Online Secondary Education Degree: Bachelor's and Master's

By the Transforming Education editorial team. Reviewed for accuracy against the sources listed below.

An online secondary education degree prepares you to teach one subject, such as mathematics, English, biology or history, to students in middle and high school, usually grades 6 through 12. Unlike elementary programs, where the degree itself is the major, secondary programs pair a teaching core with deep coursework in your content area, and your state will test you on that content before issuing a license.

Online options exist at both levels. A bachelor's track suits students starting from scratch; a Master of Arts in Teaching suits people who already hold a bachelor's degree in a teachable subject; an advanced master's suits licensed teachers who want a higher credential. This guide covers all three, including the content tests, accreditation, cost and verified online programs at regionally accredited public and private non-profit universities.

What a secondary education degree is

The core structure is the same whether the degree is a B.S.Ed., a B.A.E. or an M.A.T.:

• Content major or content hours. A secondary math teacher takes calculus, linear algebra, statistics and geometry; an English teacher takes literature, composition and linguistics. Master's-level programs assume you already have this and verify it through your transcript or an existing certificate. UWA's non-certification M.A.T., for example, requires an undergraduate major in the field or at least 30 semester hours in it.
• Professional core. Adolescent development, learning theory, classroom management, assessment, teaching diverse learners and literacy across the content areas.
• Subject-specific methods. How to teach your subject to teenagers, including curriculum standards, labs or writing workshops, and technology.
• Clinical experience. Observation hours, practicums and a full-time student teaching semester in a middle or high school.

Subject-area majors available online

Online programs cluster around the subjects states struggle to staff. Across the programs reviewed for this guide:

• Mathematics: WGU (bachelor's and M.A.T.), Mayville State (bachelor's), Liberty and UWA (M.A.T.), Fort Hays State (Transition to Teaching).
• Sciences: WGU offers online bachelor's and M.A.T. degrees in biology, chemistry, earth science and physics; Liberty lists biology, chemistry, earth science and physics; UWA lists biology and general science; Alabama lists general science.
• English language arts: Mayville State (bachelor's), WGU and Liberty (M.A.T.), UWA and Alabama (M.A.).
• History and social studies: WGU, Liberty, UWA and Alabama at master's level; Fort Hays State's pathway includes history.
• Other fields: Liberty's M.A.T. adds business, computer science, engineering and family and consumer sciences for grades 6-12, plus PreK-12 fields such as music, Spanish, theatre and visual arts. Fort Hays State lists agriculture, journalism, psychology, speech and theatre, and technology.

Who the degree is for

• High school and transfer students who know the subject they want to teach. A licensure-track online bachelor's lets you combine a content major with certification.
• Career changers with a subject degree. Engineers, accountants, lab scientists and writers often qualify for an M.A.T. or an alternative route directly, because they already hold the content hours.
• Licensed teachers adding a subject or upgrading a certificate. Programs such as the University of Alabama's M.A. in Secondary Education and UWA's certification-track M.A.T. require an existing bachelor's-level certificate and lead to an advanced certificate.
• Paraprofessionals and long-term substitutes who want a route to a full license while they work.

Licensure track vs non-licensure track

Secondary programs come in three flavors, and the labels matter.

1. Initial licensure. You have no teaching license. The program includes student teaching and prepares you for the state tests. WGU's bachelor's degrees, Liberty's M.A.T. and Fort Hays State's Transition to Teaching are examples.
2. Advanced or add-on certification. You already hold a bachelor's-level certificate, and the master's upgrades it. Alabama's M.A. in Secondary Education and UWA's certification-track M.A.T. both require a current certificate in the same field.
3. Non-certification. The degree covers content and pedagogy but does not lead to a license. UWA says plainly that its non-certification M.A.T. does not qualify students for any Alabama teaching certificate. These suit private school teachers, tutors, curriculum writers and teachers in states that accept them for a pay step.

Match the track to your starting point. A career changer who enrolls in an advanced-certificate master's will finish with a degree but no license.

Content tests: Praxis and state equivalents

The Bureau of Labor Statistics summarizes the licensing rule on its high school teachers page: all states require public school teachers to be licensed or certified, and candidates generally must pass a general teaching certification test and a test of knowledge in the subject they will teach.

Many states use ETS's Praxis Subject Assessments for the content test. Teachers still call these tests "Praxis II," the old name for the series. Two examples from the ETS test pages:

Each state chooses which tests it accepts and sets its own passing scores, and some states use their own exam systems instead. Your program's certification office will tell you which test applies. Take the content test early; a failed attempt late in student teaching can delay your license by months.

Accreditation and why it matters

Two layers again:

• Regional (institutional) accreditation of the university, which governs financial aid and credit transfer. The programs below are accredited by NWCCU (WGU), SACSCOC (Liberty, UWA, Alabama), and their respective institutional accreditors (Mayville State, Fort Hays State).
• Educator preparation accreditation of the education unit. CAEP became the sole national accreditor for educator preparation on July 1, 2013, after NCATE and TEAC merged; AAQEP, founded in 2017, is the alternative. WGU holds both; Liberty, UWA, Alabama, Mayville State and Fort Hays State state CAEP accreditation for their teacher education programs, and Fort Hays State's College of Education reports CAEP and Kansas State Department of Education accreditation through 2031.

National accreditation is a quality signal. State program approval is the legal requirement: only a state-approved program can recommend you for that state's license.

Admissions basics

• Bachelor's level: high school diploma or GED; WGU requires no minimum GPA or SAT/ACT but does require students to be 18 before clinical work, pass a background check and pass a state basic skills test before student teaching.
• M.A.T. level: a bachelor's degree, usually with a 2.5 to 3.0 GPA (Liberty 2.5, Alabama 3.0), transcripts showing content coursework, recommendations and a statement of purpose. Liberty lists no standardized testing for admission; Alabama does not mention the GRE.
• Advanced certificate programs: a current bachelor's-level certificate in the subject (UWA, Alabama), fingerprinting and background clearance.
• Alternative routes: Fort Hays State's Transition to Teaching requires acceptance to the graduate school and a Kansas restricted or limited-use license, for which KSDE requires a 2.75 GPA on the most recent 60 credit hours.

Curriculum, credits and duration

• Bachelor's: 120 credits over about four years. WGU's secondary math degree is 39 courses; WGU reports that 60 percent of graduates finish within 40 months. Mayville State requires at least 30 upper-division credits at Mayville.
• M.A.T.: 33 to 37 credits. Liberty's is 36; UWA's is 37 (certification) or 33 (non-certification) and estimated at about a year with 8-week courses.
• Advanced M.A.: Alabama's is 30 to 33 credits, with most students finishing in under two years.
• Alternative route: Fort Hays State's pathway is 24 credits over two years, or 36 with the M.S.Ed.

Clinical requirements set the floor. WGU requires at least 75 observation hours and a 12- to 20-week student teaching placement; Liberty requires a semester of student teaching.

Try this: Ask each program for its list of required content courses in your subject and compare it to your transcript before you apply. Content deficiencies, not education courses, are what most often add semesters to a secondary program.

What it costs

All figures are approximate and come from the cited program pages and NCES.

• National context: NCES reports average 2022-23 undergraduate tuition and required fees of $9,800 at public four-year colleges in state and $40,700 at private non-profits (Fast Facts), and average 2021-22 graduate tuition and fees of about $12,600 at public and $29,900 at private non-profit institutions (Digest Table 330.50).
• Bachelor's programs below: WGU $3,825 per six-month term plus $200; Mayville State $358.72 to $432.58 per credit including fees for 2026-27 depending on residency.
• Master's programs below: UWA $429 per credit plus a $120 technology fee per semester; Liberty $450 per credit full-time for 2026-27; Alabama $480 per credit for 2026-27, about $14,400 to $15,840 in tuition.

A 36-credit online M.A.T. therefore runs roughly $15,000 to $17,000 in tuition at these programs, before fees, testing and books.

Online format realities

• Student teaching is in person and full-time. Plan for a semester with limited income unless you use a route such as Fort Hays State's, where you teach on a restricted license while studying.
• Labs and content courses may have requirements. Science majors should ask how lab courses are delivered online and whether any campus visits apply.
• Placement is local. Confirm the program can place you in a middle or high school in your district and has supervisors in your region.
• Pace varies. WGU's competency-based terms reward prior knowledge; cohort-based public programs move at a set pace.

State reciprocity caveat

Programs are built for their home state's rules. Liberty states that its M.A.T. meets Virginia licensure requirements and that other states vary; Mayville State notes that North Dakota belongs to the NASDTEC Interstate Agreement but that each state sets its own requirements; Alabama and UWA programs lead to Alabama certificates. Before enrolling, confirm with your state department of education that the program is approved, and ask which content tests and extra coursework the state will require of an out-of-state graduate.

Career outlook and pay

From the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections:

• High school teachers: median annual wage $72,040; 1,087,500 jobs in 2025; employment projected to show little or no change (0 percent); about 63,500 openings per year, mostly from replacing teachers who leave.
• Middle school teachers: median annual wage $64,370; 630,100 jobs; 0 percent projected change; about 38,800 openings per year.

Both list a bachelor's degree as typical entry-level education. For comparison, the median for all occupations was $50,980 and projected growth for all occupations is 3 percent. Flat overall employment hides strong demand in specific subjects, particularly mathematics, the sciences and special education, which is why so many online programs concentrate there.

Programs to consider

The programs below are online secondary education degrees at the bachelor's and master's level from regionally accredited public and private non-profit universities, verified on each program's own page. They are in no particular order and this is not a ranking. Confirm current tuition, content-area availability and your state's approval with each program.