Key Findings

Each state pathway into teaching requires prospective teachers to fulfill specific requirements for entering the pathway, for engaging in preparation activities, and ultimately for earning a first-time teaching credential. Although the names of pathways and associated credentials vary widely from state to state, a review of the recruitment objectives, requirements, and length of credential validity of the 358 pathways make it apparent that there are five core types of pathways: (1) Full Initial (33 percent); (2) Last Mile (8 percent); (3) Interim (32 percent); (4) Targeted (15 percent); and (5) Emergency (11 percent). The type of credential a prospective teacher earns often varies by category; for example, a “full initial” credential earned through completion of a master’s in education program often has a longer initial validity period, and fewer requirements to fulfill to continue in the profession, than an “interim” credential earned through an “alternative” pathway led by the employing local education agency (LEA).

Every state offers at least one full initial pathway, which always includes the “traditional” approach for this pathway, where individuals earn bachelor’s degrees while completing an educator preparation program (EPP). Many states also have full initial pathway(s) for completers of advanced degree-granting EPPs and/or for completers of non-degree-granting (i.e., certification-only) preparation programs based at an institution of higher education (IHE). Some states have distinct requirements for each type of teacher preparation approach and create separate pathways that correspond to each, while others have the same general requirements for several preparation approaches (e.g., all post-baccalaureate pathways) and combine them into a singular pathway. Most unusual are the District of Columbia and Minnesota, which have one set of requirements for completers of any EPP—whether pre-baccalaureate or not, degree-granting or not, IHE-based or not—to earn a full initial first-time credential.¹ Twenty-three full pathways do not require completion of any type of educator preparation program (EPP), substituting instead non-credentialed experience teaching in a public charter or PreK–12 charter school; postsecondary teaching experience; or the demonstration of skills and knowledge equivalent to those of an EPP completer (e.g., through submission of a portfolio, oral board, live demonstration, and/or transcript review).

An increasingly common state pathway, labeled as last mile in the database, is for teacher candidates who have generally completed a “traditional” degree-granting pathway into teaching but have been unsuccessful in their attempts to meet one or more final credentialing requirements, typically the passing of an exam or a statutorily required course. Across the board, these pathways allow individuals to begin teaching while continuing to attempt to pass the required exam(s). However, states differ in whether they ultimately require the last-mile-credentialed teacher to pass the exam or whether they waive the requirement after a certain number of unsuccessful attempts, as North Dakota does, or require that the quality of their instruction is satisfactory, as Louisiana does. At least two states, Massachusetts and Mississippi, offer a last mile pathway as an option for near completers of non-degree-granting EPPs as well.

The most numerous type of pathway is the interim pathway, which includes the vast majority of the many non-traditional approaches that states offer to those who wish to become a first-time teacher of record. Interim pathways are open to a broad swath of candidates to begin teaching in a broad array of subjects and grades prior to completing substantive formal preparation. The typical candidate for this pathway is enrolled in a non-degree-granting EPP and is working as a teacher of record while completing any requirements for credential retention or progression. There is great variation in the entry requirements for the pathways that fall within this category, from those that require little more than a bachelor’s degree with a major in the subject to those that require the completion of a year-long clinical experience in a school with concurrent graduate level education courses. Similarly, the credentials earned in this pathway vary in length of validity and requirements for completing the EPP and obtaining a “full” credential.

Many states have also created targeted pathways (55) to recruit candidates with unconventional qualifications to become teachers if they possess specific personal attributes or expertise in a specific area of instructional need.² School-need recruitment objectives include specific subjects (41), grade levels (12), and/or school types (5).The subject with the greatest number of targeted pathways is Native American language and culture (16), followed by world languages (8), art (8), STEM (5), and special education (2).There are 38 pathways targeted at recruiting for a specific grade level, especially the secondary level, including three pathways focused on staffing “dual credit” classes where students can simultaneously earn high school and college credits. Candidate profile recruitment objectives include demographic, cultural, and/or /linguistic profiles (21), academic subject knowledge (39), professional subject area experience (15), professional teaching or school experience (10), and others (5), such as military experience.³ Quite a few states are targeting more than one of these areas to meet their teacher recruitment goals. These pathways are distinctive in that they often do not require enrollment in any type of formal teacher preparation, and tend to lead to a discrete, terminal credential that cannot be progressed or expanded to include other subject area. In some cases, an LEA that wants to hire a candidate must request the credential on their behalf, with the candidate restricted to teaching in that particular LEA.

Nearly every state has at least one “emergency” pathway. These pathways are defined less by what they do require, than what they do not: they do not require an education degree; any demonstration of teaching knowledge, skill, or experience; a specific candidate profile; deep knowledge or experience in a specific subject; or prior enrollment in a teacher preparation program. Some of these pathways do not even require a postsecondary degree. One exception to this is Arkansas' one-year emergency teaching permit, which has subject knowledge requirements on par with many other states' multi-year interim pathways into teaching. But the three attributes these pathways generally share are that (1) they are designed to fill a staffing need that the LEA cannot otherwise fill; (2) the LEA requests the credential, not the teacher candidate; and (3) the candidate can only teach in the LEA requesting the credential. The credential earned via these pathways is typically called a “permit” or an “authorization” (not a license or certification) and is only valid for one school year, or less. However, some states allow LEAs to annually resubmit requests for the teacher to continue in the position as long as the LEA continues to be unable to identify an appropriately certified teacher to fill it. Utah offers a unique emergency pathway that, when requested and authorized by the state, provides an LEA with to establish the subject knowledge and pedagogical requirements for a specific teaching position in their jurisdiction at its school board’s discretion.

Beyond these emergency pathways, a few states, such as Montana and West Virginia, maintain discretion in unusual cases to grant licensure on a case-by-case basis. Beyond these emergency pathways, a few states, such as Montana and West Virginia, maintain discretion in unusual cases to grant licensure on a case-by-case basis.

While states most commonly offer between five and eight distinct pathways to obtaining a first-time teaching credential, the number of pathways each state makes available varies widely, from a low of three⁴ (District of Columbia) to a high of 12 (Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and South Carolina).

However, it is difficult to directly compare the number of pathways from one state to another due to inconsistencies in how states define their pathways. Some states lump all non-IHE-based preparation providers together into one pathway (despite each having their own unique requirements), while other states, including Arkansas and South Carolina, assign a separate pathway to each individual “alternative” preparation provider. Still others, such as Kentucky and Louisiana, take a middle approach, combining similar types of preparation providers into discrete pathways based on approach (e.g., LEA-led or certification-only post-baccalaureate).

In the vast majority of states, multiple pathways can lead to the same credential, leading states to have a greater number of pathways to earn a first-time teaching credential than distinct credential types. In some states, pathways with very different levels of preparation quality or candidate qualifications may lead to the same credential. This is concerning as it leads prospective teachers to make the rational decision to select the quickest and cheapest pathway to get to the desired goal of earning a teaching credential, regardless of the quality of preparation, especially since states do not typically collect or share meaningful information about pathway “quality.”⁵ Louisiana is the only state identified as having a separate credential for each of its pathways.

With school demand for teachers far outweighing supply in many areas, most states’ current efforts appear to be almost singularly focused on ensuring that the pathways they offer help expand the pool of potential teachers. Even during the 12-month development period of this project, many states adopted or extended policies that seemed designed with this intent. And while roughly 40 percent of state pathways indicate a clear school need-focused recruitment objective, only one quarter of pathways (89) is more specific than an “urgent staffing need” (e.g., grade level, subject, and/or school type).

Some states have undertaken more nuanced, evidence-informed pathway refinements that appear designed to maintain quality and/or increase diversity within the ranks of first-time credentialed teachers, while simultaneously increasing their numbers. Some states are doing this by offering multiple but equally rigorous pathways to a given credential, and some are doing this by creating a variety of exceptions or multi-part requirements to obtain first-time credentials. While pros and cons exist for each approach, the latter is likely to provide the greatest flexibility to candidates and open the door to a more diverse set of teacher candidates who may have strong potential in the classroom but who have difficulty meeting a standard package of teaching credential requirements. For example, in Pennsylvania, the score candidates must earn on the subject exam is inversely related to their grade point average (GPA), within a defined range of acceptable scores and GPAs. The downside to this approach is that communicating these menu-style sets of requirements to prospective teachers can be challenging, as is evident from the complexity of some of the database entries for states like Alabama.

Some states have removed requirements that negatively impact the racial diversity of the teacher pool but have ambiguous links to teaching ability (such as general skills tests), others have stripped requirements with clearer relationships to future teaching ability, such as GPA.A significant number of states have designed pathways to focus on meeting their most prominent teacher staffing needs without lowering the standards for entry, such as secondary-level pathways which target candidates with subject knowledge and either professional experience or postsecondary teaching experience in the subject area. Eight pathways (within seven states) exist for paraprofessionals or other PreK–12 school staff as they have already demonstrated interest and commitment to working in schools, have a baseline understanding of what the teaching role entails, and are more likely to reflect the racial and cultural identities of students.⁶ Other states trying to recruit individuals with some prior teaching knowledge or skill are Oklahoma, with a pathway for individuals with experience as an early childhood educator, and New York, with a pathway for spouses of military personnel who completed an EPP in another state.

The database also includes information about how long individuals can teach with a first-time teaching credential, as well as if teachers can or must progress in the profession once the validity period of their initial credential ends, and what requirements they must meet to do so. For example, for many states’ “emergency” pathways, there is no clear path to continue teaching once individuals have reached the maximum length of validity for the credential that does not entail formally enrolling in an educator preparation program. This information is critical for prospective teachers to understand if and how they must take additional steps to continue teaching, as well as for the public to understand how a pathway may contribute to the teacher workforce in the longer term. A handful of states—including Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Washington—have created clear, supported steps for emergency-credentialed teachers to take to pursue a full teaching credential, while Colorado solely sources its emergency-credentialed teachers from individuals already enrolled in its EPPs.

At times, the pathways into teaching that each state offers do not appear to fit together to meet schools’ various staffing needs, which is likely a byproduct of piecemeal legislative policy changes. But some states’ pathway offerings seem more cohesive and coherent, pointing to a larger vision and strategy for attempting to meet teacher staffing goals. This seems to occur most often when a state has undertaken a comprehensive redesign of its pathways into teaching, as Washington state did in 2017 and Minnesota did in 2018.

Most states would benefit from improving the accessibility and clarity of the various options available to enter teaching. Prospective teachers should be able to easily find the information they need to make decisions about the best pathway for them in the short and long term without creating an account, beginning an application, or contacting multiple EPPs. When states explain the possible preparation options without providing details about the associated credential earned, or offer detailed, step-by-step directions for applying for a credential without providing a clear view of how that credential might compare to others, they miss an opportunity to help prospective teachers make more informed choices. A few states, such as Utah, and Washington, have created infographics for prospective teachers that explain the various pathways to become a classroom teacher, how the pathways compare, and which they would qualify for. Minnesota offers an elaborate, interactive tool. But states can also convey many of these details without investing a significant amount of time or many, in text, as Hawaii does in an online table and accompanying PDFs.

Many states have given their pathways vague names like “Alternative Certification Pathway” that obscure how each pathway differs from the others—so much so, that we took the liberty of applying more descriptive labels to many of them in our database. But several states (Louisiana and Maryland, for example) have labeled pathways in ways that clearly reflect the preparation method and/or recruitment objective and improve clarity about who might qualify, and how.

When making choices about the pathway they will pursue, prospective teachers would benefit from having information about the complete pathway. In addition to requirements for pathway entry and initial credential attainment, there should be details on the credential validity period and further requirements that must be met to continue in the profession at the end of that period. While some states, such as Massachusetts and New York, make at least some of this information easily accessible and understandable on their websites, most have overlooked the need for this kind of resource, or have made it difficult to locate.