Lessons · Teaching · the probationary certificate
The probationary certificate: how a district can pay you before you are finished
A district cannot put an unlicensed adult in charge of a class, so before an internship begins the programme requests a probationary certificate: a time-limited certificate, issued on the programme's recommendation, that lets you be the teacher of record while you finish your preparation.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
An intern was offered a job in July and told the principal she would start in August. In the second week of August the campus found she had no certificate of any kind on file, because nobody had told her that the programme had to request one and that the request depended on things she had not finished. The job was real. The paperwork behind it was not.
How to think about it
Treat the probationary certificate as the thing that turns a job offer into a lawful appointment, and work backwards from it. It is issued on a recommendation, and the recommendation cannot be sent until the programme's prerequisites are done and the background check has cleared. So the question in June is never can I get a job; it is what does my programme still need from me.
Worked example
Admitted to the programme, content examination passedThe content examination alone reaches the INTERN certificate: a year, and it cannot be extended.
Pedagogy and professional responsibilities examination passed tooThis is the step that turns an intern certificate into a probationary one, and it is the step this list used to leave out.
Fingerprints submitted and the background check clearedThis one has a queue and no shortcut.
Programme requests the certificate, the state issues itNow the district may lawfully put you in front of a class.
A year, with one further 12 months available on a probationary certificateA bridge, not a destination, and the intern certificate has no second span.
Your turn
Name what the programme sends the state so that a probationary certificate can be issued.
A probationary certificate is issued on the of your programme
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Reading probationary as a comment on you. It is not a warning and not a lesser rank. It describes the certificate, which is provisional because your preparation is unfinished, and the pupils in the room and the pay cheque are exactly as real as any other teacher's.