Adventures in Certification

One of the things I learned living overseas is to never assume anything. You would think that I would have applied that lesson to moving to a new West Coast culture (or that when living stateside it would be safe to assume some things), but alas, I made some errors in judgment that made it a long, difficult process to get my Washington state teaching certificate. Here are the misconceptions that led to my problems.

#1: A teacher can only be certified in one state at a time

I had been calling my teaching paperwork a teaching “license” instead of a teaching “certificate,” which led to this misconception. A person can only have a driver’s license in one state at a time (I watched the DMV worker punch a hole in my Pennsylvania driver’s license when I moved here, and it nearly broke my heart), so I thought that the same applied to teaching certification. I needed to add a certification area to my Oklahoma teaching license, so I waited for that paperwork to be done before I started working on my Washington teaching license.

#2 Reciprocity means an out-of-state license is treated like an in-state license

While I believe this is true in other states, it is not true in Washington. Here, “reciprocity” means submitting proof of a college degree in education with student teaching and submitting passing test scores, which is exactly what I did to get my initial license, so I don’t quite consider that reciprocity. I think they just meant that I wouldn’t have to start over with a WA college degree and test scores.

#3 A teacher can be hired without a teaching license

I was under the impression that there was a deadline for a teacher to get WA certification sometime during the year, maybe by the end of the first semester or the end of the first school year. Apparently, that date is by the first day of school. In practice, it means that schools will not even interview applicants that do not have their teaching certificate yet.

#4 Thailand would count as out-of-state or out-of-country

I’m quickly learning that in Washington “international” just means Canada. There’s a different teaching certificate application for teachers who have taught more or less than three years. I tried to apply through the more than three years route, but I was told that only teaching in other states, Canada, or U.S. territories would count. Switching application routes cost me almost a month of time waiting for paperwork.

I had some other hiccups, too, like applying during the busiest application season of the whole year and dealing with test scores that didn’t get sent. Thankfully, everything worked out in the end and I got my Washington teaching certificate at the beginning of this month. It arrived on the *second* day of school, which really threw a wrench into my plans for work this school year, but it did come through in the end.

I hope that my cautionary tale can be helpful to someone out there applying for their teaching certificate. My advice to you is to never make assumptions (and to teach in the state where you got your initial teaching license!).