“Building the foundation for a full career in the Elementary Education classroom”

In the state of Tennessee, students must complete a four-year teacher preparation degree to become a licensed teacher for Kindergarten through Fifth Grade classrooms. Chattanooga State offers an Associate of Science in Teaching degree specific to Elementary Education and designed to transfer smoothly toward a K-5 licensure preparation bachelor’s degree at most regional four-year universities.

The Elementary Education AST Degree program identifies the skill sets and knowledge needed to build a strong foundation for teacher preparation programs and in future employment as teachers. To that end, three education classes require candidates to apply concepts from coursework to fieldwork in elementary classrooms. Elementary AST graduates have accomplished the coursework, Teacher Disposition Statements, ACT or Praxis CORE test scores, and GPA required for admission into university teacher preparation programs. All of the courses for the Elementary AST Degree can be taken online or on campus, so students have flexible scheduling options while at Chattanooga State.

2+2 Program

The 2+2 program in Elementary Education is offered in partnership with Tennessee Technological University. It allows students pursuing a bachelor's degree to complete the first 60 credit hours at their local community in the form of an AST degree. Those students then transfer to TTU, completing the remaining 60 credit hours with TTU faculty who teach out of the Chattanooga State campus.

The program is cohort-based beginning each fall semester. Coursework schedules are pre-determined for each site and scheduled as daytime and full-time for each term. The end result is an Associate of Science in Teaching (A.S.T.) and a Bachelor's Degree in K-5 Education that leads to becoming a fully licensed teacher.

Careers in elementary education include classroom teacher, reading specialist, subject area specialist, home-bound tutor, teaching assistant, and camp director.