Teacher Certification and National Board Certification
Missouri now has a two-tiered certification plan. Here are some of the general certification requirements.
Initial Professional Certificate
This four-year license is issued to new college graduates and to teachers with less than four years of experience. In order to maintain your initial certificate and qualify for your career certificate, you must:
• Complete a criminal background check.
• Participate in a district mentoring program for a minimum of two years.
• Complete 30 contact hours of professional development, which may include hours in an appropriate college class.
• Participate in a beginning teacher assistance (BTA) program. These hours do not count toward your professional development hours.
• Complete a performance-based teacher evaluation.
• Have a local professional development plan.
• Complete four years of teaching as defined by the state board of education.
Career Continuous Professional Certificate
This certificate will be continuous (life) based upon completion of 15 contact hours of professional development per year, which may include hours in an appropriate college class. Career educators must continue to participate in yearly performance-based teacher evaluations.
Educators will be exempt from the professional development requirement if they meet any two of the following standards.
• Complete 10 years of teaching as defined by the state board of education.
• Complete a master's degree.
• Obtain rigorous national certification as approved by the state board of education.
Current certificate holders
Holders of PCI, PCII and CPC certificates will be issued the appropriate level of certification based on their teaching experience and fulfillment of requirements. Holders of lifetime certificates issued prior to Sept. 1, 1988, will continue to be exempt from new certification laws.
Out-of-state applicants
The law allows the state board to issue a certificate to any person who possesses a valid teaching certificate from another state. The Missouri certificate will be commensurate with the applicant's years of experience in the other state. Out-of-state applicants must complete a background check.
Additional information
For more information go to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) educator certification website at http://dese.mo.gov/divteachqual/teachcert/
From this site you can check the status of your individual teaching certificate (You'll need your name and social security number.) For specific questions, call the DESE certification department at (573) 751-0051.