IL State Certification

Q: Who must be certified?
A: As a charter school, 75% of our teachers must hold Illinois certificates. Our usual approach is to assist those teachers for whom the effort involved in attaining a certificate would be relatively small and save our “non-certified” spots for teachers for whom certification would require significant time or money. The decision for a non-certified teacher to pursue certification is discussed between the teacher, principal and Noble Network. The exception to this practice is for special education; see next question.

Q: What are the certification rules for special education teachers?
A: All special education teachers must be Illinois certified and must hold the appropriate certificate by the start of the school year. They are the one category of charter school teachers that cannot be non-certified. We have a full-time staff person dedicated to helping teachers transfer their out-of-state certificates, but this process usually needs to be started the spring before the person begins working at a Noble campus.

Q: What are the requirements for a non-certified teacher?
A: Non-certified teachers must hold a bachelors degree, have five years of work experience and pass two Illinois exams. The two exams required to meet charter rules are the basic skills and the content area exam that relates to the assigned teaching subject.

Q: Is there someone at Noble that I can contact with certification-related questions?
A: Lauren Banos at lbanos@noblenetwork.org.

Useful Link
Illinois State Board of Education
http://www.isbe.net/certification/default.htm