Teaching is a great profession for many. With great diversity of niches, and an ongoing shortage of teachers, there is plenty of room for great newcomers to find work they love. Before becoming a teacher, however, you must meet the professional requirements placed on you by the system you want to join. If you don’t research and verify the professional standard in your region and your stratum of education you will soon find yourself at a dead end.

Different standards are expected at different levels and in different institutions. Most public schools from K-12 require a combination of a bachelor’s degree plus some level of professional training specifically aimed at certification. To determine what the certification and licensure process requires in your locale check with your local board of education. You can also get good information online from official state department of education sites or from such educational programs as the University of Kentucky’s site of ongoing certification criteria: http://www.uky.edu/Education/TEP/usacert.html.

Private schools can differ quite radically from public schools. Many place the stress on academic excellence within a subject, or on specialized theoretical training programs like Montessori. But the pressure to compete with public school systems can create a double bind for schools as they demand classic certification to satisfy parents used to seeing certification as a guarantee of at least minimal competence, and then academic excellence, special program training, or exceptional experience to satisfy their own desire for a different kind of excellence. Be sure to read carefully in job listings and school boilerplate to determine the expectations of particular schools.

The rules for the various levels of college teaching are different, and can vary enormously depending on the school, the teaching position, and more. The rule of thumb is that one needs an MA in one’s field to teach at the junior college level, and a PhD to teach at a four year college or university. There are many auxiliary, non-tenure-track positions as aids, TA and other support teachers that may evade this rule set, however. Furthermore there are some classes where on the job training and professional success can substitute for a degree. This happens most often in the arts and in the trades, where apprenticeships, studio training, and direct trade experience are often the educational background some of the finest professionals bring with them.

Other nonstandard ways into professional teaching can be found in places suffering severe teaching shortages, or with different expectations regarding qualifications. Districts in some regions will settle for a simple BA for a teacher and a high school degree for an aid. Similarly non-certified substitute teachers in some districts can be moved from temporary to permanent positions if their work is found satisfactory. Those with moderate skills in some foreign languages can find work in countries overseas desiring English language teachers.

The safest assumption, though, is that to become a teacher in grade school you need a BA, often in education, and a secondary set of training preparing you for an internship and testing. Ultimately that translates into the equivalent of a graduate degree plus licensing to teach K-12. There are many programs, online and off, that will offer to prepare you for certification. Look for one with a strong reputation. There are advantages to coming in with a strong subject background other than education. Schools are desperately short of excellent subject teachers. The combination of a strong academic background in a subject with graduate level work in education allows you the maximum flexibility and the school the best value both in terms of expertise and in terms of parent approval.

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