Expanding the Pool of Teachers Policy
West Virginia does not support licensure reciprocity for certified teachers from other states.
Regrettably, West Virginia waives its licensing tests for out-of-state teachers who have three years of teaching experience within the last seven years.
However, West Virginia offers its standard license to out-of-state certified teachers, without specifying any additional coursework requirements or relying on transcript analysis or recency requirements to determine eligibility.
West Virginia 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.
To uphold standards, require that teachers coming from other states meet testing requirements.
West Virginia takes considerable risk by waiving its licensing tests for any out-of-state teacher with three years of teaching experience. The state should not provide any waivers of its teacher tests unless an applicant can provide evidence of a passing score under its own standards. The negative impact on student learning stemming from a teacher's inadequate subject-matter knowledge is not mitigated by the teacher's having recent experience.
West Virginia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.