Once teacher certification requirements transitioned fully to a standards-based approach (and state checklists of minimum course requirements disappeared), it no longer made sense for the state to do evaluations of transcripts against lists of courses. Of course! The course lists no longer existed.

It became the proper task of the state's approved certification programs (like the ones at GSU) to evaluate individuals backgrounds against pertinent state certification standards and local program experiences (e.g., courses, assessments, field experiences, etc.) designed to measure candidate performance against the state standards.

Here's what the state guide says today:

Transcript evaluation [by ISBE] is available only to persons who either have completed an approved program in another state or who hold another state's certificate comparable to the certificate they seek in Illinois. Applicants submit their application and official transcripts to the Illinois State Board of Education where the staff reviews the application, the applicant's courses and previous teaching experience to determine if the applicant meets minimum requirements for certification.

All persons applying for subsequent certificates [Note: "Subsequent certificate" refers to an additional certificate applied for by someone who already holds a certificate] after December 31, 2004, will be required to attend an Illinois college offering an approved program for the certificates they seek. Universities can develop focused programs for these persons by evaluating work previously done by the applicants and require only additional work that will allow the students to meet the standards for the new certificate and subject.

Transript evaluation will continue to be available for certificates that do not require prior training in education, such as substitute certificates, provisional vocational certificates, transitional bilingual certificates, and others.

The approach to "focused programs" taken at this time by GSU is that applicant transcripts and experience are evaluated and compared to existing program requirements. Candidates must complete all approved program requirements that have not been fully covered by previous course work and/or experience. Academic advisors and program coordinators will be able to help you with this process.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Nick Battaglia
Coordinator of Academic Services
College of Education
n-battaglia@govst.edu
(708) 534-4393