Thank you for the reply PsyGuy.I am curious how you were able to find a PRAXIS test center in Russia. While searching for PRAXIS test locations, I was brought to the ETS site and was unable to locate any centers in Russia. Being able to take a PRAXIS test in Russia would seriously increase my options. I am also curious why you think that the Utah credential is more valuable than credentialing in another state and gaining a year of DS experience when you (and I) have made it pretty clear that my ESL experience will be worth nothing. Several years of worthless experience seems a lot less valuable than 1 year of relevant experience (which is apparently half of the minimum). I did mention that I am willing to leave Russia and come back.

One of the appeals of Texas is also that they seem to be quite willing to hire teachers from AC programs. A lot of their AC programs have reviews/forum posts of people successfully finding jobs in Texas. I also looked into the iTeach route, which offers certification in Texas, Nevada, Louisiana, and Hawaii, with the latter two requiring PRAXIS tests before signing up. I couldn't find any success cases, though. A quick AC and a teaching job in Hawaii sounds a little too good to be true. If I can actually take a PRAXIS exam in Russia and can find a state where it would be easy to get a job with an AC, I would be set. The trouble now seems to be finding a PRAXIS state with good AC programs and a need for teachers (assuming I can actually take the PRAXIS in Russia). Texas also appealed because some of their AC programs seemed decent and would even help train me while I was doing my first year. Becoming a better teacher is always a goal of mine.

Also, is the two year DS experience a requirement for tier 3 schools too? I noticed that QSI seems to get ripped on a lot, but also has some support from teachers that have been there (especially from the primary levels). Those schools seems to have a presence in the Caucasus and if they aren't as hard to get into, might be a decent start for me. I'm quite open to suggestions, though.

I have been searching around a lot for the best alternative teaching certification programs/routes (Teacher Ready, Texas Teachers, Texas based ACPs, Utah APT) to do while overseas and am having a lot of trouble finding information on which of the exams can be taken while overseas, specifically in Russia or Ukraine. All of the programs rightfully seem to require completion of the exams before you can actually be hired for a position or before you start the pre-teaching program. I’ve actually tried to e-mail the TExES ETS people directly, but got an unhelpful generic e-mail in response. I have even been playing around a lot with the ETS, Praxis, and Pearson site locaters without much success. So I am coming here for help.

I will be doing my first stint as an ESL teacher in Russia this AY and would like to keep my mind on self-improvement and forwarding my career while I’m over there. Most of my research has made it pretty clear that that my semester of teaching at a college, years as teaching assistant in grad school, and EFL experience won’t help me at all with international schools. This has made the Texas based alt. cert programs really stand out to me because they require that you do a year of teaching in Texas for the full cert. That and they seem very willing to hire people with the initial certification. I am absolutely willing to come back to the States for a year in order to gain some experience before heading back to Russia if needed, but I would like a program (tests and all) that I can complete while I am in Russia so that I am fully qualified when I start to apply for first year jobs. Or at least so that I have completed all of the steps needed to enter a summer ACP. Flying back home just to take some tests will be quite time consuming and expensive given that I will be in a small city in Russia. My location will also make it impossible to do Teacher Ready or Teach Away because I don’t think there are any international schools in my city. Does anyone have any advice or knowledge on which of the alt. cert. routes would be easiest for someone in my situation? I am not very picky.

Also, to be clear, my goal is to teach at an international school in Russia. I would also seriously consider any country in the Caucasus, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and even Moldova. I am looking to get certified in general primary education (EC-6 generalist in Texas). I know I won’t be able to land a sweet spot, like AAS, ISM, BSF, EIS, or MES with only a year of experience and a completely unrelated degree, but I’d probably be happy getting my feet wet in a lower tier school. Although, I am also having trouble figuring out which IS in Russia are lower tier. CIS Russia has stood out as a potential candidate, as they seem to have several openings for primary teachers very late in the year. But they also have the CIS tag, which makes me think they might be better than I am guessing. I’d appreciate advice from someone that knows about the Russian IS market.