Program Overview

The Associate of Science in Education (A.S. Education) curriculum prepares students to transfer to any four-year college or university teacher preparation program. Courses in this degree are designed to satisfy some of the endorsement and professional course requirements of a Virginia teaching license. In EDU 200, students will identify the endorsement (content) courses they need to earn a teaching license. Students should meet with a Teacher Education faculty member or Education Field Placement Coordinator and Advising Specialist to select the correct courses for their area of licensure. EDU 200 and EDU 204 both require 20-hour field placements in a K-12 public school. Students will be required to complete a background check before being placed in the schools.

Pathways in Education

The program requirements for the A.S. Education are very flexible and include a long list of elective choices. This degree supports many different possible education majors after transfer, and the best choices for a student who wants to teach science at the high school level look very different from the choices for a student who wants to major in Elementary Education or Special Education. A pathway through a degree provides a recommended set of choices that are more specific for setting up for a major or track after transfer. 

This program supports the Transfer Virginia common curricula in Education, including pathways in elementary, special, and secondary education among others. We have created a pathways guide with recommendations for elective choices and course sequencing. Download a guide and use it with the transfer resources below to develop a plan to complete your degree!

Elementary Education Pathways Guide
Special Education Pathways Guide
Recommendations for Secondary Education (Coming Soon!)

Students should carefully consider the requirements of their intended four-year institution and work with an advisor to determine if the A.S. Education provides the most appropriate plan of study for their transfer goals. 

Setting up for Success

Even within the major-specific pathways guides, you’ll still see spots to make choices, because the exact recommendations depend on not only what you want to major in, but where you want to transfer to. It helps to decide early on what your first choice four-year institution is for transfer, but it’s fine to still be considering options. Here are some steps you can take to help make the transfer process go smoothly:

• Look in the Transfer VA Resource Center to see if there is a guide that is an exact match for what you want to major in at your preferred transfer school.
• If there is no Transfer VA guide available, there may be information on that school’s website. Start from our Academic Advising transfer guides page to see a list of links to the transfer information we’ve pulled together for each four-year institution in Virginia. Here is the link to our main transfer advising support page.
• Our advisors can help you pull all the information together and work out a semester-by-semester plan using the pathways worksheets. They can also help you out if you want to major in something there’s no pre-existing pathway for, and can look over the requirements and help you make a custom plan. 

Related Programs and Other Pathways

BRCC also offers many Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S) career and technical programs. An A.A.S. program is designed first with employment after graduation in mind, and is not a transfer-oriented award. If you are interested in Early Childhood Education, but are not sure yet if you want to complete a four-year degree, BRCC offers a two-year A.A.S. in Early Childhood Development with transfer pathways to some four-year institutions that are an alternative to traditional transfer.