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HS teacher here, going on 30th year next year.......
When teaching started required bachelors degrees in education decades ago, it was a push to professionalize educators and put them on a similar "respectable" track to medicine and law. It was a much-needed change. In the one-room school house of Miss Crabtree days prior, all that was often needed was a high school diploma and a willingness to warm up the coal stove an hour before the school day. Sometimes the adult was a good teacher, sometimes a babysitter.
We may be returning to those days again, with Teach for America and alternative licenses, and a simple need for adult bodies in the classroom. I have serious concerns about this. I've taught in Ohio for years (where for years everyone had a bachelors (almost always in education), and most had Master's degrees and beyond. The teachers, by and large, were solid in classroom management and knowledge of material. There are not massive shortages back East in core subjects, it's worse than it was but dozens of public and private colleges in each state still crank out new grads every May (though those numbers have started to shrink), and while SPED has always had shortages, 90-100 social studies teacher candidates still scratch and claw for one interview.
Now I'm in New Mexico. 5 colleges cranking out small amounts of education majors. Seems like half of the teachers teach with alternative licenses (absolutely true in the two schools I've taught at in the last decade) and wash out before year one, and most don't stay longer than that. Hardly any of them were a student teacher. I can quit my job as a social studies teacher tomorrow and have twenty schools scratching and clawing to hire me immediately, not because I'm so amazing but because they have NO candidates waiting for any spot. Teaching jobs go unfilled all year with long-term subs teaching for months.
In short, I have serious concerns. I come from a place (and time) where teachers were every bit as respected as doctors, lawyers, and engineers. In many towns, that is still the case. but not here.
We are drowning in unqualified people with alternative licenses that couldn't get hired in days past.
Just because you are a scientist or a Pre-Med major or a computer engineer does not make you a teacher. Content knowledge is important, but it's only part of the gig.
2 issues in this country regarding all this: (1) the loss of kids that want to be teachers (it is still an awesome profession); and (2) the lack of qualified teachers that understand the complexities of teaching a class.
And if you pick your locations and public schools, the money is fine, though it could always be better.
To the OP: the Praxis is a basic, easy test, and all states are different in requirements, but if you're a good teacher, those tests are a breeze regardless of location and reciprocity.
HS teacher here, going on 30th year next year.......
When teaching started required bachelors degrees in education decades ago, it was a push to professionalize educators and put them on a similar "respectable" track to medicine and law. It was a much-needed change. In the one-room school house of Miss Crabtree days prior, all that was often needed was a high school diploma and a willingness to warm up the coal stove an hour before the school day. Sometimes the adult was a good teacher, sometimes a babysitter.
We may be returning to those days again, with Teach for America and alternative licenses, and a simple need for adult bodies in the classroom. I have serious concerns about this. I've taught in Ohio for years (where for years everyone had a bachelors (almost always in education), and most had Master's degrees and beyond. The teachers, by and large, were solid in classroom management and knowledge of material. There are not massive shortages back East in core subjects, it's worse than it was but dozens of public and private colleges in each state still crank out new grads every May (though those numbers have started to shrink), and while SPED has always had shortages, 90-100 social studies teacher candidates still scratch and claw for one interview.
Now I'm in New Mexico. 5 colleges cranking out small amounts of education majors. Seems like half of the teachers teach with alternative licenses (absolutely true in the two schools I've taught at in the last decade) and wash out before year one, and most don't stay longer than that. Hardly any of them were a student teacher. I can quit my job as a social studies teacher tomorrow and have twenty schools scratching and clawing to hire me immediately, not because I'm so amazing but because they have NO candidates waiting for any spot. Teaching jobs go unfilled all year with long-term subs teaching for months.
In short, I have serious concerns. I come from a place (and time) where teachers were every bit as respected as doctors, lawyers, and engineers. In many towns, that is still the case. but not here.
We are drowning in unqualified people with alternative licenses that couldn't get hired in days past.
Just because you are a scientist or a Pre-Med major or a computer engineer does not make you a teacher. Content knowledge is important, but it's only part of the gig.
2 issues in this country regarding all this: (1) the loss of kids that want to be teachers (it is still an awesome profession); and (2) the lack of qualified teachers that understand the complexities of teaching a class.
And if you pick your locations and public schools, the money is fine, though it could always be better.
To the OP: the Praxis is a basic, easy test, and all states are different in requirements, but if you're a good teacher, those tests are a breeze regardless of location and reciprocity.
Thank you for writing this.
My school was in the Washington DC metro area, and over 20 years we had about 5 'second-career' teachers who had not done student teaching and had done some alternative licensing route. Of the 5, one made it. The other 4 dropped out of education after a year or two. The one that made it was great...as a math teacher. The others had been ex-military, and they (in their interviews) had been optimistic about their ability of lead kids because they had been "leaders of men". Well, leading 12 year-olds is something very different, and that was their downfall. They were used to giving orders that were immediately obeyed.
I'm an American living overseas and I may move back to the US in the next 5 or so years. I teach at an international school in Malaysia, but I don't have official certification from any state to teach. I have a master's degree, but it's not in education.
My suggestion is.... don't come back. And count your lucky stars. The USA is in deep trouble and on a sharp accelerating decline. I'm making arrangements to leave myself.
If you do come back, be prepared for a big surprise in the schools.
But really, don't come back. And thank your lucky stars for your good fortune.
I get what you're saying. When I first got out of the service, I attempted to go into teaching via the alternate route. Took the Praxis and everything they asked for. Those were easy. The only hurdle, and this was the showstopper, was I had to get hired by a school to be eligible for the alternate route, but no school would hire me since, like you, I didn't have a degree in education. The real issue isn't that the individual states are so different as it is that education is a closed shop.
Perhaps with more schools being desperate now, you may find them more willing to use the alternate route.
Maybe things have changed since I last tried my hand at teaching at the high school level. I was then recently retired and there was a shortage of teachers in [ Math, Chemistry, Physics, General Science, Environmental Science ] and all I did was provide a resume ( which included three years teaching at the college level ) and my college and graduate school transcripts. No testing required. The school district certified me in all those subjects and gave me a choice of what to teach. And hired me.
Only wrinkle was that a PhD in physics wasn't good enough for them, they only paid me as if I has a B.S. degree, since none of my graduate degrees were in education ( even though I had completed a comprehensive graduate level course in education during my military days ).
In other words, they would rather have someone teaching physics who had an associate degree in education than someone with a PhD in physics. This to me is one part of what is fundamentally wrong with the system. They don't care if someone is qualified in a subject as long as they have an education degree.
It didn't take long to realize that many ( not all ) of the math and science teachers at that high school did not know much of anything about what they were teaching.
So. OP. You are right to complain about teaching licensure. As am I.
Teacher here. I've taught in TX, WA, and OR. But have also looked into relocating to MN, NM, CO, and PA at various points in time.
Bottom line? There is enormous disparity across states in terms of licensure. Some states like MN are exceedingly difficult to certify in, even if you have certification from another state. They generally don't recognize alternative pathways and your education program has to be nearly identical to one in MN. So experienced and licensed teachers moving to MN literally have to start from scratch and go back and get another BA in education. As a result, out of state teachers who move to MN end up in private schools, community colleges, doing Kaplan tutoring, that sort of thing. At least that is the way it was back in 2015 when I was actively investigating.
In other states it is quite easy to get certified if you have a certification from another state. Here in WA I only needed to take some state exams and document my TX license. And in Texas it was easy to get certified through an alternative pathway through the local community college as I already has a masters in a science field, just no education degree.
My advice? Search out states that have alternative teacher certification pathways. You will have to take a couple of night classes on pedagogy but you can start teaching basically right away under a provisional license. I don't know of any master index of licensing requirements in each state. You you may have to just go state by state looking at the ones you are interested in and doing your own research and make your own big spreadsheet. Or maybe someone else has already done it and posted it somewhere.
Maybe things have changed since I last tried my hand at teaching at the high school level. I was then recently retired and there was a shortage of teachers in [ Math, Chemistry, Physics, General Science, Environmental Science ] and all I did was provide a resume ( which included three years teaching at the college level ) and my college and graduate school transcripts. No testing required. The school district certified me in all those subjects and gave me a choice of what to teach. And hired me.
Only wrinkle was that a PhD in physics wasn't good enough for them, they only paid me as if I has a B.S. degree, since none of my graduate degrees were in education ( even though I had completed a comprehensive graduate level course in education during my military days ).
In other words, they would rather have someone teaching physics who had an associate degree in education than someone with a PhD in physics. This to me is one part of what is fundamentally wrong with the system. They don't care if someone is qualified in a subject as long as they have an education degree.
It didn't take long to realize that many ( not all ) of the math and science teachers at that high school did not know much of anything about what they were teaching.
So. OP. You are right to complain about teaching licensure. As am I.
I'm just curious...the school district certified you?
Maybe things have changed since I last tried my hand at teaching at the high school level. I was then recently retired and there was a shortage of teachers in [ Math, Chemistry, Physics, General Science, Environmental Science ] and all I did was provide a resume ( which included three years teaching at the college level ) and my college and graduate school transcripts. No testing required. The school district certified me in all those subjects and gave me a choice of what to teach. And hired me.
Only wrinkle was that a PhD in physics wasn't good enough for them, they only paid me as if I has a B.S. degree, since none of my graduate degrees were in education ( even though I had completed a comprehensive graduate level course in education during my military days ).
In other words, they would rather have someone teaching physics who had an associate degree in education than someone with a PhD in physics. This to me is one part of what is fundamentally wrong with the system. They don't care if someone is qualified in a subject as long as they have an education degree.
It didn't take long to realize that many ( not all ) of the math and science teachers at that high school did not know much of anything about what they were teaching.
So. OP. You are right to complain about teaching licensure. As am I.
What state was this?
That isn't the case in either Texas or Washington. All your higher education credits and degrees count towards your salary scale in both states, not just education degrees. How do I know? My masters degree was in marine resource management and it counted in both states such that I ended up on the pay scale with MA+45 in both TX and WA.
That isn't the case in either Texas or Washington. All your higher education credits and degrees count towards your salary scale in both states, not just education degrees. How do I know? My masters degree was in marine resource management and it counted in both states such that I ended up on the pay scale with MA+45 in both TX and WA.
Are you sure it was a state decision? In Maryland and Virginia that was left to the individual school districts in regard to where people were placed on the salary scales.
Are you sure it was a state decision? In Maryland and Virginia that was left to the individual school districts in regard to where people were placed on the salary scales.
Honestly I'm not sure.
In WA it is the State Office of Public Instruction that tracks all of the educational credits and clock hours that districts use to generate their salary schedules. So school districts can see where you are in terms of educational hours just by checking your license on the state site. But the local districts negotiate the salary schedules with the unions.
But I have never heard of any district that only counted degrees in education.
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