Teaching license for Natl. Accred. Grads

This was buried in another thread and I believe it justifies it's own. It appears Western Governors University is coming out with post-baccalaureate and master's degree programs that will allow college graduates without a teaching license to earn one distance style.

The really interesting thing is that they require a bachelor degree from a regionally or nationally accredited college.

I always thought teacher licensure was one of the holy grails of RA.

Anybody have any thoughts on this? Is the possibility of Nat'l accred. grads teaching old news? Any current of former teachers want to way in on this?

Tony

Teacher

 

I have not heard or seen anything, but would love to know more about this.

 

Here is a link to a congressional statement from the Pres. Mendenhall of Western Governor's University. Testimony

Quote from statement

It appears that they are trying to blaze a new path for teacher licensure, however; as far as I can tell, they are not even candidates for NCATE accreditation, nor could I find any information on several related states websites dealing with teaching licenses.

With WGU's political backing, I do not think they are easy to dismiss. Therefore, there may be a K-12 licensing track for graduates of DETC, ACICS, and comparably accredited institutions, which in my opinion would be a good thing.

Tony

for first post
of = or
way = weigh
Tony = tired

 

South Carolina allows grads of BJU to take the exam. As far as I know they are the only non accredited school to be in this position. Apparently they score quite well on the exams.

North

 

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The RA University of San Diego let me enter a 45 semester unit( divided about equally between English and Ed) program culminating in '69 with the Calif Std Sec teaching credential(good for life) in English based on an unaccredited BA in Bible. I had too an RA accredited MA in Theology, but all of my general ed as sociology, history, math were unaccredited! There was then no 'teacher test' as North alludes to in his post. The real test then as I perceived it was whether one survived the 9 units of practicum or student teaching! It was sort of like the first year, I suppose, of preaching sermons, but congreants, I'd guess, are more kind than students to fledgling ones in praxis.

 

It is now possible to get teacher certification in Florida with a degree from a nationally accredited school. Couple this with their alternative certification requirements (allowing someone to teach for two years in order to waive student teaching) it really opens up a lot of possibilities.

From: http://www.firn.edu/doe/rules/6a-42.htm#6A-4.003

6A-4.003 Degrees, Programs, and Credits. Degrees, programs, and credits shall be determined acceptable for educator certification purposes based on the following:

(1) Accredited institutions. Degrees and credits awarded by an institution of higher learning accredited by one (1) of the accrediting associations listed below shall be acceptable for educator certification purposes.

(a) Regional accrediting associations. The regional accrediting associations are as follows:

1. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools,

2. The Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools,

3. The New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools,

4. The North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools,

5. The Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools, and

6. The Western Association of Colleges and Schools.

(b) Accrediting agencies approved by the United States Department of Education.



Ted N.

 

States

It appears 2 states (AZ and NV) have approved WGU's teaching license to meet their teacher licensure requirements. In addition, 45 states have reciprocity agreements with either AZ, NV, or both. More importantly, WGU is seeking approval from other states, and IMO is likely to get it from most. This fact, coupled with the admission requirements for the post-bach and masters degree teacher licensure programs (requiring either RA or NA undergrad), adds much more utility for those of us pursuing NA degrees. Who knows, after I am done making my buck, I may want to impart some of my knowledge on the little brats .

Tony