Teaching High School and UNISA Degree

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by steve hansen, Jul 24, 2002.

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  1. steve hansen

    steve hansen New Member

    I have heard a lot of talk on this forum about the value of UNISA degrees for getting a university level teaching position, but what about getting certified to teach high school? Does anyone have any experience with this? I guess it may vary state to state and person to person.

    I am currently taking classes at UNISA and am very happy with the quality of the courses. It might not be Harvard, but its as good as many universities here in the US. It would be a shme if the degree wasn't recognized.

    Thanks
     
  2. Jack Tracey

    Jack Tracey New Member

    While I am not a certified teacher, I believe that there are several components to becoming certified in most states. First, you must have the basic Bachelors degree. If you want to teach high school level students then you usually have to have a specialized subject area (English, Math, etc.) Second, you have to have taken some specified set of Education courses. These probably vary a bit from state to state but there are agreements between states regarding the transferability of teaching certifications. Third, you have to do the "student teaching" piece. UNISA can undoubtedly help with #1 and, if you check with you state board of education (or whatever it's called), UNISA may be able to help with #2 as well. However, I don't know how they're going to help with #3. Some states have "alternate routes" to teaching certifications. I've found some remarkably detailed information on this subject at the State Dept. of Education website for several states. You might start there. Good luck,
    Jack
     
  3. ashton

    ashton New Member

    teaching license interstate reciprocity

    I am waiting for the State of Vermont to mail me a teaching license, so I've been very interested in teacher licenses. From what I understad, the only kind of license that is transferable from one state to another is one that results from completing the program of a university teacher education program that is recognized for purposes of teacher licensing by one of the states. A license that is granted through an alternative program is not transferable, so you would have to complete whatever alternative program is in place in whatever state you want to move to.

    One thing in your favor is that states license foreign language teachers, and the ideal foreign language teacher is educated abroad. Thus, state education departments may be more accustomed to looking at foreign degrees than other organizations.
     
  4. Jack Tracey

    Jack Tracey New Member

    Re: teaching license interstate reciprocity

    ...snip...

    Once upon a time I did some checking and discovered that the state of Oregon has an "alternate route" to teacher certification. My memory tells me that a mid-career professional, possessing a Bachelors degree, who wishes to become a teacher may be hired and begin teaching under the following conditions: The school must provide a supervisor, or mentor, who will essentially provide the kind of training that a student teacher would get during their teaching internship. The new teacher must also be enrolled in the appropriate education courses and have completed them within a reasonable period of time (two years?). Once that is all done, the teacher, who has had some sort of "provisional certification," now becomes certified at a level with other new teachers. Five years down the line there is no distinction made about the method by which they earned their certification and I've seen no reference that suggests that they could not transfer their certification to another state that has a reciprocity agreement with Oregon. Of course, I could be wrong.
    Jack
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 25, 2002
  5. Bill Grover

    Bill Grover New Member

    Re: Re: teaching license interstate reciprocity

    =====================================

    And as a long time teacher in Oregon, I'd be happy to so mentor...for a small fee of course:D
     
  6. Sam Stewart

    Sam Stewart Member

    Certification Requirements by State

    http://www.academploy.com/certif.cfm

    The above site provides links to most states as to requirements for certification. Most states do now have alternative routes to certification as a result of the teacher shortages.
     

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