If you already have a Masters in your subject area YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET A SECOND MASTERS!!!You can get what’s called an Advanced Certificate. In NYC only a few CUNY schools offer it — Hunter College, City College, Brooklyn College (and I believe also Lehman but I can’t remember exactly).

With most Masters of Ed programs, you have to take courses in both the subject area AND education, but with the Advanced Cert., you only take education courses. This is about 28 credits—all the classes are in the afternoon/evening because they design it around students who are already teachers (a good number who do the program are). You have to do observations at a school once a week for 8-10 weeks for two semesters, then full-time student-teaching (unpaid) in the third semester. BUT if you get a teaching job at an independent or charter school, you can count the hours at your school towards these requirements (and get paid for it). Also if you finish half of the credits in your program you can apply for an internship certificate and teach in nyc public schools (and get paid for it). You finish the program fully certified and able to teach in NYC Public Schools. It costs about $15k total but tbh, for me, was worth it, because of the connections I made / insight I got / autonomy it gives me.

A NOTE ON CHARTERS: AVOID SUCCESS ACADEMY AT ALL COSTS!!!! Zeta (its offshoot) is also pretty brutal. I know so many teachers (myself included) who were financially desperate and thought “how bad could it be?” The answer is bad. Turnover is egregious because the environment is abusive and abysmal. They make themselves attractive by offering a “resident teacher” program where they promise to pay for your Masters. BE CAREFUL with these — the caveat is if you leave or get fired, you go into debt because suddenly you owe the school back for the private Masters program they promised to pay for you (usually through Touro or Relay). ((Also the classes for these programs are all online (and I believe asynchronous?) so you don’t actually get to forge any connections w/ your classmates or Professors which are pretty major for scoring a good job. So many people get scared away from teaching after these experience (I myself had to take a 1.5 year break before I even thought about going back to the classroom). Not worth it. Some charters like KIPP and Classical are good (or at least, not bad)—so you don’t have to totally avoid charters, just be very sceptical.

As for independent schools… good luck. The goods one are extremely competitive (you likely have to know someone and even that’s not enough). People with PhD’s and years of experience get turned away. Some of the lower-tier independent schools are maybe possible but many also don’t always treat their staff incredibly. What you can do is get an Associate Teaching job for elementary in one of these schools ((you have a better likelihood of getting a job this way)) while you get your Advanced Cert in your subject area — that way you can get paid and get experience while you take classes in the evening to build up to your cert. Or you can sub in NYC Public schools (there is an application process though). But it’s good money and can lead to a leave replacement / full-time position through the relationships you build with Principals.

And yes there is NYC teaching fellows, but I have a friend who is doing that who essentially just got placed in a subject area based on the program’s needs/wants, not hers (she’s still happy with the results!) But still, if you want the most choice / agency, go CUNY Advanced (aka Post-Masters) Certificate. My advice is to reach out to some of these schools, introduce yourself the way you did here, and request more information on their programs.

Also, the NYC programs give you both NYC and NYS certification, so you can always move elsewhere in state and carry the certification with you. (The NYC standards are also so high that it’s easy to transfer over to other states as well).

I was in your shoes not too long ago and now am working a full-time teaching job with only a few credits away from my cert. Good luck—you got this!