How Military Spouses Can Earn a Teacher Certification

Written Originally for the Publisher Wiley’s Client: teaching-certification.com

Becoming a certified teacher is an optimal avenue for military spouses to pursue. Especially if the military spouse has an internal desire to teach others, a career as a school teacher is uniquely advantageous. 

Teaching is a career that can be fulfilling, flexible, and meaningful, independent of such fulfillment and flexibility. Teachers have an essential duty in our society to transform its future into something better –a more educated, articulate, and moral population of productive and happy adults!

Most interested in teaching as a career take the conventional route of getting a bachelor’s degree and following the orthodox steps to acquire a teaching certification. Military spouses, however, can, in many ways, curtail this conventional route. 

Such curtailment does not mean that military spouses are exempt from requiring a teaching certification or the schooling requirements which must precede it. Rather, they are offered unique forms of financial assistance. 

Likewise, they may also be offered what is known as teaching certificate reciprocity, which permits a teaching license earned in one state to be used for working as a teacher in another state. 

This article is for you if you are a military spouse looking for a career as a school teacher. Here is how military spouses can earn a teacher certification: 

Steps to Becoming a Certified Teacher

Teaching certification requirements are not uniform but are best understood as a step-by-step process. Becoming a certified teacher is not a matter of picking a career, applying to jobs, and hoping for the best. 

It’d be pretty strange and irresponsible, for instance, if anyone and everyone could become a teacher through an “easy apply” on LinkedIn or Indeed!

Getting a teaching certification entails different requirements from state to state. Hence, getting clear on state-specific requirements should be the first step prospective teachers take in their journey to becoming certified teachers. 

However, some steps are not unique to specific states. For example, in all U.S. states, one must have a bachelor’s degree to become eligible for a teaching certification. 

Keep in mind that this only applies to primary and secondary education teachers. For those interested in teaching at universities or other higher-education institutions, a doctorate or a master’s degree from a teaching school is a requirement. 

These days, however, while a master’s degree is not required for teaching in elementary, middle, and high schools, many teachers opt to pursue a master’s degree to improve their education and skills, purely for the sake of being better teachers.

Finally, at this stage, students will need to complete state-approved teacher preparation programs, which include fieldwork and acquiring direct teaching experience, which puts them directly on the path to becoming certified teachers by preparing them for state-specific teaching examinations. 

Once you’ve fulfilled the state-specific teacher preparation programs and passed the state-specific teacher’s exam, the only step left in becoming a certified professional teacher, in most cases, is applying to become one through the state you live in. 

Reciprocity through PCS 

Those in the military and those related to military members know too well that moving from state to state –even continent to continent in some cases– is the norm.

PCS, or a “permanent change of station,” is when military service members have a new station of duty more than 50 miles away from their previous station. 

A PCS move can be stressful for service members and their families.

Ideally, family members will follow service members by moving with them, but some roadblocks bring about either hesitation or a wholesale inability for military families to proceed with service members.

In the case of teaching, military spouses may find a fortunate exception to this. 

Reciprocity for teachers is when one has earned a teaching certificate in one state but is permitted to teach in another state using a certificate from that initial state.

This does not mean that military spouses are wholly exempt from fulfilling the requirements of the state they’ve newly moved into. Instead, it allows them to maintain teaching employment while fulfilling such new conditions, making PCS moves much less stressful. 

Financial Assistance for Teaching Certifications 

Going to school these days is more expensive than ever. 

Especially for prospective teachers planning on pursuing a master’s degree in teaching, the price tag for becoming a teacher often outweighs teacher salaries. 

However, military spouses are uniquely positioned to acquire certain financial assistance for their career prospects. 

For example, the Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAA) program offers up to $4000 for military spouses to pursue a teaching license and supports other career prospects in this manner as well. 

Furthermore, the Post-9/11 GI bill and the Survivor’s and Dependents’ Educational Assistance program both have opportunities for military spouses to provide financial assistance in pursuing a teaching career. 

Some colleges, likewise, provide military discounts through scholarships, grants, and fellowships that can reduce tuition and schooling costs by upwards of 50%.  

Especially if the school one attends is a public university, these assistance programs can drastically reduce the cost of higher education. 

Who Should be A Teacher? 

Teaching is an ideal career path for particular individuals. Unfortunately, not all military spouses want or can be teachers, as not all have an internal desire or drive to teach others.

Likewise, without emotional dedication to one’s students, a teacher is bound to fall short of their imperative duties. 

Hence, if you have the emotional dedication and the internal drive to teach young students to the best of your ability, it is time to take the first step, as mentioned earlier in this article. 

The first proper step to becoming a certified teacher is getting clear on state-specific requirements for obtaining a teaching certificate. 

The next steps in the process remain obscure and impossible to complete without understanding the state's requirements for teaching certificates.

Check this article out to learn what your state's requirements are for becoming a certified teacher.