To be eligible to teach in Massachusetts Public Schools, educators are required to hold a license issued by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). There are three main types of licenses in the Commonwealth:
1) Preliminary License
Formerly called the Provisional License
A Preliminary License requires a Bachelor’s Degree and is valid for five years, but it is nonrenewable. In most secondary subjects, you must pass the MTEL Communication and Literacy Skills Test and the MTEL subject area test before you can obtain a Preliminary License.
A Preliminary Elementary or Teacher of Moderate Disabilities License requires you to take courses or seminars that address the six subject matter requirements not covered by the MTEL tests plus the teaching of reading, English/Language Arts, and mathematics. You must also pass the MTEL Foundation of Reading Test in addition to the above required MTEL tests.
2) Initial License
Formerly called the Provisional License with Advanced Standing
To obtain an Initial License, you must have a Bachelor’s Degree, and a passing score on the required MTELs, and you must complete an approved licensure program. An Initial License is valid for five years and may be renewed once at the discretion of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
The Collaborative offers programs to obtain the Initial License as Reading Specialist, Teacher of Students with Disabilities, Teacher of Math or Math/Science in the Middle School, Teacher of High School Math, Teacher of (various) High School Sciences, Teacher of English as a Second Language, Teacher of History, Teacher of Humanities, Teacher of English and several areas of Administration. At or before the completion of either the first or second five-year period, an educator must obtain a Professional License.
3) Professional License
Formerly called the Standard License
A Professional License is valid for five years. Renewal of a Professional License requires the completion of a Professional Development Plan that includes courses in content and pedagogy in the areas of the Professional License. In order to obtain a Professional License, you must have an initial license and have taught under that license for three years. You must also have completed an Induction program, and have completed 50 hours of mentoring beyond this Induction program. In addition, you must either hold a Master’s degree in the content area, another Master’s degree plus 12 credits in the content area of your license, or have completed a Professional license program.
Although CES does not yet offer a Professional License program, we do offer seminars and courses that are designed to assist people in earning Professional Development Points (PDPs) for license renewal (formerly re-certification).