academic strengths of each candidate in comparison to others. The types of evidence that will be taken into account will include:
The Elementary Education program’s mission is to prepare teachers who are able to promote academic achievement in all elementary-school and middle-school students. This includes those from diverse races, cultures, language backgrounds, family forms, and sexual orientations, as well as those from diverse economic, gender, and ability groups. The program faculty seek prospective teachers who will demonstrate both commitment to this mission and the prospect of contributing to it. The Admissions Committee will therefore examine the materials from each candidate for evidence of such commitment and prospect. A person’s life experiences are a significant part of what she or he will contribute to fellow students and to teaching. Faculty are therefore interested in information about applicants’ life experiences so that admissions decisions will result in a cohort that will contain reflection-provoking and mutually instructive diversity. Such evidence is likely to be found in the candidate’s admission statement, autobiographical sketch, and the letters of recommendation. When examining the evidence submitted, the Admissions Committee will be looking for evidence of Multicultural and Interpersonal Competencies as reflected in:
To have performed at high academic levels or to have had diverse life experiences is not adequate for admissions purposes unless these are accompanied by evidence that the applicant has been able to reflect on and learn from them. Demonstration of reflective competence is important as it likely contributes to one’s interpersonal skills as well as to the qualities such as integrity, social awareness, and cultural sensitiveness that are qualities of a well-rounded human being who will be an excellent elementary or middle school teacher. The ability to reflect on one’s life experiences is one factor that will allow the Admissions Committee to look for evidence that our students will be reflective practitioners who evaluate the effects of their assumptions, choices, and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who will actively seek out opportunities to grow professionally. Evidence of reflective competence is likely to be found in the candidate's admissions essay, autobiographical sketch, and in letters of recommendation.
Criminal background checks will be run on all students at admission. Applicants must also complete a disclosure statement. See this link for more detailed information.
Persons who already hold an undergraduate degree are admitted to the School of Education as either an Education Special student or a Second Degree student, depending on their interests and academic background. The term Special student indicates that the student has an interest in pursuing certification in a subject area studied during the initial degree; the student does not receive a degree for this "certification only" course work. Second Degree students are seeking a second, unrelated degree from the School of Education, which may, or may not, include teacher certification. Candidates for limited enrollment programs must meet all admission eligibility requirements for the program and must compete with the eligible applicants for program admission. See this link for more details.