Take Action. Teach.

At A&M-Commerce, your bachelor's degree and experience will help prepare you to teach students at the secondary level. Although a master's degree is not required to complete this certification, you can apply the courses to our master's degree in agricultural sciences. Classes are designed to prepare you to effectively educate youth by incorporating your knowledge about family economics, child development, nutritional management, food sanitation, personal finance and more into your curriculum.

High School teacher Sitting At Desk With Male Student In Class.

Focus Your Passion

Once admitted to our program, you can focus on one of the following content areas.

Family and Consumer Sciences

This general content area covers grades 6-12 courses within the family and consumer sciences across various disciplines, including human development, family studies, hospitality, nutrition and food sciences. For this content area, you need to have a degree. No wage-earning experience or licensure/certificate is required.

Human Development and Family Studies

This specialized content area qualifies you to teach courses in grades 8-12 related to child and life span development, parenting and family relationships. No wage-earning experience or licensure/certificate is required. However, you do need to have a degree to pursue this content area.

Hospitality, Nutrition and Food Sciences

This specialized content area allows you to teach courses in grades 8-12 related to tourism, hotel and restaurant management, culinary arts, food science, and nutrition. You need a degree to pursue this content area. No licensure/certificate or wage-earning experience is required.

Admissions

Criteria

  • Submit your application throughApplyTexas.
    • Select “Create a new graduate school admissions application”
    • Select Texas A&M University-Commerce as your “target university.”
    • Select “Masters of Science in Agricultural Science” as your “Major.”

Domestic Application Fee 395064

  • Pay the $50 application fee.
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  • Wait to receive an application confirmation email before proceeding to the next step.
    • Within two business days of your application, the Graduate School will send a confirmation email to the personal email account you used for ApplyTexas.
Provisional Status

After you submit your application, you may be granted a provisional status which means you can enroll in one semester of courses.

  • Submit the following documents after you receive an email confirming that we received your application.

  • Contact your previous institution(s) and request that they send your official transcripts to [email protected].
    • You can also ask them to mail a physical copy to:
      Graduate School
      Texas A&M University-Commerce
      PO Box 3011
      Commerce, Texas 75429-3011
    • We recommend that you send all official undergraduate transcripts or graduate transcripts

  • Wait for an admission decision email before proceeding to the next step.
    • Once the Graduate School has reviewed your application, a notification will be sent to your student email account at myLeo > Apps > Leomail. Refer to the application confirmation email you received from A&M-Commerce for login information.

Let our advisor assist you during your application process. We are here to help!

Once your application to the Graduate School is complete, you can submit your Alternative Certification Program Application right away using TK20. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

You will need to have the following documents ready for upload in order to submit the application:

  • Alternative Certification Application fee receipt
  • TEA Assessment fee receipt
  • TX PACT Scores
    • You will upload a copy of your passing score report in TK20 as part of your admissions application
  • Resume
  • Statement of Qualification form
    • Only submitted if applying for a Career and Technical Education Certification (Trades and Industry, Marketing or Health Science)
  • Official transcripts from the Graduate Office will be reviewed by the certification office.
    • Official transcripts from all institutions must be submitted to the Graduate School in order to satisfy TEA certification admission requirements.
    • A minimum GPA of 2.75 on a conferred bachelor's degree or on the most recent 60 credit hours is required for certification admission. Please note that certification admission requirements may differ from those of the Graduate School and are separate requirements.
If applicable:
  • TEA Transfers
  • Transcripts from outside the United States
    • Contact the certification office for any questions about TEA requirements for transcripts from outside the United States.
    • If you received a bachelor's degree from outside of the United States, then a Foreign Credential Evaluation with a course-by-course summary will be required. This is to remain in compliance with TEA to verify a bachelor's degree and to compute a core GPA.
    • A course-by-course evaluation must be from a TEA-approved Foreign Credential Evaluation Service.
  • English Proficiency
    • Educators who apply for certification are required to demonstrate English language proficiency by fulfilling one of the following requirements:
      • Completion of an undergraduate or graduate degree at an accredited institution of higher education in the United States, not including US territories.
      • Completion of an undergraduate or graduate degree earned at an institution of higher education in a country outside of the United States approved by the State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC).
      • If these requirements are not met, then a passing score on the TOEFL exam must be submitted. Minimum scores needed per TEA: Speaking 24, Listening 22, Reading 22, Writing 21. The score report must be within the past two years to be valid for TEA.
  • Military Personnel
    • Military service members or military veteran candidates that have verified military service, training or education directly related to the certificate being sought may have that military service, training or education reviewed by an EPP to see if it satisfies any of the educator certification requirements.

  • Go to tamuc.tk20.com
  • Scroll down and click “Admissions”
  • Select “Click here to create your account.”
  • Complete the “Create Applicant Account” form.
  • Note: You will be creating a password for this account.
  • Store the password you create in a secure location so you can refer to it later.
  • After completing the “Create Applicant Account” form, TK20 will provide your username.
  • Store your TK20 username and password in a secure location so you can refer to them later.
    • You will use the username to log in to review your admission application once submitted.

  • Log into your TK20 account
    • Click on the “back to login” link.
    • Enter your username and password.
    • Click the green “Log Into Your Account” button.
  • Click on the “Create New Application” button.
  • Select “Alternative Certification” application
  • Click the “Next” button.
  • Complete the application.

  • Upload documents by clicking on the “+ Select File(s)” button for the item you are uploading.
  • Once you have completed all fields in the application, click the “Submit” button.
  • Look for an email from TK20 confirming your submission.

To check your application status:

  1. Log in to your TK20 Student Admissions account
  2. On the “Home” tab, locate your application under “Recent Messages”
  3. Click on the application.
  4. If you are admitted, the message will indicate your application was “Admitted”
  5. If you lack admission requirements, the message will indicate “Denied.”
    • Click on “Review Document” to view your deficiencies and reason(s) for denial.

Once both the Graduate School and Certification Program Applications are complete, the Alternative Certification Program Coordinator will reach out to schedule an interview.

Once accepted, please sign and return the “letter of invitation” that will be sent to you via email from Tracey Stedman.

  • Apply for scholarships and graduate assistantships once you are admitted.
  • Apply for financial aid by submitting a FAFSA and sending it to school code 003565.
  • Contact your financial aid advisor with any questions.

You are ready to register for classes once you are admitted to the program.

Contact your faculty advisor for your degree plan and registration.

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