We are advising all students who are applying for Secondary Teacher Education certification in Communications that they should seek dual certification to be qualified in two areas. You may harm your chances in seeking teaching positions if you are certified in Communications as a solo area of certification (see below for a longer explanation). Instead, we are encouraging students interested in Communications Education to double-major (or seek dual certification) in either English Education (for those students interested in also teaching writing and literature) or Business Education (for those students interested in also teaching computers and media courses). To put it simply, it is very, very difficult for those holding only certification in Communications Education to find jobs.

Lengthy explanation: When Pennsylvania devised its ways of complying with No Child Left Behind, it decided that it would designate teachers as "qualified" teachers if they were certified in a particular area. (Other states adopted more flexible ways of determining what "qualified" meant). Unfortunately, this method of designation has a number of implications for those holding certain certifications. Those who are certified in Communications--an area of certification not commonly awarded by other states--are qualified to teach high school Communications courses (film, video, and speech are the most common).--but they are not clearly "qualified" to teach English courses (in literature and writing). There are very few high schools who are able to fund positions for those whose teaching assignments are only in Communications courses, and the local schools that do (such as Fox Chapel and North Allegheny) are highly competitive in their hiring.