Graduate Certificate in Pre-K–12 Music Teaching

The Music Education Department offers a Graduate Certificate program for qualified postbaccalaureate students who are interested in receiving initial licensure in Pre-K–12 Music Education. The program provides students who have a previous degree in music with the skills and knowledge needed to teach music in schools.

Learning Outcomes

The program learning outcomes are aligned with the criteria for the Candidate Assessment of Performance, which all prospective teachers must pass during their practicum. Specifically, those completing the certificate will be able to:

  • Develop well-structured lessons with challenging, measurable objectives and appropriate student engagement strategies, pacing, sequence, activities, materials, resources, technologies, and grouping.
  • Organize and analyze results from a variety of assessments to determine progress toward intended outcomes and uses these findings to adjust practice and identify and/or implement appropriate differentiated interventions and enhancements for music students.
  • Use appropriate practices, including tiered instruction and scaffolds, to accommodate differences in music learning styles, needs, interests, and levels of readiness, including those of students with disabilities and English learners.
  • Use rituals, routines, and appropriate responses that create and maintain a safe physical and intellectual music learning environment where students take academic risks and most behaviors that interfere with learning are prevented.
  • Effectively model and reinforce ways that music students can master challenging material through effective effort, rather than having to depend on innate ability.
  • Regularly reflect on the effectiveness of music lessons, units, and interactions with students, both individually and with colleagues, and uses insights gained to improve practice and student learning.

For those students successfully completing all the coursework in this certificate program, the Music Education Department, in cooperation with the Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, provides a recommendation for licensure to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Office of Educator Licensure. Students must also apply directly to the DESE and are required to take additional tests (Massachusetts Test for Educational Licensures [MTELs]) to secure licenses.

Program Requirements

Requirements for licensure as a Teacher of Music, Grades Pre-K–12 are listed below. Please note, prior coursework may be submitted for review to determine equivalency. If determined to be equivalent, required courses listed may be waived as a part of the certificate program. At least 20 units must be taken at Boston University.

Total Units: 30

  • CFA ME 503* Introduction to Music Teaching and Learning (2 units)
  • CFA ME 506 Elementary General Music Methods (4 units)
  • CFA ME 507 Secondary General Music Methods (2 units)
  • CFA ME 544* Technology for Musicians (2 units)
  • CFA ME 582* Intro to Access and Equity in Music Education (1 unit)
  • CFA ME 630* Music Education Lab Instrumental 2 (3 units)
  • CFA ME 730 Music Education Lab Instrumental 3 (3 units)
  • WED DS 502*+ Adolescent Development for Educators (2 units)
  • Select one (3 units):
    • CFA ME 531 Music Education Lab Choral (elementary/middle)
    • CFA ME 631 Music Education Lab Choral (high school)
  • Select two (8 units):
    • CFA ME 611 Practicum 1 K–5
    • CFA ME 612 Practicum 2 5–9
    • CFA ME 613 Practicum 3 9–12

*Course may be waived if it is determined that prior coursework is equivalent.

+Students may substitute another child or adolescent development course with their advisor’s permission.