Part Time Teaching Licenses: West Virginia

Analysis of West Virginia's policies

West Virginia does not offer a license with minimal requirements that would allow content experts to teach part time.

Recommendations for West Virginia

Offer a license that allows content experts to serve as part-time instructors.
West Virginia should permit individuals with deep subject-area knowledge to teach a limited number of courses without fulfilling a complete set of certification requirements.  The state should verify content knowledge through a rigorous test and conduct background checks as appropriate, while waiving all other licensure requirements.  Such a license would increase districts' flexibility to staff certain subjects, including many STEM areas, that are frequently hard to staff or may not have high enough enrollment to necessitate a full-time position.

State response to our analysis

West Virginia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that it "was taken back that in the same document inquiring about teacher quality, that a goal sub-statement would be to waive most licensure requirements."

Last word

NCTQ is clearly not advocating that this license become the pathway for most teachers to the classroom, as it is only for limited teaching where subject-matter expertise can clearly be demonstrated.