If you hold a bachelor's degree in English and wish to enter a teaching credential program such as that offered by Chico State's Department of Education, you will be required to show proof of subject matter competency. See the page on Subject Matter Competency (SMC) for more information on the state's two methods available for attaining it.

For those uninterested in taking the CSET (formerly Praxis/SSAT) standardized test method, SMC can be granted by any English department with a single-subject waiver program approved by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). If your degree is in English or English Education from a  college or university with a CTC-accredited program, you must get your SMC from your degree-granting institution rather than from Chico State. To find out if your college or university has an approved program, check the CTC's list of approved institutions.

If you wish for the Chico State English department to grant you subject matter competency, you will need to present your academic records to the English Credential Adviser (see below for precise instructions). Because we have a very specific agreement with the Credentialing Commission articulating the courses required for SMC, most applicants for subject matter clearance are required to take extra courses to ensure that their transcripts reflect an academic preparation equivalent to the Chico State accredited program's requirements. For this reason it is imperative that SMC seekers look first to their degree-granting institution for SMC.

For instance, a student with a B.A. in English Education from California State University at San Bernardino might want to come to Chico to earn the teaching credential. If that student doesn't have subject matter clearance from CSUSB, he or she might end up having to take a few linguistics classes and a writing class at Chico before being eligible for SMC. If the student has already been granted SMC before coming to Chico, then Chico State cannot require that the student take any additional course work in the discipline (the only exception to this would be if an English course, such as ENGL 470 Second Language Acquisition, is a prerequisite for admission to the Chico State credential program).

If your circumstances are such that getting SMC from Chico is your best option, do the following:

1. Download the Transcript Comparison Worksheet (it's a Microsoft Word file) and complete it. Use the worksheet to estimate your chances of successfully attaining an SMC waiver from Chico State.
2. If you have a reasonable expectation of success, compile the following items:
1. Completed Transcript Comparison Worksheet
2. Copies of transcripts from all colleges whose coursework you use on the Transcript Comparison Worksheet
3. Course descriptions (from college catalogs) of each course you use on the Transcript Comparison Worksheet
4. A cover letter that explains your request, and includes your name (including former names, as applicable), address, phone and fax, and email address.
3. Send the above items to: English Education Adviser, English Department, CSU Chico, Chico CA 95929-0830

Judith Rodby
Credential Adviser
English Education
Department of English
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA 95929-0830
530-898-5465
jrodby@csuchico.edu