What Is Emergency Teacher Certification?
You'll find both benefits and disadvantages to obtaining emergency certification to teach. Depending on your background and the needs of the school system in which you're applying, you may or may not find that an emergency teacher certification is your route to success.
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Facts
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Some states, because of teacher shortages or unfilled positions, will grant emergency certification to applicants. An emergency certificate is a temporary license to teach in a specific area. The subjects that are most often classified as high need are special education, languages, sciences or mathematics.
Time Frame
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Emergency certification is usually valid for one academic year. To renew, the teacher has to meet requirements, which may include attending classes to work toward a permanent certification. Or an emergency certificate may be granted if the need for teachers continues without enough state-certified applicants.
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Benefits
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Emergency certification is a way for someone in a specialized field such as physics, chemistry, art, biology or foreign languages to teach. If the applicant has a degree in that field, and there is a high need for instructors, a professional can use emergency certification as a way to try her hand at teaching, without taking coursework to become certified.
Warning
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Because of NCLB (No Child Left Behind) legislation, teachers that teach core subjects (English, math, science, history) are required to be "highly qualified," which means certified in their state. Emergency or temporary certificates, even in conjunction with a bachelor's degree and experience, will not suffice. A certified teacher will be selected over an applicant with emergency certification, to maintain compliance with state and federal laws.
Expert Insight
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While emergency certification allows professionals to enter the teaching field, according to Sara Bernard at edutopia.org, many critics make the argument that emergency certification "sends under-prepared teachers into high-need classrooms, which can have a negative impact on student learning and lead to new-teacher burnout."
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