Wondering how to get a teaching license in Indiana? You have a few different ways to get there depending on your background and experience!
The most straightforward way is to complete a teaching program at an Indiana college or university that offers an educator program approved by the Indiana Department of Education (DOE). You will be able to apply for your Indiana teaching license after you graduate, and your institution will have a licensing advisor to help you navigate the process.
If you hold a valid teaching license from outside Indiana, you can apply for an Indiana teaching license. Indiana has teaching license reciprocity with other states. Your application will vary based on your subject area and any different licensing requirements in Indiana compared to the state from which you are moving.
And, if you are not yet licensed but have completed an accredited teaching program at an out-of-state institution, you can also apply for an Indiana teaching license.
Specific requirements for each candidate will depend upon their particular teaching degree and area and how many Indiana requirements may have been fulfilled out-of-state. These will be covered in more detail below.
Indiana substitute teaching license requirements are easier to meet than other types of Indiana teaching licenses. The Indiana DOE requires applicants to have a high school diploma, be 18 years old, and meet the specific requirements listed by the school to which you are applying. Specific conditions may include additional education beyond high school and other screening requirements.
Once you have met the state requirements and those of the school to which you are applying, you can apply for your Indiana substitute teacher permit.
If an Indiana school district is having difficulty staffing a licensed educator, an emergency permit will be issued. The applicant can obtain an emergency teaching license in Indiana by possessing a minimum of a bachelor's degree and committing to fulfilling all the requirements necessary for a permanent Indiana teaching license. An issued EP is valid for one school year and must be renewed for each new school year. EPs are typically renewed as long as the recipient can demonstrate progress toward completing requirements for a full Indiana teaching license. One caveat here is that EP holders cannot teach special education.
Educators who are citizens of another country can obtain a non-renewable visiting teacher permit in Indiana that is valid for three years. The applicant must have the equivalent of a bachelor's degree and teaching or related experience in their home country.
Applicants will have to show that their degree and coursework are equivalent to a US bachelor's degree and provide proof of CPR, AED and Heimlich Maneuver certification. In addition to these, the applicant must show American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) certification of speaking and writing as determined by an Advanced Low score or higher on a Writing Proficiency Test (WPT) and Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI).
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Aspiring teachers in Indiana must attend (or have graduated from) an accredited school. Accrediting organizations are approved by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) or the US Department of Education (USDOE). A few examples of regional accreditors include the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) and the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU).
Organizations seeking accreditation must meet specific requirements to be recognized; they must demonstrate that they can promote academic quality, show competence for the evaluation of educational institutions, and operate with transparency and accountability.
In addition to school-wide accreditation, teaching programs can be accredited. For example, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education/Council for Accreditation Educator Preparation (NCATE/CAEP) is the primary accrediting organization for education programs recognized by the CHEA and USDE.
Indiana educator programs are accredited by the NCATE/CAEP and approved by the Indiana DOE. There are numerous options, including large well-known universities like Purdue Global and Indiana University. And there is an online option with Western Governors University, Indiana.
For those seeking an Indiana alternate teaching license, the American Board offers an entirely online self-paced program to work toward your teaching license in various subjects like Biology, Math or Special Education.
The majors within education programs vary by the school, but most will include the following:
Indiana University (IU) and Purdue Global both have teacher preparation programs and are well known in Indiana and throughout the US. Both universities offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in education and have offices to assist with licensing of new graduates when they apply for their Indiana teaching license. Both schools offer coursework on specialties such as music, computer science or English language learners and certificates in areas such as adult education, gifted and talented studies and special education.
IU's School of Education offers the following undergraduate majors:
IU graduate students can also pursue a variety of master's degrees such as an MSEd in adult education, educational leadership, or in mathematics or instructional design. PhD programs in subjects such as history, elementary education, human development, among others and Doctorate in Education (EdD) programs in curriculum and instruction (various specialties), educational leadership and other administration-track programs.
Purdue's College of Education offers undergraduate majors in:
Purdue also offers graduate degrees at the masters and doctoral (PhD) levels in specialized areas such as agricultural and extension education, gifted education, science education and mathematics education.
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Create AccountCoursework required for candidate teachers will vary based on your area of focus. For example, those interested in elementary education will have different coursework than those teaching secondary education science.
All programs will require a certain number of education courses. These include work on classroom techniques, educational technology, and teaching methods. In addition, secondary education programs in given subjects will require coursework on that subject matter. For instance, students interested in teaching chemistry would take chemistry classes with non-teaching chemistry majors. The table below lists examples of the specific courses you can expect to take if pursuing the given area of focus.
| Elementary Education | Chemistry | Math - Secondary Education |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to educational technology | Foundations of biology | Secondary school math |
| Science in elementary school | Earth science | Teaching math in secondary school |
| The inclusive classroom | General physics | Applied mathematics |
| Educational policies and laws | Principles of chemistry and biochemistry | Computer programing |
| Art For Elementary School Teachers | Organic chemistry | Probability and statistics |
All students will also teach full-time as student teachers in a classroom environment. The student teaching period is usually eight to 16 weeks for eight to 16 credit hours and is under a teacher's supervision.
Once you have completed your education and training, you will now have to pass testing to demonstrate competency in your chosen subject(s), pedagogy, and instructional techniques in the classroom. Indiana requires the applicant to pass Praxis tests, which are provided by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).
There are two categories of Praxis tests - pedagogy assessment and Praxis subject assessment for specific areas like biology, chemistry, or languages.
The pedagogy tests are broken down by grade level. For instance, if you wish to teach high school, you will have to pass the Principles of Learning and Teaching: Grade 7-12 Praxis exam, regardless of your subject area. This exam would be required for all applicants who want to become high school teachers.
Specific licensure areas are broken down by subject. For example, if you intend to become a high school chemistry teacher, you must pass the Chemistry: Content Knowledge exam. You could also take specific exams if you want to become licensed to teach multiple subjects.
In addition to all your educational coursework and testing, you will need to complete training in CPR, the Heimlich Maneuver, the use of an automated defibrillator (AED), and suicide prevention.
The Indiana DOE approves various training providers. In addition, the American Heart Association and American Red Cross offer training on performing CPR and using an AED.
The Jason Foundation offers training modules for educators on suicide prevention and recognition of risk factors in young people. Training programs that will fulfill this requirement are also provided by vendors such as Kognito and Purdue Global.
Finally, you will also have to submit your fingerprints through the Indiana Electronic Fingerprinting Network (INkless) to enable a background check.
Your Indiana teaching license application will be submitted online using the Licensing Verification and Information System (LVIS).
The applicant will create a profile, log in and upload documentation showing fulfillment of all requirements. You can upload many different file formats such as PDFs, Word documents and JPEG files, among others.
You will have to provide evidence of:
You will have to submit a non-refundable fee, and the state will review your application. You will be contacted if there are any issues or when your license is granted. You can print a copy of your license from the LVIS website or download a PDF copy.
If you got a degree outside of education and decide later that you wish to pursue teaching as a career, you have a few Indiana alternative teaching license pathways.
One option is the Transition to Teaching (T2T) path. This enables an applicant with a bachelor's degree or graduate degree outside of teaching to obtain a teaching license without going back to school for a traditional education degree. For instance, let's say you have a bachelor's degree in chemistry and have worked as a chemist for a few years. You could apply to a T2T program approved by the Indiana DOE. A T2T program will first provide you with an accelerated and compressed schedule consisting of coursework in education. You will then take on student teaching while completing the T2T program. Upon completion, you can obtain a transition to teaching license in Indiana, which now enables you to teach chemistry in an Indiana high school.
Another option is to become a TNTP Teaching Fellow. TNTP has programs in multiple cities around the US, including Indianapolis, Indiana. This fellowship is designed for individuals with a non-traditional background for teaching. The first step in this training is an intense 6-week summer training program on classroom techniques. After that, you move straight to the classroom while pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at Marion University. The MAT program takes two years to complete. After you are done, you will be eligible to apply for a professional Indiana teaching license and continue in your new career as a teacher.
Indiana teaching license reciprocity allows educators who hold valid out-of-state teaching licenses and who have completed an NCATE/CAEP accredited program to apply for an in-state teaching license. You must have taken and passed the subject content exam for specific subjects. If you have not yet taken a subject content exam, you can still obtain a one-year temporary reciprocal permit that will enable you to teach. However, you will need to pass the subject content exam within that one-year period.
You must also have certification in CPR/AED, suicide prevention, and the Heimlich maneuver. If you lack these, you will need to complete them before applying for your Indiana license.
Indiana does have one specific requirement for the following subject areas: English Learners, Exceptional Needs, Communication Disorders, Elementary Generalist, Early Childhood Generalist, High Ability, and Fine Arts. You must qualify for these based on coursework and not a subject content exam alone. If your out-of-state license was granted to you in any of these areas based on testing alone, you can still get a one-year temporary reciprocal permit to allow you time to complete the coursework required by Indiana.
Your application will be made through the LVIS system and must include:
One method for an Indiana teacher license renewal is through a Professional Growth Plan (PGP). You can think of the PGP as continuing education to support one's knowledge of the teaching profession and help them grow as educators and advance in their careers.
PGP credits can come from a variety of sources. These could be courses or seminars posted as professional development opportunities or other activities above your everyday teaching responsibilities. Some examples include:
The number of PGP credits you will need depends on the specific teaching license being renewed. For instance, renewal of a five- or ten-year professional license would require 90 PGP points, while renewing your two-year initial practitioner license to a five-year practitioner license requires 40 PGP points. You will upload documentation supporting your PGP through the LVIS system.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), high school and special education teachers have a job outlook that's projected to be 8% nationally for 2020-2030, while elementary and middle school teacher job outlook is at 7% nationally for 2020-2030. This is around the same as the average outlook for all occupations.
For Indiana specifically, the job outlook for high school, middle school and elementary school teachers is projected to be 4% from 2018-2028 and 3% for special education teachers from 2018-2028. This is according to the State Labor Market Information offices.
Per 2020 data from the BLS, the annual mean wages for teachers in Indiana vary slightly depending on the grade level.
Teacher salaries in Indiana can vary by quite a bit depending on the school district, subject(s) taught and years of experience. In 2019-2020, salaries ranged from a low of $32,000 to a high of $95,188.
In 2020, there were a total of 2650 public schools in Indiana, with 56,390 teachers employed and a total student (Kindergarten through 12th grade) enrollment of 1,135,199. This is an overall student-teacher ratio of 20:1. A breakdown by grade level is summarized in the table below.
| Grade Level | No. Teachers | No. Students |
|---|---|---|
| Elementary School | 25,360 | 486,810 |
| Middle School | 11,260 | 260,019 |
| High School | 19,450 | 341,646 |
Katie Slaughter, M.A. has taught middle school science and math for over 6 years. She has helped lay a foundation for personalized learning in her school and has presented internationally about what she is doing in her classroom. She has successfully passed numerous Praxis exams. Katie completed a B.S. in Marine Science from Coastal Carolina University and an M.A. in Teaching from Georgetown College.
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