The Department of Education Web sites for Alaska, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, New York, Tennessee and West Virginia are a few that have a searchable database of certified public school teachers. These databases can mostly be searched by partial name, a convenient tool to obtain a teacher’s full name, verify her certification or how long she’s been teaching. States that don’t have educator certifications online – such as Mississippi – but whose teachers are nationally certified are in the database of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Search by state, city, district or name.
If you want to identify states that have online teacher certification records go to the specific state Department of Education Web site. Not everything can be found in a search engine! As an additional measure, you can formulate a Google query. One way you might look for the Massachusetts teacher licensing:
Massachusetts “teacher certification ” “department of education” -site:.com
Some states may refer to this as an “educator certification”.
South Carolina requires the last 5 digits of the teacher’s Social Security number to verify a credential – making the site unusable for the general public. California teacher lookup is at the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing site, which won’t come up if you’re using the phrase “teacher certification”.
The California Department of Labor Standards Enforcement has 5 different personal information databases, including a studio teachers certification database. Search other State Labor Department Web sites.
I previously wrote about some school finder resources and other state educator certification lookups.
Paul Massimillo says:
May 7th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
It’s a nice try for NYS Department of Edu., but that site is not reliable. I just tested it by inputing names of teachers that I know are certified in NYS. I used complete names and none came back as certified teachers.
To make certain with what you were checking, I have done so as well; and have found it is not accepting the full names. If you enter the last name, for example for an instructor named ” Sarah Jones”, just enter “Jones,” then search within the full list for “Sarah Jones” in the area which she RESIDES. (NYSDOE does not do it by institutional location but residence of credential holder.) It is a bit longer and more inundating, however will yield the accurate results that it should as is intended.
Before you decide that the teachers you have queried are indeed certified, please read this report. http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=3205107&version=9&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=5.7.1
I know that when NCLB was enacted, many “certified teachers” were dismissed because it was found that they did not possess the certification. Some were teaching for years. Those who wanted to gracefully leave without endearing humilation were forced to retire. I looked up names of individuals that I thought were certified and didn’t find their names. I checked others and found them. I don’t think the system is arbitraily omitting some names, yet display others. It is up to the school district in which the person is employed to follow proper protocols about certified teachers. If in doubt, call the NYSDOE and clarify/verify to be sure. It just may be true the person(s) is not certified. Rules were rather loose years ago regarding certified teachers but since the NCLB, many districts are checking the list…twice. Some teachers feeling the heat and not wanting to get certified the traditional route possibly because they feel or felt that they have taught so many years that it was unfair or that they shouldn’t have to. The State does not monitor the teachers, the district, the superintendent, and the Board are entrusted to do that and comply with state and or federal gudelines.
One of the annoyances of many of the online public records databases is the lack of information about the currency of the data. Could you find any coverage dates at the NY teachers search site?
It’s a nice try for NYS Department of Edu., but that site is not reliable. I just tested it by inputing names of teachers that I know are certified in NYS. I used complete names and none came back as certified teachers.