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Michigan State University has long been at the forefront of K-12 teacher preparation. We are leveraging that tradition of excellence to offer a new, non-traditional, post-baccalaureate program leading to initial certification to teach Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese or Spanish at the K-12 level.

This new program reflects the core values of our teacher preparation program and the College of Education more broadly. In a country as linguistically rich and diverse as the United States, we are committed to expanding access to world language education to student populations historically denied such opportunities. This commitment holds as much for students wishing to maintain their home or heritage language as it does to students interested in learning a new language for the first time.

Moreover, in an age marked by increasing globalization, we believe that quality world language education is a vital component of every student’s educational experiences across the K-12 years and beyond.

Finally, this new program responds to repeated calls by federal and state policy makers to transform world language education and the preparation of world language teachers. While we are just beginning to redesign our world language teacher preparation program, we hope that it can serve as a model for other programs considering similar changes.