Alternative Pathway to Teaching Licensure (Job-Embedded MEd)

Job-Embedded is Tennessee’s alternate pathway to licensure, which provides an opportunity for a school district to hire a qualified individual as the teacher-of-record. A Job-Embedded practitioner’s license is valid for 3 years while completing an Educator Prep Program.

1. Complete an application. You can start a free application for this program here.
2. Hold a Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited university and submit an official transcript. Official transcripts must be requested directly from the university where you received your bachelor’s degree.
3. Satisfy state content knowledge requirements in one of the following ways:
   1. Hold a Bachelor’s degree with a major in the subject of the endorsement area.
   2. Hold passing scores on the appropriate content knowledge exam(s). Job-embedded practitioners must pass all exams and complete all licensure requirements within 3 years, regardless of the major for the Bachelor’s degree.
4. Be hired as the teacher of record by a school system to teach at a district that has a school within 50 miles of the Carson-Newman University main campus or the Nashville Education Center. 

Any public or qualified non-public school within a 50-mile radius of Carson-Newman’s main campus in Jefferson City, TN or our Nashville Education Center in Mt. Juliet, TN.

No, while the vast majority of this program can be completed online, there are three (3) required courses which include some in-person meetings in the evenings.  

All in-person meetings are coordinated with your teaching schedule in mind. Our students consistently say that these courses with in-person meetings are some of the most helpful and meaningful courses of our job-embedded program.

There are 10 courses for credit and two (2) zero-credit hour courses required to complete the licensure (30 hours total). The two (2) zero-credit courses are the mentoring that the job-embedded teacher will receive for the first full year of teaching. Three (3) of the 10 courses for credit are offered on the main campus at C-N, at the C-N Knoxville Education Center when applicable, or at the C-N Nashville Education Center, and are taken the first semester, the next fall, and the following spring. These courses meet once per week in the evenings. The remaining seven (7) courses for licensure are online courses. All students are encouraged to take two (2) additional courses (6 hours) to complete the Masters of Education degree (36 total hours).

In addition to coursework, some licensure areas will require specific testing in accordance with state licensure requirements.

• 6-12 Biology 
• 6-12 Business Education 
• 6-12 Chemistry 
• 6-12 Early Childhood Care and Services 
• 6-8 ELA 
• K-5 Elementary 
• 6-12 English 
• P-12 English as a Second Language 
• 6-12 Family and Consumer Sciences 
• 6-12 Food Production and Management Services 
• P-12 French 
• 6-12 Government 
• 6-12 History 
• K-12 Instrumental Music 
• P-3 Integrated Early Childhood 
• 6-8 Math 
• 6-12 Math 
• K-12 Physical Education 
• 6-12 Physics 
• 9-12 Psychology 
• 6-8 Science 
• 6-8 Social Studies 
• 6-12 Spanish 
• K-12 Sped Comprehensive 
• K-8 Sped Interventionist 
• 6-12 Sped Interventionist 
• K-12 Theatre 
• K-12 Vocal Music 
• K-12 Visual Arts