Certification is a requirement if you want to teach in a K-12 public school in our state. There are several paths available to you, depending on your situation. Official information is available on the OSPI Certification web page: http://www.k12.wa.us/certification/TeacherMain.aspx.

If you do not already have a teaching certificate, you usually need to get a Residency Certificate first.

http://www.k12.wa.us/certification/Teacher/Residency.aspx.

To do that, you need to work with one of the 21 colleges/universities approved by the Professional Educator Standards Board to offer educator preparation programs: http://www.k12.wa.us/certification/approvedprograms/default.aspx.

On this page, you can select a Program (e.g., World Languages: French), and you will see a list of colleges/universities that offer teacher certification with a world language endorsement in French. Or you could select a College/University (e.g., University of Washington – Seattle), and you will see a list of endorsements that they offer. In the case of the UW Seattle campus, the College of Education currently offers World Language Endorsements in the following languages:

· World Language: Chinese

· World Language: French

· World Language: German

· World Language: Japanese

· World Language: Latin

· World Language: Norwegian

· World Language: Russian

· World Language: Spanish

· World Language: Swedish

Here’s a brief overview of the process they’ve outlined:

1. Get started by getting general information.

They offer information sessions twice a month. Register at:

http://education.washington.edu/areas/tep/infosessions.html (The Spring Open House is May 12 at 5 pm.)

2. Check prerequisite/endorsement coursework status.

To teach a world language at the secondary level, you need to earn a World Language Endorsement for your language. To do that, you have to contact the appropriate UW language department to have your coursework evaluated through the Endorsement Evaluation form (which you can get from the College of Ed at their Info Session). Here are some contact emails they provide:

Chinese & Japanese – asianll@u.washington.edu

French – sabri@u.washington.edu

German – uwgerman@u.washington.edu

Latin – clasdept@u.washington.edu

Norwegian – lotta@u.washington.edu

Russian – slavicll@u.washington.edu

Spanish – emjohns@u.washington.edu

Swedish – slavicll@u.washington.edu (I'm not sure this is correct)

To teach at the elementary level, you must have your coursework evaluated by the Office of Student Services (206 Miller at the UW). This is because elementary certification requires you to be prepared to teach a variety of subject areas, such as math, reading, social studies, and science.

3. Get specific questions answered/Stay on track!
They offer support in person, by email, or by phone. (I would suggest you get that contact information when you attend an Info Session.)

Some additional information…

Both the Elementary and Secondary Teacher Education Programs at the UW have a number of prerequisites, including passing the Washington Educator Skills Test – Basic (WEST-B) – basic skills test (in English) in reading, mathematics, and writing: http://www.k12.wa.us/certification/Teacher/teachertesting.aspx. If you are not a native speaker of English, that could be a little difficult. It would be good to take this test early to make sure you can pass it.

In addition, you must pass the Washington Educator Skills Test – Endorsement (WEST-E) in your subject area. In your case, this would be World Languages. The new WEST-E for World Languages is in development now, so if you were to start the Teacher Education Program in 2010, that’s the test you would need to complete. In addition, you would be required to demonstrate your language proficiency at the Advanced Low level via the ACTFL OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) and WPT (Writing Proficiency Test). In order to pass the WEST-E for World Languages, you need to have mastered the World Languages Endorsement Competencies (see: http://www.k12.wa.us/certification/ProfEd/2007Standards/WorldLanguage.pdf).