Perhaps you would like to further your skill set after obtaining your Texas teacher certification. Many teachers do want to do this.

In particular, many will need to, or want to obtain their Texas classroom teaching certificate in another area of study. This is common in situations where the teacher wants to be able to teach in other subject areas aside from the original area he or she selected when becoming a teacher.

If it sounds like this is something you need to do, the first step in the process is to complete the required testing in that field. The state’s board of education does have specific requirements for you to follow to make this happen.

Requirements

If you wish to obtain an additional certification, based on examination, you will need to already have a current Texas, classroom teaching certificate. That means you should also have a bachelor’s degree.

If you did not have to have a bachelor’s degree in order to teach in the state (due to the type of coursework you decided to teach) you still must have a bachelor’s degree for the new area of study. If you are unsure if you meet all of the educational requirements to obtain this secondary teacher’s certification, you may want to consider talking to the board of education for approval.

What to Do

If you do meet the requirements to obtain an additional certification based on examination, you will need to complete the right certification examination for the area you hope to teach here. This means that you will need to decide which secondary area you would like to study in.

You will then need to complete any educational requirements necessary to ensure you have the foundational knowledge to teach in those areas. You must then successfully complete the subject area testing in those fields.

This type of certification by examination is not available for everyone. The following situations do not allow for you to simply sit for the examination but may require you to go back to school.

• You cannot use this method to obtain your initial Texas teacher certification.

• You cannot use this method if you have technology or career certification currently that is based solely on your work or skill experience levels.

• You cannot use it if you have a class of certification that is different from classroom teaching. This includes licenses such as counselor, superintendent, learning resources, educational diagnostician or school principal.

• You cannot use this method if there is no specific certification examination in the field of study you plan to take and specialize in at this point.

For those who want to expand their ability to teach into another field, this method is an acceptable option. You will need to take the examinations required for those subject matters and meet any other requirements set forth by the school board. In most cases, individuals can hold several types of classroom teacher subject area certifications, depending on their desires and the amount of foundational coursework they need to take in order to pass in that field.