A thread was recently revived regarding the quickest, cheapest, and dirtiest route to admission to the Bar as an attorney in some jurisdiction.
I’m wondering what the quickest route to becoming a certified teacher is. I’m looking for the quick, dirty, two-bit, can barely hack it, there’s always some desperate district who needs another teacher route to Mr. Garrison-hood, not a route of patient study, toil, and humility leading to Teacher of the Year, a treasured place in the hearts of two generations of children, and a parade at my retirement.
I’ve done some research. At least in the US, a typical path to licensure seems to involve the following:
Complete a bachelor’s degree
Complete teacher education coursework if it wasn’t part of your degree
Pass written exams
Pass a student teaching internship (i.e. they watch you teach and see if you’re any good)
Pass a criminal background check
Thoughts:
Now, I already have a bachelor’s degree, so I seem to be good on #1 (though the teeming millions might be interested in learning if there are jurisdictions where you can still bypass it). I’ve been told the written exams are typically little more than a basic literacy test (“See spot run!”, “What’s the square root of 81?” “Who was the first president of the United States?”) (Is this actually true?). Is there any jurisdiction where you can test out of most or all of the actual coursework (either by taking tests specified by the licensing jurisdiction or by obtaining credit by exam at a college), or a jurisdiction where the coursework is only recommended for optimal professional performance and not finishing it isn’t actually a bar to getting a license?
For example, is there a jurisdiction (preferably in the US) where I can show up at the State Department of Education building with a copy of my bachelor’s degree, take the exams, and if I pass, start a student teaching internship the next semester, and if I pass that, get my license?
I got a teaching job in North Carolina with a BA and nothing else. It helped that the BA was in physics and mathematics, and math/science teachers are in short supply. I was required to begin pursuing the course requirements for the teaching certificate, so I began night classes at the local college. Had I finished the class requirements, I would have had a certificate since any other requirements would have been met by teaching for a number of years. I quit the job after a few years to go to grad school, so I never finished the requirements for the certificate.
Every state is different, and districts can often get waivers to get people into classrooms. They then have a certain amount of time to complete the necessary classwork in pedagogy.
As far as tests go, there are several. There is a basic literacy test (CBEST in Calif.) and then there is the Praxis, which is a monster test to see if you actually know your subject. I don’t know any state that allows someone to be a teacher more than a limited time without going through at least some of the graduate work, but I could very well be mistaken.
For teaching English, it helps if your focus is on an in-demand area, like ESL or developmental students. Many states offer an “Alternative Route to Licensure” and it helps if your subject is in demand and your students are “at risk.”
Quickest way in Florida (or at least in my district, but I think this is probably good for the whole state):
Get a four-year degree in the content area you want to teach.
Get a “statement of eligibility” from the state, which basically says that you have a four-year degree in a content area.
Get offered a teaching job.
You may now apply for a 3-year temporary teaching certificate in the content area that your BA/BS covers.
Background check, fingerprinting, etc.
Congrats! You’re a teacher now. You have three years to do the following:
Complete a district approved certification program. Every district in Florida offers an alternative certification program like Krokodil alluded to. If you’re really awesome you can probably complete it in a semester, but it’s designed to be done in one full school year. It’s going to involve a lot of busywork. Alternately you can take actual classes, which usually require a year of Saturdays at the local college/community college. All of this happens in concordance with your being in the classroom, so it’s kind of like the ‘internship’ you mentioned. You’ll have a mentor at your school and will be tracked by them and also by your administrator. You’ll also have to attend three or four “new teacher academy” things over the course of the year and do some nominal work as a result of that, but nothing too difficult.
As a component of #1 above, complete the first chunk of the Reading Endorsement coursework. It’s going to be online and it’s not too difficult.
Pass a minimum of three tests. One is general knowledge. This is the basic literacy test that you mentioned above and it is very very easy, yes. One is specific to your content area, and this one is more difficult. It’s going to cover teaching theory that is specific to your content area along with more in-depth stuff about what you want to teach. The last one is a professional knowledge test, which covers stuff like teaching theory, teacher ethics, and so on. If you plan on teaching (or getting certified in) multiple content areas you’ll have to take more tests. I personally found none of them to be difficult but a lot of teachers going this route struggle with the professional knowledge test because it contains specialized information that nobody knows without actively studying the stuff. Drop a few bucks on review books.
Congratulations! You’re a teacher now. Once you complete all the requirements you can apply for your permanent certificate. You’re not done, though. You need to take your ESOL classes and possibly finish up your reading endorsement.
Really, the trickiest part is getting a school to hire you in the first place so that you can get your temporary certificate. You can’t actually get it until you get your job offer. After that you can get stuff done as quickly as you have the time and energy for.
In Ohio, there’s something called the Alternative Resident Educator License, which you can get if you already have a master’s degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) field. You need either 6 hours of education coursework or a special course run by the state, and then pass the Praxis test.
On the Praxis, there are various subject matter tests, and then there’s something called the PLT (Principles of Learning and Teaching) that everyone needs to take. The PLT is mostly common sense, but there are some questions on it about specific educational theories and the like that you’d learn from an education course.
Actually, there are two sides to the question and potential answers. In addition to potentially helping people shortcut their way into teaching, it could help alert parents where not to move.
E.g.:
Bill : “We’re thinking about moving to Smackerville, homes are so cheap out there nowadays and the commuter rail line is supposed to be extended out there by next fall.”
John : “You have kids, right? Don’t move to Smackerville! One of the reasons that the cost of living is so low is that parents with kids don’t like to live there because the standards for becoming a teacher are so low. My sister-in-law grew up there - she said that her fourth grade teacher couldn’t teach his way out of a cardboard box - he had gotten the job by having a BA in Medieval German Literature and passing a test proving he ‘knew his ABCs’ and could do long division without fainting from exhaustion.”