Licensure Reciprocity: New Hampshire

Analysis of New Hampshire's policies

New Hampshire does not support licensure reciprocity for certified teachers from other states.

Regrettably, New Hampshire grants a waiver for its licensing tests to out-of-state teachers who have taught for seven years or who have received a master's degree.

Teachers with comparable out-of-state certificates are eligible for New Hampshire's standard certificate. There is no state-mandated recency requirement; however, transcripts are required for all applicants. It is not clear whether the state analyzes transcripts to determine whether a teacher was prepared through a traditional or alternate route or whether additional coursework will be required.

New Hampshire is also a participant in the NASDTEC Interstate Agreement; however, the latest iteration of this agreement no longer purports to be a reciprocity agreement among states and thus is no longer included in this analysis.

Citation

Alternative 2 Regulation and Application Instructions, Ed 505.02 www.ed.state.nh.us/education/doe/organization/programsupport/Certification/alternative2.htm

Recommendations for New Hampshire

To uphold standards, require that teachers coming from other states meet testing requirements.
New Hampshire takes considerable risk by granting a waiver for its licensing tests to any out-of-state teacher with a master's degree or seven years of experience. The state should not provide any waivers of its teacher tests unless an applicant can provide evidence of a passing score under its own standards. The negative impact on student learning stemming from a teacher's inadequate subject-matter knowledge is not mitigated by the teacher's having experience or an advanced degree.

Accord the same license to out-of-state alternate route teachers as would be accorded to traditionally prepared teachers.
New Hampshire should consider discontinuing its requirement for the submission of transcripts. Transcript analysis is likely to result in additional coursework requirements, even for traditionally prepared teachers; alternate route teachers, on the other hand, may have to virtually begin anew, repeating some, most or all of a teacher preparation program in New Hampshire.

State response to our analysis

New Hampshire recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.