Paths to Licensure: Things Physicists Should Know

The path to licensure can be quite complicated, and can thwart a physics department's efforts to produce more and better prepared high school physics teachers. Each state has different pathways. CAEP and SPA are not within the normal physics vocabulary. Some understanding of these topics can allow us to help our students so that fewer are derailed on their path to the classroom, or take a path that will leave them less well prepared. It can also lead to more successful collaboration with our colleagues responsible for approval of licensure. Examples of different approaches that work within state licensure systems from two different states will be presented. The presenters will work with participants to develop action plans to take back to their own institutions.