Easiest State to Become a Certified Teacher - Arizona???

[sanantone]

Arizona has an Adult Educator certificate. It requires a bachelor's degree or higher.
*Not every state requires instructors of adult basic and secondary education to be certified. 

https://www.azed.gov/node/27127

Career and Technical Education, K-12. Option A: A bachelor's degree or higher in the field of study + 240 hours of work experience in occupational area. Option C: 6,000 hours of work experience in occupational area. 

https://www.azed.gov/node/27130

School Counselor PreK-12. A master's degree that is specifically in school counseling with a K-12 practicum/internship is not required. Provisional certificate holders are given three years to gain three years of full-time teaching experience, two years of school counseling experience, or to complete a supervised practicum through an accredited institution. Some graduate degrees will require additional coursework. 

https://www.azed.gov/node/27113

Specialized Secondary Certificate STEM, 6-12. Option A: Bachelor's degree or higher in a STEM subject. Five years of work experience in STEM is required. 

https://www.azed.gov/node/27102

Subject Matter Expert Certificate, 6-12. Option A: Teaching experience at an accredited postsecondary institution in the applicable field for the last two consecutive years and for a total of three years. Option B: A bachelor's degree or higher in one of the listed subjects. Option C: Five years of work experience in the applicable field. 
*Refer to degree matrix to determine whether a content area test will be required. Provisional certificate holders will have two years to pass a secondary education knowledge exam (unless one qualifies for a waiver) and an ethics course. 

https://www.azed.gov/node/27103

Athletic Coaching, 7-12. Completion of specific continuing education courses, CPR certification, and 250 hours of verified coaching experience in applicable sport. 

https://www.azed.gov/node/27101


*All certificates require the submission of an Arizona DPS fingerprint card. If you live in another state, you can have one mailed to you. Arizona DPS says they'll accept other fingerprint cards that fingerprinting locations possess, but I'm not sure if that'll be acceptable for the Department of Education.

[jsd]

Too much work.

If you're a veteran in FL, just do the Starship Troopers path and get 60 college credits and some other marginal qualifications and you're good for 5 years.

https://www.fldoe.org/veterans/

[sanantone]

Too much work.

If you're a veteran in FL, just do the Starship Troopers path and get 60 college credits and some other marginal qualifications and you're good for 5 years.

https://www.fldoe.org/veterans/

Florida certainly has low standards, but serving several years in the military is a lot of work. LOL. Since more of the population has a bachelor's degree already, passing a background check and filling out an application for Arizona is an easier path. It's also possible that you won't even need to take a subject area test. If I were to apply for the Arizona Subject Matter Expert Certificate, all I would need to do within the next two years is complete a board-approved ethics course and the secondary education knowledge exam. If they'll accept one of the ethics courses I completed in college, I'm good to go on that.

---

Now that I think about it, "provisional" is not a good term to use. Most of these are full certificates that are renewable and good for 12 years. If you don't satisfy the "deficiencies" within the allotted time, then your certificate will be put on a non-disciplinary suspension until the deficiencies are removed. Another thing that makes these certificates easy to obtain is that you're not required to be hired before applying for or receiving the certificate.

[jsd]

>serving several years in the military is a lot of work

Certainly true, and my admittedly glib remark betrayed that. All hard labor is valuable work.

But "a lot of work" is a low bar when it comes to teaching my children. There are plenty of morons who work hard but don't know what they're doing. I don't want a warm body teaching, I want a competent one.

[sanantone]

>serving several years in the military is a lot of work

Certainly true, and my admittedly glib remark betrayed that. All hard labor is valuable work.

But "a lot of work" is a low bar when it comes to teaching my children. There are plenty of morons who work hard but don't know what they're doing. I don't want a warm body teaching, I want a competent one.

Agree. At least Florida is requiring them to pass content exams, and they'll be working with a mentor. It's more like a paid internship that's similar to what people do in the alternative certification programs. After their temporary certificate expires, they'll need to meet the requirements for the standard certificate, which requires passing a general knowledge exam and a bachelor's degree. 

Arizona is giving 12-year, renewable certificates to people with no training, experience, nor education in teaching. If they have non-teaching experience in their field, they don't even need a college education for some certificates. Unless someone wants the flexibility of adding endorsements other than ESL, I don't know why someone in Arizona would take the traditional path. 

Side note: Texas won't honor reciprocity for substandard licenses/certificates. I wonder how they determine what's substandard. Texas is strict about requiring everyone to complete a formal teacher preparation program.

[MNomadic]

I was actually a career & technical education teacher for a year teaching dual enrollment cybersecurity and IT courses at a high school. They were desperate to fill the position (they hired me like 6 weeks into the semester) and they technically had a "warm body" present to satisfy the certified teacher requirement(she just didn't have knowledge on the subjects being taught). Because of that, they bent the rules a bit for me while I was finishing my degree and had me under a temporary staff contract until I qualified for a full teacher position. I never bothered with getting my teaching certificate because the administration is an absolute incompetent joke and obviously teacher's pay leaves a lot to be desired(especially with AZ's rising housing costs) so I didn't continue teaching after the first year. Interestingly, my replacement for the next school year quit after 2 weeks because the administration mistreated him as well, and his cybersecurity skills are in demand so he didn't need to put up with low pay and abuse. 

I guess what I was getting at is I don't recommend trying to make a career out of being a public school teacher in AZ. There's a "teacher shortage" because there's little reason for qualified people to take on a low paying, thankless, high stress job. Instead of trying to improve pay and working conditions, places like AZ and Florida are just lowering the standards. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching and will probably return to teaching at a community college or something similar after my master's degree. The year of teaching at a high school did a lot for my public speaking/technical communication skills and helped me break into my current job which takes a blend of technical and soft skills.

The Florida thing really irks me and I am a veteran. There are plenty of qualified, competent veterans who can make great teachers but there's nothing special about being a veteran that would make one any more qualified to be a teacher than anyone else with life experience and 60 college credits. The new Florida law is just another bandaid that doesn't actually address the underlying cause of the teacher shortage and instead presents itself as pro veteran virtue signaling.

[sanantone]

Totally agree. Unless the veteran was an instructor, their military experience is irrelevant to their qualifications as a K-12 teacher. They might as well upgrade all the teaching assistants and substitutes they have or certify anyone off the streets who has a couple of years of college and can pass a background check. They're kind of already doing that, but you need a bachelor's degree, and your temporary certificate is good for three years instead of five.

[Kire]

I barely graduated high school and joined the military. In my early twenties, I accepted I am not that smart, and this is my lot in life. I was wrong. Today, I know there are many reasons it took me so long to realize I am intelligent.
When debating the U.S. public education systems, we should understand this is a complex issue without simple solutions.
The one facet of the problem in this post has morphed into is basically, how do we attract the right people to teach K-12?

What attracts you to a career or job?

The paycheck

Location

Benefits

Work environment

Competent colleagues

Competent leadership

The last three items on this list keep me out of a public school education career.

I have an immense amount of respect for skilled teachers who can not only provide an amazing education opportunity but put up with:

Disrespectful students

Disrespectful parents

Incompetent colleagues

Incompetent leadership

School systems are not focused on educating children to become more prosperous than their parents are.

Come to think about it, incompetence and disrespect might be two of the most pressing issues facing the U.S. today.

[TopHatWombat]

I've recently been contemplating getting a CTE teaching license in my state. I'm already volunteering as a sort of low-level teaching assistant at a museum where school groups come to do immersive science labs, and I'm enjoying it. It looks like my state has teacher certificate reciprocity with AZ, so this is definitely an interesting option. It's definitely cheaper than the $1500 course at the local community college to get the CTE certificate. I'll need to verify that reciprocity applies to CTE, not just professional teachers, but this could be a shortcut.