West Virginia Certification Requirements and Available LicensesAVAILABLE LICENSES THROUGH WGU
| Early Education, Pk-K |
| Early Childhood Education, K-4 |
| Elementary Education, K-6 |
| Multi-Categorical Special Education: Mild/Moderate Mentally Impaired, Emotional/Behavioral Disorders, Specific Learning Disabilities, K-6, 5-Adult |
| Social Studies, Grades 5-Adult |
| Mathematics, Grades 5-Adult |
| Biology, Grades 9-Adult |
| Chemistry, Grades 9-Adult |
| Physics, Grades 9-Adult |
| Earth/Space Science, Grades 5-Adult |
| English, Grades 5-Adult |
| English as a Second Language, Grades Pk-Adult |
| Principal, Pk-Adult |
West Virginia has the following general requirements for all applicants for initial teacher certification:
1. DEGREE: Graduation from a Bachelor's degree or higher from a regionally accredited college or university.
2. PROGRAM: Completion of a teacher education program that is approved to lead to teacher certification in the home-state of the program and recommendation for certification by the approved program.
3. BACKGROUND CLEARANCE: Fingerprint clearance resulting from completing the background check required as part of the
certification application.
4. BASIC SKILLS EXAM: Meet the basic skills requirement. All exams must be less than 10 years old.
5. CONTENT EXAMS: Passing scores on the required Praxis examinations. All exams must be less than 10 years old.
* Note: Although the Praxis website lists the Principles of Learning and Teaching exam as a requirement, if you are in an initial licensure program and you completed edTPA during the demonstration teaching portion of your WGU teacher preparation program, then you do not need to pass the Principles of Learning and Teaching exam. If you did not complete edTPA, then you will need to pass the corresponding Principles of Learning and Teaching exam to be eligible for licensure recommendation in West Virginia.
6. GPA: A minimum overall GPA of 2.5 on all college/university coursework attempted. WGU students have the equivalent of a 3.0 GPA in all coursework completed at WGU.
Important for Post-Baccalaureate* and MAT* students: If you are planning on completing the MAT program, it is advised that you do not graduate from the Post-Bacc program first. The WVDE will only count your graduate coursework for advanced salary once; therefore, if you graduate from Post-Bacc and then go on to complete the MAT, you will not have enough credits to qualify for the Master's level salary.
For further details on these requirements, please see the West Virginia Department of Education website.
*As of 8/1/2017, WGU is no longer enrolling students in the PBMA9, PBMA12, PBSC9, MATSC9, PBSS12, or MATSS12 programs. Beginning 2/1/2018, WGU will no longer enroll students in the PBSC12 program. For more information, please contact your program mentor or enrollment counselor.
11/2018
Article Number: 20311, 1818
