Frequently asked questions

Provisional (initial) certificate

I am ready to graduate and I'm moving out of Michigan, why should I take the Michigan subject exams and pay for my Michigan teaching certificate?

There are at least two reasons to take your subject exam(s) and for us to recommend you to the Michigan Department of Education for your teaching certificate:

1.  Because of reciprocity, and the fact that the Michigan teaching certificate is so highly regarded; it will often be easier to obtain a teaching certificate in another state if you have an active Michigan certificate.  Oftentimes, the other state will issue their
certificate based on the active Michigan and allow you extra time to meet their testing requirements. 

2.  If you don't apply for your provisional certification within 5 years after certification requirements have been met, your program will need to be re-evaluated to determine if you meet current university/state requirements according to the Michigan Department of Education Rule 21.   Also, the MTTC subject exams (not basic skills) will expire after 5 years and you will need to re-test if you don't buy your Michigan Provisional certificate.

3. You are required to complete three years of teaching experience within the validity (subjects and grade-levels) of your Michigan Provisional Certificate in order to earn your Michigan Professional Certificate.  If you hold a Michigan teaching certificate before you leave the state, then the teaching experience you complete will count toward your three years of teaching experience required for your Michigan Professional.  However, if you did not obtain your Michigan teaching certificate before leaving Michigan, then your out-of-state teaching experience won't count toward your Michigan professional certificate since the experience must be after the issue date of your Michigan Provisional.
Information for Students Seeking Certification in Another State
Michigan Teacher Network
50 States Certification Requirements
State Certification Requirements

I have a bachelor's degree (and never completed a teacher preparation program) and want to earn a teaching certificate, who do I contact?

Contact the Office of Admissions and Advising (269) 387-3474. Elementary certification requires a second bachelor's degree. Secondary certification requires the post-bachelor's program (including a teachable major, a teachable minor and the professional education sequence) at the undergraduate level.
Post-Baccalaureate Certification Process

What do the words "self-contained classroom" mean on my elementary teaching certificate?
"Self-contained classroom" means a classroom in which one teacher provides instruction to the same pupils for the majority of the instructional day.

I have taken and passed my Elementary subject exam and I have asked your office to hold (not process) my Provisional application until I take my tests for Social Studies and Language Arts next month. However, I now have a number of job interviews and I no longer want to wait to add these other subjects.  If I ask you to process my Provisional application immediately and then I chose to take the tests at a later date, will I have to re-apply for a new teaching certificate?
If the job offer is only for elementary, then you are correct, we can recommend you for the Provisional certificate now with only elementary education.   You can put off adding the other two minors until later (but within five years of your graduation from WMU).  Then once you pass your subject exams you can apply to add these subjects to your Provisional certificate by filling out the "subject endorsement application" available online (in the second box for certified teachers/administrators).  You will have to pay an extra fee to the Michigan Dept. of Education to add these endorsements (subjects) since they won't have been added at the same time as your initial provisional certificate.  You won't being applying for another provisional, it will just be the same Provisional certificate with the new subjects.

I graduated in December and I haven't received my "90 day employment eligibility letter," is there a reason why?
If you don't have your letter yet, it could be because:

1.  You forgot to turn in your application.
2.  You applied, but you haven't sent us your active first aid/cpr cards. Fax (269) 387-3404.
3.  You applied, but you haven't actually graduated yet (your auditor has up to 30 days to confer your degree).
4.  You applied, but you haven't passed a subject exam that you listed on your application.
5.  You applied, but you wrote on your application for us to hold it until you take the next subject test offering.

Call us at (269) 387-3473 if you need more information.