Licensure Reciprocity: North Dakota

Analysis of North Dakota's policies

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

Commendably, North Dakota does not appear to grant any waivers 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 North Dakota. Teachers with valid out-of-state certificates are eligible for North Dakota's Interim Reciprocal License or its Initial License once state requirements are met. North Dakota 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 its 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.

North Dakota also requires all out-of-state teachers to take coursework in Native American and multicultural studies and does not offer a test-out option.

North Dakota 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

North Dakota Administrative Code 67.1-02-02

Recommendations for North Dakota

Offer a standard license to certified out-of-state teachers, absent unnecessary requirements.
North Dakota should reconsider its policy of transcript reviews. Such reviews are not a particularly meaningful or efficient exercise and are 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 North Dakota.

Also, the state's Native American and multicultural studies coursework requirements are reasonable; however, it should offer out-of-state teachers a test-out option.

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

North Dakota disagreed with this analysis but did not offer any further explanation.