Licensure Reciprocity: Utah

Analysis of Utah's policies

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

Commendably, Utah does not waive any of its testing requirements. All out-of-state teachers, no matter how many years of experience they have, must meet the state's passing scores on licensing tests.

However, other aspects of the state's policy create obstacles for teachers from other states seeking licensure in Utah. Teachers with valid out-of-state certificates are eligible for licensure in Utah. All out-of-state teachers may initially apply for the Level 1 Utah Educator License. Those with three or more years of experience will be promoted to a Level 2 License after one year of experience in Utah and a recommendation from the employing district.

Utah routinely reviews the college transcripts of licensed out-of-state teachers, an exercise that often leads the state to require additional coursework before it will offer a license. States that reach a determination about an applicant's licensure status on the basis of the course titles listed on the applicant's transcript may end up mistakenly equating the amount of required coursework with the teacher's qualifications.

Utah 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

Out-of-State Educator License Application www.schools.utah.gov/cert/Out-of-State-License.aspx

Recommendations for Utah

Offer a standard license to certified out-of-state teachers, absent unnecessary requirements.
Utah should offer standard licenses to certified out-of-state teachers, rather than restricting them to provisional ones until they meet Utah's requirements.

Utah should also consider discontinuing its requirement for the submission of transcripts, because transcript reviews are not a particularly meaningful or efficient exercise. Such review 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 Utah.

Accord the same license to out-of-state alternate route teachers as would be accorded to traditionally prepared teachers.
Regardless of whether a teacher was prepared through a traditional or alternate route, all certified out-of-state teachers should receive equal treatment. State policies that discriminate against teachers who were prepared in an alternate route are not supported by evidence. In fact, a substantial body of research has failed to discern differences in effectiveness between alternate and traditional route teachers.

State response to our analysis

Utah recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.