Elementary School Teacher Requirements
The specific elementary school teacher requirements may differ from public school and private school instruction. Most private school do not require a teacher to be license by the state but may require an online college education granting a four-year degree and continuing education in the field. Since public school teaching is more restrictive and regulated, this discussion centers itself on the elementary school teacher requirements in a public setting.
Basic Platform
An elementary teacher must have the same basic qualifications as any public school teacher: He or she must have a baccalaureate degree and a license. While most teachers opt pursuing either a campus or an online degree granting the Bachelor of Science in Education degree, alternate licensing routes may be available in individual states.
The education degree from a top online university prepares the student specifically for teaching. The course load includes such subjects as the physical sciences, math, music, art, social sciences, history and literature. It also provides online courses specifically for teaching, such as childhood development and psychology, philosophy of education and teaching methods.
During your undergraduate studies, you will be required to actually teach elementary students. You will be guided and supervised by an experienced teacher, and you have the opportunity to develop and strengthen your teaching skills and methods in a controlled environment. You will develop not only your interaction skills but also the administration applications of teaching—developing lesson plans in a real teaching environment, for instance.
Once you receive your undergraduate degree, you may opt to increase your expertise and pursue an online masters degree in a related field. For instance, a Master of School Administration can align a career path with a potential principal’s or superintendent’s position, though the later usually requires a PhD-level education.
Once you receive your four-year degree, you must obtain your teaching license.
Licensing
While basic teaching is tested at the state level, each state requires specific certification for an age group. The elementary school teacher requirements dictate that you take and pass the licensing test for the age group K through 8, meaning you would be certified to teach Kindergarten through eighth grade.
If later in your career, you opted to either expand or replace your target age group, you would have to take and pass the licensing test for that additional group: No licensed age group is ‘grandfathered’ into another age range.
Some states do accept other states’ licenses, but not many do. Ensure you take the license exam for the correct state and research the reciprocal license status within each state in which you might be interested in teaching.
To maintain your license, each state has continuing education rules. Most guidelines entail a minimum of 40 hours of accredited course work and renewing your license at least every two years. Ensure you are completely familiar with this and other state mandates to maintain a continuous path in one of the most rewarding careers you can choose.
As stated previously, most private institutes are not required to have state-licensed teachers. However, most do require at least a bachelor’s degree. Your alternate path into teaching can be a specialty degree, such as child development, with a minor in education. Because of the non-transferability of private school employment, it’s strongly recommended that you pursue state licensing for expanded job opportunities and meet the elementary school teacher requirements for your state.
