Content Competencies

All unofficial transcripts are required for competency evaluations. Email copies of your transcripts to luoverify@liberty.edu. Once you have sent copies of all your transcripts and have been accepted into the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, please submit this form to request that your evaluation be updated.

Transcripts sent must have the following information:

• Student’s full name
• Name of the institution
• Date/term of course completion
• Final grades or scores (if completed)
• Credit hours earned (if completed)

In order to use courses previously completed at other institutions to meet your content competency requirements, these courses must meet the following criteria before they can be considered:

• Course(s) must be completed at Regionally or Nationally Accredited Institution, approved through the Department of Education
• Course(s) must have a grade of C or higher
• Course(s) must be listed in transcript or score report (CLEP & AP)
• Course(s) needs to have prefix that matches the discipline of the competency

Upon receiving your transcripts, a content competency evaluation is conducted for you. This evaluation is updated as more courses are completed, but it is important that you stay in communication with us to ensure that all previously or newly completed courses are being reviewed. Please submit this form to request that your evaluation be updated. A competency form will be provide to you through email, and this form will show exactly which content areas you have completed and which areas are still incomplete.

Students must complete all the required content and hours before student teaching. It is not uncommon for students to end up over the number of required hours in order to fulfill all their required content competencies.

When all content competency requirements have been completed, students should email contentcompevals@liberty.edu to request an updated evaluation, as this will be required for Gate 3 applications.

Hours: each evaluation form shows the total hours needed for each content area (at left), as well as the total minimum, required hours to complete the endorsement (at the bottom of the evaluation).

Duplicate content: duplicate courses may not be used to fulfill Content Competencies. I.e. if you have taken “History of US 1” (or equivalent), you may not use the “History of US 1” CLEP exam to fulfill additional hours as this would be considered “duplicate content.”

Complete courses through Liberty University (online or residential). If you are currently enrolled in courses to complete your competencies here at Liberty, we have verified this information and it should already be reflected on your evaluation. If not, email contentcompevals@libery.edu

Complete courses through another accredited institution or approved organization. In this case, you will first need to submit a Future Course Request for approval. This is the best way to determine if the courses that you wish to take elsewhere will fulfill your remaining competencies.

We will also accept verification of enrollment (an unofficial transcript) showing that you are currently enrolled in courses at another institution to fulfill your remaining competencies. Once you complete the course(s) and final grades are posted, please send the document to luoverify@liberty.edu and submit this form to request that your evaluation be updated.

Complete exams (if available), such as CLEPs: Acceptable exams are listed within the equivalency charts listed below. Please consult with our Content Competency team if you have any questions. https://www.liberty.edu/online/credit-by-exam/

Can I use prior life/work experience? 
Life/work experience cannot be used to fulfill content competency requirements. Credit earned through the portfolio process cannot be used to fulfill the required content.

Can I use AP and CLEP scores? 
AP and CLEP can be considered to fulfill content competency requirements but these must be listed on score report from Collegeboard. Scores listed on high school transcripts cannot be used to fulfill content competencies.

What if I have an undergraduate degree already? 
Having an undergraduate degree that is similar to your chosen MAT endorsement area is extremely helpful and in some cases, it may even assist you in completing all of the required competencies. However, please keep in mind that an undergraduate degree in a particular area does not automatically guarantee that all content competencies will be met.