The Office of Professional Licensure is experiencing an increase in the number of teachers who have received a one-year, provisional or three-year, initial teaching license by reciprocity. Some of the educators have been remiss in adhereing to the procedure which requires the completion of Induction (Mentoring and successfully passing the Praxis III Performance Assessment) prior to converting that license to an Arkansas standard teaching license.
All teachers who hold an out-of-state teaching license and are utilizing that license to obtain an Arkansas teaching license, will be issued either a one-year, provisional teaching license, a three-year, initial teaching license, or a five-year, standard teaching license.
The following information should be helpful to school districts when working with teachers licensed with any form of an Arkansas teaching license other than a standard or professional license as a result of reciprocity:
1) All teachers holding a one-year, provisional teaching license must complete coursework and/or testing in order to convert the provisional license to either the three-year, initial or five-year, standard teaching license.
School Districts should ask those teachers to provide the district with a copy of the written response from the Office of Professional Licensure. This written response will list the specific requirements that must be completed in order to convert the provisional license and will also inform the district as to whether the educator will be eligible to receive a three-year, initial or five-year,standard teaching license.
Teachers must also submit a completed and signed licensure application form to the Office of Professional Licensure requesting that the provisional license be converted to the initial or standard teaching license, once the requirements to convert have been met.
2) All teachers who receive a three-year, initial teaching license as a result of having been licensed by reciprocity, must complete Induction (Mentoring and passing the Praxis III Performance Assessment) prior to having the initial license converted to a standard license.
3) Teachers holding a standard teaching license out-of-state, but do not have a minimum of one-year of teaching experience prior to licensing in Arkansas will also receive a three-year, initial teaching license and must complete Induction.
4) Teachers who have prior teaching experience out-of-state while holding an initial teaching license, and receive a three-year, initial teaching license in Arkansas, will also be required to complete Induction.
Arranging for Mentoring and the Praxis III Performance Assessment is done through the Office of Teacher Quality. Please contact Ms. Becky Gibson at 501-683-3160 or by e-mail at becky.gibson@arkansas.gov.
School districts are encouraged to direct all questions relating to licensure by reciprocity of any educator to a Program Advisor in the Office of Professional Licensure at 501-682-4342. Please ask to speak with a Program Advisor. The Arkansas Department of Education encourages the districts or individuals contacting the Office of Professional Licensure to document, for the record, the name and phone number of the Program Advisor with whom the individual spoke, as well as, the date and content of the conversation.
The Department is hopeful that this information will benefit both school districts and teachers in the licensure process.