The California Requirements the Most Advanced in the United States
The qualifications required by the State Board of Education in California are the highest required in any state. They are as follows:
REQUIREMENTS
High school certificates may be issued by county and city and county boards of education under the provisions of section 1519, subdivision 5 (a); section 1775, subdivision 1 (a), and section 1792 of the Political Code of California, to candidates who meet all of the following requirements, to wit:
(1) Requirement of Bachelor’s degree. Each candidate shall have received a Bachelor’s degree from a standard college requiring not less than eight years of high school and college training.
(2) Requirement of one year of graduate study. Each candidate shall submit evidence that in addition to the academic and professional courses required for the Bachelor’s degree, he has completed at least one year of graduate study, doing full regular work, though not necessarily a candidate for a degree, in an approved graduate school as hereinafter defined. Such graduate study shall include at least one full year course of advanced or graduate work in at least one of the subjects in which candidate expects to be recommended for certification.
(3) Requirement of fifteen units of work in education. Each candidate shall also submit evidence that he has completed in undergraduate or graduate standing, or the two combined, not less than fifteen units (semester hours) of work, in courses listed in the department of education in the institution in which the graduate work is completed, or courses in other departments of that or other institutions accepted as preparation for teaching by the department of education. These fifteen units of work shall include the several courses in education hereinafter prescribed.
Required work in education. The required fifteen units of work in the department of education shall include the following courses:
(a) A course in school and classroom management, or equivalent work—a minimum of one unit.
(b) Work in actual practice of teaching, with conferences—a minimum of four units.
(c) A teacher’s course in at least one subject in which the candidate expects to be recommended for certification, if such course be given in the institution and be accepted by or listed under the work in education—a maximum of three units for all such courses.
(d) A course in secondary education, presenting particularly the purpose and attainable goals of high school work—a minimum of two units.
(e) Such other courses relating to the theory, function and administration of public education, as are needed to complete the required fifteen units.
Practice teaching. The work in practice teaching shall be done under the general supervision of the department of education of the institution in which the year of graduate work is taken, and may be done in schools of elementary, intermediate or secondary grade, though preferably in secondary school work of the kind the candidate is preparing to teach, and under the direction of competent instructors in such work. The work in practice teaching may also be done in connection with the training school of any California state normal school.
Teachers’ courses. Each teacher’s course shall be a bona fide teacher’s course and shall be made as concrete and practicable as possible, and shall have for its purpose the preparation of teachers to give intelligent instruction in the subject in the high schools of this State.[97]