The International Schools Review Forum

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.

Massachusetts MTEL test
http://www.mtel.nesinc.com/

First, what is your educational background? The requirements for getting your license differ from state to state, so what would be required of you will depend on your background. For instance, in my home state of Michigan, if you have a BS or BA, you can acquire your teaching certificate in about 1.5 years through a university program at the graduate level. (1 of those years is student teaching.)

I will assume you have some type of Bachelors degree, as even if you could get certified without one (and there are) no IS would hire you without a degree, at the very least immigration would require a degree to qualify you for a visa.

Just about every state has some form of "alternative certification program" (ACP), that does not require going back to university (though some ACP programs are run by universities). Some of them require you to just pass the state exam. Many,require you to attend some kind of training classes and seminars. Almost all of them require some form of field experience (student teaching, internship, etc).
On paper you might be able to get certified SOLELY by passing a test, but the reality is this wont get you hired. Many ISs require a minimum of 2 years post certification experience. On top of that when they see your resume, it will take 2 seconds to figure out how you got from nothing education related on your resume to "certified". If you have no formal education coursework, training, degree, or experience then your basically little more then a warm body in a classroom. This would be fine in the ESOL or language focused "bilingual schools", but your going to go to the bottom of the applicant pile at an IS.

I'm in agreement that you need experience before a reputable international school will hire you. When I decided that this was going to be my career, it took 4 years to get overseas. I don't see many shortcuts to this, unless you're content being an ESL teacher.

Step 1: Get a Master's in Education/Teaching. Some of these are one year intensive programs. Some require a BA in education first. Different states have different programs. Try the West Coast for 1-year programs. These will include certification. I don't believe you can get certification without having a degree, unless it's Troops to Teachers or something like that (emergency certification situation).

Step 2: Get experience. Work at least 2 years in a public school in the States.

Step 3: Recruit!

I totally agree with PsyGuy's last post. There's no shortcut to having experience, and you'll certainly need the degree and certification.