What Licenses are Available in New Jersey?
There are many possible licenses in New Jersey, and the regulations for licensure in New Jersey are currently undergoing revision. At this time, there are only two choices of licenses for the Alternate Route Program:

Elementary Education:
This allows you to teach grades K-8 as a generalist – that is, you teach all of the subjects in a self-contained classroom. If you also have an academic major, such as Math or English, you could teach that subject in grades 6-8 in schools where subjects are departmentalized (students have a different teacher for each subject area).

Subject Area Certification:
This allows you to teach the specific subject area to students at any grade level, Elementary or High School in which the classes are departmentalized (you teach only that one subject)

What academic major do I need for these licenses?

For Elementary Education, you need to have a major in an arts or sciences field. This means almost any area except Business, Law, Engineering or other professional degrees. If you do not have such a major, you may be able to qualify for Elementary Education if you have 60 credits in arts & sciences coursework.

For Subject Area Licensure, and Elementary Education with Subject Area Specialization you need to have a major in the subject area you wish to teach, or at least 30 credits in the subject area that cover a sequence of courses from the 100-400 level. For Social Studies, the appropriate major is usually History, although other majors may be appropriate if enough history courses were also taken.

The NJDOE will review your transcripts to check that you have the appropriate coursework to obtain a Certificate of Eligibility. NPTNJ cannot do this evaluation.