Tip #16: Add Endorsements

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(A tip mostly for newbies but also for teachers who might like a change in position.)

The terminology may be different where you are teaching. I am a certified teacher with multiple endorsements. I am endorsed to teach social studies, language arts, general science, math (high school but not middle school), and French and Spanish. I also have bilingual and ESL endorsements. Clearly, I love going to school.

Once I had a seventh- and eighth-grade, self-contained bilingual classroom. Those classrooms are rare at the middle-school level but I met the requirements to create that mix. I loved that group of kids and I still keep track of a number of them some six years later. I visited one girl in the hospital after knee and elbow surgery just last week.

Some teachers reading this blog may have decided to teach language arts, gotten their certification and appropriate endorsement, taken a position and stopped there. I strongly advise taking stock of what other endorsements you might be able to add to your credentials. Did you minor in history? Take a bunch of science courses for fun? Are you only one geometry course short of that math endorsement? If so, take the geometry course and apply for the endorsement. Get all the endorsements you can. Take a few college courses if those courses will add to your credentials.

In Illinois, each of those applications cost money, a deterrent to applying, especially for new teachers who are trying to figure out how to afford gas and food first. You might think that language arts suits you and you are doing fine, But the ground shifts quickly under educators today. If all you can teach is language arts, you may be digging yourself into a hole.

In a public school position, when you are riffed, teachers with more seniority commonly can take your position, Let’s say you and Marty are riffed, but Marty has six more months in the system than you do. Even if Marty taught science, Marty can take your language arts position if Marty has the necessary endorsement. Let’s say you are released into a tough market. That teacher who can teach math and science has an edge over teachers who can only teach one subject. Multiple endorsements offer schools flexibility. They can give their new hire four math classes and two science classes, saving the need for further hiring and simplifying scheduling.

Other reasons to add endorsements sooner rather than later:

  1. Course requirements often go up for endorsements. I have never seen them go down. Special education endorsements now demand more college credits than ten years ago, for example. Those six to eight extra credits may cost you another couple of thousand dollars, not to mention the extra time required to take evening and week-end classes.
  2. The more recent your college experience, the better you are likely to do on associated tests. Technically speaking, I did not have to test to teach some courses for which I received endorsements. But I did test for Spanish, mathematics and high school social studies. Schools may demand teachers pass the certification test for a particular subject before handing those teachers the key to the classroom.
  3. Wherever you are, the price to add endorsements and tests likely has been going up, too. My memory’s a bit hazy but I am pretty sure that my first subject matter tests cost around $60 apiece. Those tests now cost $122.
  4. As test demands become more stringent, you may lose benefits by testing later. When the number of credits for the special education endorsement increased, teachers who did not yet have the endorsement suddenly needed to take extra classes, but those who had already qualified to teach special education were “grandfathered” in and did not require more than the usual professional development (PD). When I took the high school social sciences test, I was allowed to test in history even though my coursework was in political science. By passing, I acquired the right to teach history, civics, political science, economics, anthropology and psychology. At the high school level, coursework demands have become much more specific since then.
  5. You probably are required to add professional development credits toward continuing certification. College credits can generally be applied to professional development needs. In Illinois, they are worth a fair amount of PD coinage. In most schools, those credits will eventually translate into a pay raise. Teacher pay tends to be based on experience and educational credit totals.
  6. Night and week-end college classes look good to administrators.
  7. Extra college courses can be fun. I especially loved my geometry and linguistics classes. I had linguistics timed so I ended up across from the Art Institute of Chicago at lunchtime, thanks to a convenient National Louis University campus.
  8. You may eventually crave a change in your daily teaching responsibilities. If you have the required endorsement, you may be able to shift from math to science when an opening arises in your district. You will have an easier time finding a position in another district, too.

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