We offer you a dynamic blend of classroom excellence and practical, hands-on fieldwork. Our diverse academic programming and our balance of theory and practice equip you to be a great teacher, and to meet the needs of your students and your institution.
The Education Department offers programs leading to Initial licensure for teachers wishing to teach at the early childhood, elementary, middle school, middle-secondary, and secondary levels. Each program provides a balanced blend of theory and practice such that students will graduate with the knowledge and skills needed to become effective teachers.
April 15, 2024 Deadline to apply for the Summer 2024 M.Ed program
"The Education Department at MCLA gives us so many tools to become effective teachers. The hands-on pre-practicum experience has really given me a sense of assurance that I can one day lead my very own classroom. The professors are all so welcoming, and I find that they especially encourage their students to strive for their best, knowing that we will someday be in their shoes." - Stephanie Karian '11, Teaching English at the National Center of Aesthetics, Gyumri, Armenia
NORTH ADAMS — Even before COVID upended the world, Clio Stearns was already thinking about the lack of support for educators.
“Teachers need support,” said Stearns, assistant professor of education at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. “That’s always been true.”
Two years of the pandemic have only exacerbated that need. In districts across the county, Stearns said, “teachers are dealing with this tremendous emotional and behavioral fallout from kids who have lost people, they have lost secure economic circumstances, they’ve been through this massive upheaval and trauma.”
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Before the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts was the Massachusetts
College of Liberal Arts, it was North Adams State College.
Before that, it was the State Teachers College of North Adams.
Before that, it was the North Adams Normal School.
In 2020, there is nothing normal about the way teachers are trained.
When the world turned upside down in March, MCLA professor Nicholas Stroud, like educators
across the country, had to rethink how he teaches. But as the chair of the school's
education department, he also had to think about what he teaches.
As attitudes and practices around education change, so must educators—and the professors who educate them. The two newest members of MCLA’s Education Department, assistant professors Maggie Clark and Clio Stearns, know this well.
