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College Scorecard is the U.S. Department of Education's free tool for comparing colleges on costs, graduation rates, student debt, and post-college earnings. Use it when you're building a college list, checking whether a school's price or outcomes match its reputation, or comparing majors across schools. Everything below runs on the site's own search, filter, compare, and profile features — no account is mentioned in the site materials, and no pricing signals appear, so treat access as open but don't assume any paid tier exists.

Start with a college search

The homepage centers on "Search and compare colleges." You have two entry points:

• Search Colleges — type a college name, or use the quick-search options Near Me or All Colleges.
• Search Fields of Study — requires a degree type selection, then lets you type a major or program.

If you already have a school in mind, the name search is fastest. If you're still deciding where to apply, start with Near Me to see what's within commuting distance, or All Colleges to browse the full set.

Narrow results with filters

Once you're in the search, the site offers three filters:

Apply filters before comparing. A shortlist of 10 schools that all fit your cost and location constraints is far more useful than 10 schools you'd never attend.

Compare up to 10 colleges side by side

The Compare Colleges feature lets you put up to 10 colleges next to each other. This is the core of the tool — it's built for "compare the information that matters most to you" rather than reading profiles one at a time.

A practical comparison set uses the same dimensions across every school:

• Annual cost
• Student debt
• Graduation rates
• Post-college earnings
• Admissions test scores and acceptance rates
• Student body diversity

Keep the comparison honest by checking the same field for each school. If one college's earnings figure covers a different cohort or major mix than another's, the numbers aren't directly comparable — the site presents Department of Education data, so the underlying definitions are consistent, but your reading of them should be too.

Look up a field of study, not just a school

The Search Fields of Study tool covers majors and programs offered at colleges and universities, and it reports salaries and debt of graduates for those fields. This matters because a school's overall earnings number can hide wide variation between majors.

Use it when:

• You've picked a major and want to see which schools produce the best outcomes in it.
• You're comparing two majors at the same school to see how debt and salary differ.
• You want a reality check on a program before committing.

Remember that degree type is a required input here — you can't search fields of study without selecting one.

Read a college profile for the full picture

Each college has a profile page with U.S. Department of Education data on:

• Costs
• Student debt
• Graduation rates
• Admissions test scores and acceptance rates
• Student body diversity
• Post-college earnings

Use profiles after you've narrowed your list. They give the context that a side-by-side table can't — for example, an acceptance rate that tells you whether a school is a realistic target, or a diversity breakdown that matters to you personally.

Check alternate pathways and financial aid

College Scorecard also points to routes outside a traditional degree:

• apprenticeship.gov — search apprenticeship jobs and programs
• MyNextMove.org — career exploration and job analysis
• TrainingProviderResults.gov — compare training programs by completion rates, employment rates, and more
• CareerOneStop.org — career exploration, training, and jobs
• Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) — detailed profiles of over 300 occupations

For funding, the site links to StudentAid.gov for financial aid types and to the FAFSA® application, which you must complete to receive federal aid. A Federal Student Aid aid-estimator is available to see how much aid may be available to you. Veterans can use the GI Bill® comparison tool to compare education programs and benefits by school.

A workable sequence

1. Search by name, Near Me, or All Colleges.
2. Filter by location, annual cost, and degree type.
3. Add up to 10 schools to the comparison view.
4. Run a Fields of Study search for your intended major to check salaries and debt.
5. Open individual profiles for admissions and diversity details.
6. If a four-year degree isn't the right fit, check the apprenticeship and training links.
7. Start the FAFSA and use the aid estimator to see what you'd actually pay.

The main pitfall is comparing schools on different criteria — pick your dimensions first, then apply them uniformly across the comparison set.

Teaching and learning refers to two connected processes: how educators design, deliver, and adjust instruction, and how students make sense of, practice, and apply knowledge. The term is used to describe both a field of study and a way of looking at classroom work—one that treats instruction and student understanding as interdependent rather than separate. It is most useful when you are planning instruction, evaluating whether a lesson worked, or studying how school conditions shape student outcomes.

The Two Processes and How They Connect

Teaching is the deliberate side of the pair: choosing goals, sequencing content, selecting strategies, building a learning environment, and giving feedback. Learning is the student side: building understanding, practicing skills, connecting new ideas to prior knowledge, and transferring what was learned to new situations.

The connection matters more than either half. A well-designed lesson that students do not understand is a teaching act without learning. Student effort without clear instruction or feedback is learning left to chance. Research and practice in this area therefore ask questions such as:

• Which instructional strategies produce durable understanding rather than short-term recall?
• How do classroom climate, expectations, and relationships affect student engagement?
• How should assessment and feedback be used to guide the next step in instruction?
• Why do similar lessons produce different results for different groups of students?

Common Misunderstandings

A frequent mistake is equating teaching with lecturing. Lecture is one strategy among many; teaching also includes discussion, modeling, guided practice, group work, and structured feedback. Another is equating learning with memorization or test scores. Scores are evidence of learning, not the whole of it—students can score well through short-term recall and still fail to apply the idea later.

A third misunderstanding treats the two as a one-way street: the teacher acts, the student receives. In practice, student responses—questions, errors, confusion, partial answers—are the information teachers use to adjust instruction. That feedback loop is the core of the concept.

Where the Concept Applies

Teaching and learning connects directly to several areas of education work:

The University of Michigan Marsal Family School of Education frames its mission around generating, studying, and teaching strategies, practices, and tools for addressing educational problems, and preparing practitioners, policy-makers, and researchers to develop equitable and just educational opportunities. That framing reflects how teaching and learning is treated as a field: not just classroom technique, but the study of how instruction and student opportunity interact.

How to Apply It

When you observe a classroom, design a lesson, or evaluate instruction, look for the interaction rather than only the activity:

1. State the intended learning. What should students understand or be able to do by the end, beyond recalling facts?
2. Check what students actually did. Look at their work, questions, and errors—not just whether they were busy or attentive.
3. Adjust based on that evidence. Decide whether to reteach, practice more, or move on, and note why.
4. Revisit later. Ask whether students can use the idea in a new context, which is the clearest sign that learning lasted.

A concrete example: a teacher explains a concept, assigns practice, and finds that most students can repeat the procedure but cannot explain why it works. The teaching was clear, but the learning was procedural. The next step is not more repetition but a task that requires explanation or application, followed by feedback on that reasoning.

Used this way, "teaching and learning" is less a slogan than a habit of checking whether instruction produced understanding—and changing the instruction when it did not.

Teacher certification is the credential a state education agency issues to confirm that a person has met its requirements to teach in public schools. It is distinct from a degree (an academic award from a college or university) and from licensure (the legal permission to practice, which in teaching is usually the same state-issued credential). In practice, "certification" and "licensure" are often used interchangeably for public-school teaching, while a degree is one input that may—or may not—satisfy a state's certification requirements. The right path depends on the state where you plan to teach, the grade level and subject you want, and whether you already hold a degree.

The three terms, separated

The key point: a degree is earned from an institution, but certification is granted by the state. A degree alone does not automatically make you certified, and some certification routes do not require an education degree.

Why the distinction matters

States set their own requirements, so a credential from one state does not automatically transfer to another. When people ask whether they "need a degree or certification," the practical answer is usually: you need whatever the target state requires for the specific role, and a degree is often one component of that. Checking the state's official requirements is the only reliable way to know.

Common certification pathways

Traditional programs

These are typically part of or paired with a degree program at a college or university. They usually combine coursework in teaching and learning with supervised classroom experience (student teaching or practicum). This is the most common route for people preparing to teach before or during their undergraduate or graduate studies.

Alternative or post-baccalaureate routes

These are designed for people who already hold a bachelor's degree in another field and want to become certified. They may involve a preparation program, coursework, and classroom experience, and are often completed while working under a provisional or emergency credential, depending on state rules.

Reciprocity and interstate transfer

Many states have agreements or processes to recognize out-of-state credentials, but the details vary. A certificate valid in one state may require additional steps—such as coursework, testing, or experience—in another.

What to check before choosing a program

• State requirements: Confirm the specific certificate, grade band, and subject area your target state requires, using the state education agency's official guidance.
• Certification level and subject: Elementary, secondary, and specialty areas (e.g., special education, English learners) often have different requirements.
• Accreditation and program approval: Verify that the preparation program is approved by the state (or otherwise recognized) for the certificate you want.
• Field experience: Check how and when supervised classroom practice is arranged, since this is often a required component.
• Testing: Many states require content or pedagogy exams; confirm which tests apply to your target certificate.
• Transferability: If you may move states, ask how the program's credential is recognized elsewhere.

A concrete example

Suppose you have a bachelor's degree in biology and want to teach high school science. You would check your target state's requirements for a secondary science certificate. If the state offers an alternative route, you might enroll in a preparation program, complete required coursework and classroom experience, and pass the relevant exams. Your biology degree supports your subject knowledge, but the state certificate is what authorizes you to teach in a public school. If you later move, you would check that state's reciprocity rules rather than assume your certificate carries over unchanged.

Bottom line

Teacher certification is a state-issued credential for public-school teaching; a degree is an academic award that may help you meet certification requirements but is not the same thing; and licensure, for teaching, generally refers to the same state authorization. Because requirements differ by state, confirm the exact certificate, tests, program approval, and field-experience rules with your target state's education agency before committing to a pathway.