The International Schools Review Forum

This post has been an interesting read, I have also seen a number of other posts in which @psyguy has mentioned various routes to certification, that, if they work out, will be fantastic for me.

I work for an IS which has recently informed us that all staff need to be fully certified to teach in a native English speaking country. I got the job here with just a TEFL plus experience, since then I decided to get the PGCEi to make me feel more secure in my post and use as leverage for a different position in the school which I am now in. Unfortunately they have now said that unless it qualifies me to teach in UK, USA, Canada etc it is not enough.

The school is American accredited and teaches the American curriculum so they have suggested to do a Teach-Now course to get accredited which they will support and discount a little. I would like to do this, but, as I already have the PGCEi I want to see if I can get the DC certification without the need for further training through Teach-Now. I would also ultimately like to gain QTS in the UK as I am from there and it would be useful for my career in teaching both internationally and as an opportunity to go back there.

I would like a clearer perspective on the chances of using my PGCEi to gain DC certification and then getting QTS through that. If anyone knows anyone who has been through this process please let me know.

Thanks

@mcmason

I facilitated several that were successful, but one was denied, the reason wasnt the PGCEi but the undergraduate degree did not have sufficient coursework in the certification area sought. Transcript ana1ysis is rare as a pathway by regulatory authorities, but its also a somewhat subjective process. Its not like QTS for OTTs that consists of a few checklist items that are either yes or no.

Another option I have less experience with is applying through a "middle" state somewhere like Arizona, Mississippi, or Louisiana that has rules/policies that accept foreign DTs for credentialing but because of their location have almost no experience but are hurting really bad for teachers (Mississippi began hiring foreign teachers from the Philippines last year). DC tends to work much more often than it doesnt.

Thanks @psyguy

I have had a little look at Arizona and Mississipi but they look like they need teachers who are present in that state or have secured work in that state giving them a US visa.

I'd still like to try the ECIS option.

Can you recommend a reliable and cost effective NACES organisation?

I guess I should be sending my bachelors and PGCEi transcripts to them to get my application ready. I hope my bachelors degree will be ok, I am applying for elementary teacher credentials and I had heard any degree should be ok for that, my degree is in Internatonal Business Studies, not particularly relevant for elementary school teaching but I have 3 years experience in an American international school and 3 years of ESL.

For the Praxis exams, I have found local centres offering exams and will get ready to apply for those.

Re: CRB clearance through the FBI, is this best done directly with the bureau or are there agents facilitating it?

I'd like to keep costs down but I'm also quite keen to complete this process as quickly and smoothly as possible. If there are any more tips relevant to me I'd love to know more. Thanks for all the info so far, it's really encouraging.

Also how can I get an enhanced disclosure DBS as an individual? All the agents I've seen require the employers details to be included.

@mcmason

Several middle states hired foreign Indians and Filipinos from outside the country, their state regulatory authority would thus have rules for issuance of credentials based on foreign certification and training, but its not something I keep up with, because in those cases its a sponsored process through an employing district. Still you could benefit from the rule of firsts.

You will want to use either:

Educational Credential Evaluators (https://www.ece.org/)
or
World Education Services (http://www.wes.org/)

Both agencies charge $160 for the evaluation, my preference is WES, as they offer the option to add additional degrees/courses at a later time for about half the original fee, and even better they offer verified transcript services and storage, but the big difference is time WES processes in 7 days or less (plus delivery time), whereas ECE is 3 weeks (plus delivery time).

Oh why these two? At some point your going to want to transfer your D.C. certification to CA. DC requires 6 credit hours (90 contact hours) of PD, CA requires none. 6 hours doesnt seem like a lot but thats per license held. Its difficult finding courses that are less than 3 hours, my 40 certificates would require 120 credits or the equivalent of a 4 year degree to renew every four years. Even if all you have is a single subject the CA application/renewal fee is less than the cost of typical single credit at a Uni. CA is much more restrictive on which credentialing agencies they accept, those are the only 2 NACES members CA accepts,

You will not be applying for Elementary, your application will be rejected. You should apply for either Marketing or Business, depending on your degree and concentration in your major (If your major study was highly focused in marketing and advertising then Marketing may be better, if it was essentially general business with some international courses, than Business). The DC transcript - relies on coursework in the applicable field. Elementary requires a degree/major in Liberal Arts or Elementary Education. The evaluator is going to look for two sets of coursework subject content (primarily from your major studies) and Educator Preparation from your PGCEi. If they dont see the right amount of coursework your application is rejected and your credential denied.
What you will need to do is apply for the Business/Marketing certificate and then take the PRAXIS exam for Elementary and add it as an additional endorsement after your initial credential is issued. This will be slightly more work and time because you will have to take a total of 4 exams: since you will need to take the TPL exam twice for two different grade levels (7-12, and K-6).

You can do the CRB through the FBI its cheapest at USD18$, but it takes months. There are third part providers called "channelers" that can complete the same accepted CRB, but it costs more and takes less time.

My recommendation is IdentGo USD45$ (formally Morpho Trust): (http://www.identogo.com/FBICheck), they accept rolled fingerprint cards mailed in, which is becoming rarer as many channelers use digital scanning technology to collect prints, but overseas fingerprint cards will be your only option.

You can obtain a basic (standard) through Disclosure Scotland
As for your enhanced DBS check my recommendations are:

1) Your Uni. you did your PGCEi, I still have mine when I was working on my PGCE, as my Uni only made a copy of it and returned to me the original.

2) If your back in the UK apply to do some volunteer work with children, and then when you get the report just keep it and request a duplicate.

I wouldnt worry about it though, the FBI is a participating liaison with Interpol and so is the Home Office. They will extract the abstract of your national and regional record, and if anything is there the D.C. OSSE will refer you to the British Embassy which has facilitated procuring an Enhanced DBS CRB, though at that point whats ever included in the record is likely going to be disqualifying.

The only real secret is make your application packet complete, dont leave anything out, follow the directions precisely. Where it asks for originals send originals and not try to use color copies. When you get the CRB from the FBI DONT open it, if you want to see whats on it order 2 copies and open one of them. The same with your transcripts. OSSE wants the NACES evaluation AND official actual transcripts. Make sure your exam results have been sent and received by OSSE before you apply. You essentially want to make the process of granting you certification as easy as possible. Time frame is about 6 weeks to 3 months to complete the process

@Psyguy

Wow! Thanks for the very ddetailed information.

I will start getting the necessary documents in order and work out a timeline for when I can complete each part. Starting with IdentGo.

I will post on here as I progress.

Again, thank you, your help is very much appreciated.

@mcmason

Do not start with IdentGo, sorry I should have included a time line. Your CRB can be no more than 6 months old by the time it hits processing (a credential evaluator at OSSE) begins working your file. You can get the fingerprints rolled now (you may wish to contact CA and request finger print cards be mailed to you for the time when you apply for CA, the cards are free but sent standard post and will take months to get to you overseas). Even if IdentGo processes your CRB within its normal time frame, as an international applicant they have to wait for the InterPol reference which usually takes an extra week. The problem is, you might not pass your tests. These tests (the PRAXIS) are based on American education meds/peds and American business systems (what do you now about the "General Accepted Accounting Practices [GAAP] in the US, vs. Accounting Standards Committee [ASC] in the UK or International Accounting Standards Committee [IASC] Globally, etc.. ?). Sorry, but the content knowledge isnt the same.

Your first step is too register for the PRAXIS exams, take those exams and Pass. Here is the issue, as a foreign applicant using transcript ana1ysis OSSE gets the results for each attempt, they have the discretion to look at those attempts and make a determination that someone who took the TPL or content exam X+ times and using professional judgement reject/deny your application, or reject/deny with deficiencies. Sorry but Business is one of the harder (maybe the hardest exam) for foreign applicants to pass, because they receive little training in US business systems. If you were an applicant in Maths or Physics, there would be less concern because the pythagorean theorem and the law of thermo-dynamics is universal (at least from our planets) perspective.
The other difficult exams for foreigners are literature (the exam covers more American works in the Cannon, and American Standard English is not the same as the Queens English (and theres still that serial coma in conjunction with 'and' known as the Oxford/Harvard controversy, Im sure our resident grammar police agent will step in with a position) than foreigners get exposed to. Social Studies (the history, civics, etc. components focus on American social and political importance, and some countries get a very different perspective of what Americans e.g. refer to as the Revolutionary War (hint the Yanks won, they get to write the history books in their own country), and the three pillars of US government (executive, judicial, legislative) is very different from the parliamentary system (and in US History/civics it goes as far as the Crown, the Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons) and no one in a upper secondary civics class could tell you what an "MP" is as the first guess would be maybe "military police". The British NS covers just as little about American civics (surprisingly Americans are horrible about Civics 80% could not pass the US Foreign Immigration Citizenship exam, and 40% or Americans believe you need a passport for Hawaii (its a state, you dont), and over 90% (who know what Guam is) dont believe you need a passport (you do, its a territory).
Elementary (mostly because the terminology/lexicon is different). The hard sciences and applied sciences are the easiest. The classical arts and languages are relatively congruent enough not to require much additional study beyond reading the prep manual/guide. Drama maybe, but the exam is mostly technical content, its and not Cannon works content, you could miss the American centric Cannon based items and still pass the test without too much stress.

So first step, pass the exams on your first try and you can move on, dont and you might need to think long and hard about continuing. Incidentally you would have the same issue in ANY other states credentialing process/system, since Pearson and ETS have a monopoly on the psychometrics market, even those states with their 'own' exams like FL, CA and TX outsource the majority of the work to one of those two organizations with advising from the C&I department of the regulatory authority, with the aim of ensuring the exams, regardless of state, have congruent content and predictive validity.