Nebraska

Candidates for Nebraska teacher certification must complete education and testing requirements to be considered for licensure. Nebraska has three certificate levels under the Regular certificate category: Initial, Standard, and Professional. All applicants pursuing teaching certification in Nebraska must hold a bachelor’s degree that meets the qualifications for at least one endorsement area and must also complete an approved teacher preparation program. The World Languages endorsement requires a minimum of 30 semester hours in the world language for either the K-8 or 7-12 endorsement. Candidates seeking a K-12 endorsement must complete coursework and clinical experiences which address elementary and secondary levels. In addition to standard teacher qualification exams, to receive an endorsement for French, German, Latin, and Spanish, teacher candidates must take the Praxis II. If a candidate demonstrates the Advanced-Low level proficiency in French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and/or Spanish, and the Intermediate-High level for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and/or Korean on the Official American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and the Official ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test (WPT), the Nebraska teacher education institutions may waive up to 15 hours of the 30 hours required in the world language. A list of teacher preparation programs in Nebraska by the target language and grade level can be found here: https://www.education.ne.gov/worldlanguage/world-language-in-nebraska/educator-preparation-programs/. For additional information about certification, please, consult the Nebraska Department of Education Certification Manual, or the Certification Department of the Nebraska Department of Education website.