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enthuesd
Joined: 03 Nov 2010
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 Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:46 am Post subject: state teaching license/credential |
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Greetings all,
In order to be more marketable as a potential hire, particularly at International Schools, I have decided to get licensed as a teacher in my home country (America). This I understand can be a process involving going through a university program.
This article titled "How to Become an International Teacher" suggests that simply passing the required Massachusetts MTEL exams will get you a license. Granted the license may be "preliminary", but it is nevertheless a license and may be used to help secure an job. The Harvard website also confirms the "preliminary license" procedure as just passing tests, no program or supervised teaching involved.
If I can get a license by simply taking a test rather than going through a university program I would like to do that. Has anyone gone this route, or another non-university route (perhaps through a state other than Mass), to get their teaching license? If so, have the licenses proved helpful in getting jobs?
Much thanks.
Article: "How to Become an International Teacher":
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/how-to-become-an-international-teacher/
The Harvard Website seems to confirm the Mass. "preliminary" license procedure:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/about/administration/licensure/alternative.html
Massachusetts MTEL test
http://www.mtel.nesinc.com/ |
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enthuesd
Joined: 03 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:44 am Post subject: |
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Please reserve your judgement. I am merely asking for advice for someone in my particular situation, someone who has a B.A. and wants to improve their candidacy in future job opportunities by gaining a US teachers license.
Let me restate my question, for clarity purposes.
Has anyone gone this route (Massachusetts preliminary license), or another non-university route (perhaps through a state other than Mass), to get their teaching license? If so, have the licenses proved helpful in getting jobs? |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:25 am Post subject: |
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| YTMND wrote: |
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| This I understand can be a process involving going through a university program. |
Very good Einstein. You need a degree. Now what? Do you want an E2 visa? |
Not stupid at all. Usually a candidate needs to have an education degree for licensure. Or a non-education post-degree candidate needs to take additional university classes along with student teaching to obtain licensure.
Massachusets is now considering giving licensure to individuals who just pass thier licensing test.
Last edited by young_clinton on Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:38 am; edited 1 time in total |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:37 am Post subject: |
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Getting licensure is a very good idea. I intend to get it also. It opens you up to employment at International Schools (like you said) and makes you a lot more competitive for other positions that are K-12 or international equivalents. Taiwan will not consider an ESL teacher for a public school position unless they are licensed back home.
The ESL field is getting really competitive even in places like SE Asia which is starting to surprise me. Or perhaps you want to teach subject courses and not ESL. Anyhow good idea and good luck. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:08 pm Post subject: |
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OP: Your non-degreed, US-State licensure may work in some countries where the standards are lower (like the US, Thailand or India) but it won't work in Korea.
In Korea, for a visa as a teacher you need a degree.
It is not what the employer wants but what immigration requires for issuance of the visa.
For an E2 visa you need any undergrad degree (the exception being the government sponsored "TaLK" program).
For an E7 visa (international school teacher) you need an undergraduate degree and 5 years of experience. They may waive the experience if you are licensed at home but the degree is still the base requirement for the visa.
The standard for most proper "international" schools (as in, internationally accredited (IBO, etc) not just "International" in their name) is a related degree, home country certification and 2 years of post certification experience (requirements of their accreditation).
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xihtug
Joined: 14 Sep 2012
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| Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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| enthuesd wrote: |
Please reserve your judgement. I am merely asking for advice for someone in my particular situation, someone who has a B.A. and wants to improve their candidacy in future job opportunities by gaining a US teachers license.
Let me restate my question, for clarity purposes.
Has anyone gone this route (Massachusetts preliminary license), or another non-university route (perhaps through a state other than Mass), to get their teaching license? If so, have the licenses proved helpful in getting jobs? |
Hehe. Getting a teachers licence to get a job. You better be doing it in mathematics!
Now, I'm saying this because I'm an unemployed teacher here in the States. I went through a University Program and it seems like that was one of the most straightforward routes. You might want to brush up on the rules of certification because here in Georgia we take the test to add content fields after we were certified by the program we attended. I think the only other route in my state is if you're a Teach for America teacher or something like that. |
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mnjetter
Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Location: Seoul, S. Korea
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| Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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| I know that in a lot of states, you can get a "provisional license" by passing a test, or if you have a license from another state that doesn't have as many requirements and need to catch up. But you need to complete certain coursework to turn it into a real license, and the provisional one is only good for a year or something. I don't know Massachusetts, but perhaps that is something like what they are doing? In Minnesota (my state), you can get hired at a school under a MN provisional license, but you have to be making certain progress towards a full license (e.g., taking an educational psych course on weekends) to be eligible to hold down the job. |
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enthuesd
Joined: 03 Nov 2010
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| Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 1:20 am Post subject: |
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| mnjetter wrote: |
| I know that in a lot of states, you can get a "provisional license" by passing a test, or if you have a license from another state that doesn't have as many requirements and need to catch up. But you need to complete certain coursework to turn it into a real license, and the provisional one is only good for a year or something. I don't know Massachusetts, but perhaps that is something like what they are doing? In Minnesota (my state), you can get hired at a school under a MN provisional license, but you have to be making certain progress towards a full license (e.g., taking an educational psych course on weekends) to be eligible to hold down the job. |
If I'm reading the Massachusetts policy correct then that's what Massachusetts offers, a preliminary license good for 5 years from the date of Massachusetts employment. So if you're never teaching in Mass, you have a preliminary license for good. Now the question is how a preliminary license is viewed by hiring managers, principles, etc. I would guess that it's viewed case by case. Obviously there would be no home country teaching experience, but it is a license nonetheless. |
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Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
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| Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:00 am Post subject: |
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| enthuesd wrote: |
| mnjetter wrote: |
| I know that in a lot of states, you can get a "provisional license" by passing a test, or if you have a license from another state that doesn't have as many requirements and need to catch up. But you need to complete certain coursework to turn it into a real license, and the provisional one is only good for a year or something. I don't know Massachusetts, but perhaps that is something like what they are doing? In Minnesota (my state), you can get hired at a school under a MN provisional license, but you have to be making certain progress towards a full license (e.g., taking an educational psych course on weekends) to be eligible to hold down the job. |
If I'm reading the Massachusetts policy correct then that's what Massachusetts offers, a preliminary license good for 5 years from the date of Massachusetts employment. So if you're never teaching in Mass, you have a preliminary license for good. Now the question is how a preliminary license is viewed by hiring managers, principles, etc. I would guess that it's viewed case by case. Obviously there would be no home country teaching experience, but it is a license nonetheless. |
Here's a video on it:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/Educators/video.html?section=change
I think this needs further investigation, but after picking through the site, my comments are:
1. You're probably not going to get the license unless you meet certain criteria. Just because you can apply for it does not mean you're going to get it (but they'd be happy to have your $100 for trying).
2. This may be a negative result of the "No Child Left Behind" requirements. It may well be (and I'm guessing here) that Mass. had a tough time finding qualified teachers in particular fields, so they just opened things up to meet percentages required by NCLB. I wondered about that after reading this:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/reports/educator/
This link says that the name of this "preliminary license" used to be "certificate," but was changed. I am pretty sure they did this so that teachers who were not yet fully-qualified could be listed as licensed on reports to the federal gov't. That would mean they could meet requirements and continue to get funding.
3. This license seems more geared toward people working in trades (where it's becoming increasingly hard to find qualified teachers).
4. If Koreans are stupid enough to fall for this type of license, then chances are that it won't last for long.
5. The website states that additional coursework is required for areas related to educating children.
6. Here are some sample practice tests, if anyone is curious. It hardly looks like a cakewalk:
http://www.mtel.nesinc.com/MA_PT_opener.asp |
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newb
Joined: 27 Aug 2012
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 4:35 pm Post subject: |
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This will help me secure an international school job for sure.  |
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