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I was speaking to an advisor at the PA Dep't of Ed last week... She told me there is NO DIFFERENCE between the traditionally certified and the Alternately Certified teachers in the eyes of the state of Pa.
She told me her personal feeling was that the alternate certification candidate had more REAL WORLD knowledge and experience because they tend to be further along in age and work experience... the younger teachers are not as mature as the career changers are......
HOORAY for us "old folk".....
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What I am worried about is getting to the certification. The person I was talking to at the county Board of Ed. was saying no schools wanted to take on an uncertified teacher to mentor them toward getting certified.
In PA from what my book says you have to have a 3.0 GPA, meet the test requirements(Relavant Praxis) and meet the math and english requirement. The nice thing about the PA teacher intern certification program is it allows you to hold a full-time teaching position while completeing the requirements.
In NJ the GPA only needs be 2.75, you need the relavant Praxis and at least 60 credits in liberal arts or sciences. There is also something not quite clear about formal instruction 13-17 credits and additional mentoring.
My plan is to finish my BA then start taking as many Praxis II exams as I can.
Then I will try to find a school distict to mentor me.
Please let us know if you find any new info. I am only 20 minutes from PA and I do have at least a 3.0 GPA it might be faster to get certified in PA
Linda
Start by doing what is necessary: then do the possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible St Francis of Assisi
Now a retired substitute Teacher in NY, & SC
AA Liberal Studies TESC '08
BA in Natural Science/Mathematics TESC Sept '10
AAS Environmental safety and Security Technology TESC Dec '12
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Check this link...
Certifications
look for the certification requirements for your field. I also called the PDE and spoke to a certification advisor... very friendly and helpful. You may want to make the call and get some info. reletive to your situation.
I am looking at a BS Ed in CTE from Northern Arizona University. 35 credits granted for passing the NOCTI job-ready assessment, and 18 credits granted for an Arizona CTE certificate... which can be had for an application, fingerprints and $60!
They will allow testing out for liberal requirements except for a science lab class... all classes are completely online...even the science lab.
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