Teacher Certification

Traditional Certification

The first school designed for the training of teachers, the normal school, began operation in Massachusetts in 1839. The practice of teacher preparation was slow to spread, and the system did not become commonplace until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Lacking a national teacher certification requirement, the responsibility for teacher certification was left to each state.

There is substantial variation in the specific rules and procedures among the states, but traditional state certification schemes are similar. First, state certification agencies establish certification standards, or minimum guidelines, for teacher education colleges within the states. In most instances, the certifying agency is the state's board of education or a professional practices board comprised of elected or appointed certified teachers and administrators. Second, the teacher education colleges establish programs to meet the minimum criteria established by the state. Finally, when the prospective teachers complete the college program, the college recommends the students to the state certification agency, who then “licenses” or certifies the teachers. Prior to obtaining the certificate, states generally require that the prospective teacher be a resident of the United States and of good moral character. Additionally, states usually require that the applicant have at least a bachelor's degree and a minimum number of hours in pedagogy and the subject to be taught.

The awarding of a teacher certificate based upon the completion of a state-approved program was the predominant means of certification during the early twentieth century, and by the early 1950s, most states issued certificates on this model. Citing studies showing the importance of the teacher in student learning outcomes, policy makers in the 1980s began to focus on teacher quality. Shifting from the process-oriented emphasis of teacher preparation, states moved to a standards-based emphasis. Influenced greatly by standards developed by the National State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, most state standards are similar in nature. Because of the similarity of standards, mobility of teacher certification across state lines is facilitated.

Concomitant with the standards-based movement, certification testing was implemented to make certain that the certified teachers had met the minimum standards. Teacher testing serves two primary purposes. First, testing provides for a systematic method of determining teacher competence. Second, testing enables the certifying agency to focus on standards-related performance as opposed to process-oriented regulations. But because of the pressure to help prospective teachers excel on the state-administered tests, teacher testing also had the effect of altering the teacher preparation curriculum. Many programs adjusted the curriculum to (a) align the content of the course work with the standards, and (b) adjust course assessment to mimic the state assessment. There have been legal challenges to the system of certification tied to testing. But as long as the test maintains content validity (tests what is taught), the courts have upheld the use of testing as a prerequisite to certification.

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