Considering a career in teaching? Getting certified in Texas might be your fast pass to the front of the classroom, turning your goals into reality quicker than you ever imagined.
Many professionals today are leaving career paths where they don’t feel fulfilled or are simply looking for a change. Others are re-entering the workforce after retiring or being a stay-at-home parent.
You may have thought about making teaching your second career, but lacking a bachelor’s degree in education might have held you back from pursuing this goal. The good news is that you DO NOT need a bachelor’s degree in education to become a teacher in Texas.
If you have a bachelor’s degree in any subject area and meet the qualifications of an educator preparation program, you can earn your teacher certification in just 4 to 6 months. Here’s how you can fast track a teacher career change into a meaningful future.
Nearly half of all teachers in Texas become educators through an educator preparation program (EPP). Also known as an alternative teacher certification
program, an EPP offers the training needed to transition into a career of teaching.
Here are some frequently asked questions about educator preparation programs in Texas.
What are EPP admission requirements?
To qualify for an EPP, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) requires that you have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and earned a 2.5 GPA (or a 2.5 GPA in the last 60 semester hours of courses attempted).
Can you enroll if you haven’t earned your bachelor’s degree yet?
Yes, if you are in the final semester of your bachelor’s degree program, you can qualify for an EPP. You must provide:
Can you enroll if you attended a university outside the United States?
Yes, but you must provide foreign transcripts that have been equivocated by a recognized transcript evaluation service and proof of oral English language proficiency by passing the oral proficiency portion of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
What if you have an associate’s degree or no degree at all?
If you don’t have a bachelor’s degree, you can still qualify for an EPP if you have a certain number of years of work experience in the Criminal Justice, Automotive, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts and some industrial trades areas.
If you have an associate’s degree, you need two years of full-time wages earned experience within 10 years. If you have no degree, you need five years within 10 years.
Your work in many health science, trade and industrial occupations can meet the requirements to enroll in an EPP, from a medical lab technician to building trades and computer programming. ECAP and the TEA must approve your occupation’s eligibility. You can see the entire list of occupations that may qualify you for the experience you need to enroll in an EPP on our No Degree page.
If you have your bachelor’s degree, there are several different subject areas you can get certified in to teach. You can see a complete list of those areas in our article, List Of Texas Teacher Certification Tests: What You Must Take To Teach.
You will also need to decide whether you prefer to teach at an elementary school, middle school or high school, since certification areas are also divided by grade level.
If you aren’t sure which specialty area is calling you, you could take a look at the TEA’s teacher shortage areas. Each year, the U.S. Department of Education approves a list of teacher shortage areas in the state. For the 2024-2025 school year, the approved shortage areas in school systems are:
Teaching in the following areas allows individuals to apply for TEACH Grants and/or Public Service Loan Forgiveness:
Keep in mind that Career and Technical Education, as well as Computer Science/Technology Applications, are among those most in demand and those that do not require you to have a bachelor’s degree when applying to an educator preparation program.
Once you get accepted into an EPP and choose your certification area, you’ll need to complete the requirements necessary to earn your teaching license.
These requirements include:
When taking your content exam, which is the exam that covers the subject area and grade level you will teach, you must first complete 40 hours of training before taking a practice content exam. This is a standard at ECAP since it allows you to reflect which areas you need further training in.
We tell our interns to aim for a score of 270 on your practice exam. Once you reach a score of 270, ECAP will give you permission to take your content exams.
Depending on which subject area you wish to teach, you may also need to take the Science of Teaching Reading (STR) exam, especially if you plan to teach at the early childhood level or English Language Arts.
Finally, you must also take the PPR, or the Texas Examinations of Educator Standards Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities exam. You must pass the PPR to earn your standard certification to teach. This test determines whether you are equipped to design instruction, create a positive classroom environment, implement effective assessments and fulfill your professional roles as a teacher.
When choosing an educator preparation program, make sure the program fully prepares you for this important exam by including test preparation as part of its curriculum - not as a costly add-on.
You’re in the home stretch of fast tracking your transition to teaching once you have completed the above steps. Now you must apply for your teaching license by accessing your Texas Education Agency Login (TEAL) account, where your profile is located in the Educator Certification Online System (ECOS).
Make sure your first and last names exactly match your Texas Driver’s License or State ID card. Once you submit the application and pay your Texas teacher certification fees, you will wait for the TEA to issue your certification. Once that happens, you can log in into your TEAL account to access your educator account and to print a copy of your certificate.
Your Comments