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Licensure Reciprocity: Georgia

Expanding the Pool of Teachers Policy

Look at National Findings
Goal

The state should help to make licenses fully portable among states, with appropriate safeguards.

Meets a small part of goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Licensure Reciprocity: Georgia results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/GA-Licensure-Reciprocity-7

Analysis of Georgia's policies

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

Regrettably, Georgia grants waivers for all of its licensing tests to any out-of-state teacher who has at least three years of experience in the last five years.

Teachers with current, comparable out-of-state certificates are eligible for Georgia's professional certificate. To qualify, teachers must meet the state's recency requirement of one year of out-of-state teacher experience within the last five years or six semester hours of continuing education units in the past five years. Georgia requires additional coursework in special education and computer skills competency. However, special education courses may be waived with three years of experience in the last five years.

Georgia 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

Recommendations for Georgia

To uphold standards, require that teachers coming from other states meet testing requirements.
Georgia takes considerable risk by granting a waiver for its licensing tests to any out-of-state teacher with three years of experience. Georgia 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 recent experience.

Offer a standard license to certified out-of-state teachers, absent unnecessary requirements.
Georgia should reconsider its recency requirement as a means to judge licensure eligibility. Recent coursework or experience is unlikely to positively affect a teacher's effectiveness, and such a requirement may deter effective teachers from applying for licensure in the state. Georgia should also offer out-of-state teachers a test-out option for all coursework requirements.

State response to our analysis

Georgia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that Rule 505-2-.15, Certification by Interstate Reciprocity, became effective June 15, 2011. 

Last word

It does not appear that this rule has changed any of the pertinent requirements discussed in this analysis. 

    • Best practice
    • Meets goal
    • Nearly Meets goal
    • Meets goal in part
    • Meets a small part of goal
    • Does not meet goal

  • Georgia

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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Research rationale

Many professions have gone further than teaching in encouraging interstate mobility. The requirements for attorneys, for example, are complicated, but often offer certain kinds of flexibility, such as allowing them to answer a small set of additional questions. See the Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admissions Requirements 2007, published by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and the American Bar Association, available at:
http://www.ncbex.org/ .

On the similarity in effectiveness between graduates of traditional and alternative programs, see  J. Constantine, D. Player, T. Silva, K. Hallgren, M. Grider, and J. Deke, An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification, Final Report. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Services, U.S. Department of Education (2009), D. Boyd, et al. "How Changes in Entry Requirements Alter the Teacher Workforce and Affect Student Achievement." Education Finance and Policy, (2006).  T. Kane, J. Rockoff, and D. Staiger. "What Does Certification Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness? Evidence from New York City." National Bureau of Economic Research. (2006), G. Henry and C. Thompson, "Impacts of Teacher Preparation on Student Test Scores in North Carolina." Teacher Portals. University of North Carolina (2010). Z.Xu, J. Hannaway and C. Taylor, "Making a Difference? The Effects of Teach for America in High School." The Urban Institute/Calder. (2009), D. Boyd et al "Recruiting Effective Math Teachers, How Do Math Immersion Teachers Compare? Evidence from New York City." Calder Institute (2009); as well as "How Changes in Entry Requirements Alter the Teacher Workforce and Affect Student Achievement," by Donald Boyd, Pamela Grossman, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff, National Bureau of Economic Research, December 2005; and "The Effects of Teach For America on Students: Findings from a National Evaluation," (Mathematica Policy Research Inc., 2004).

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