The pathways to becoming a teacher are numerous—as are the backgrounds of people seeking to enter teaching. On this page, those many backgrounds are presented so that you can find a match with yourself and decide which pathways on the website to explore.

The various backgrounds are explored in terms of 2 factors:

1. Level of education
2. Prior occupational experience

The various levels of education and the varieties of prior occupational experience are defined in more detail here. Additional resources are listed below, which link to pages that provide more information.

Levels of Education:

There are at least 6 possible levels of education, including some sub-categories within those levels:

1. High school diploma or GED (General Education Development)
2. Some college, but without completed degree: You may need more coursework before entering a bachelor's program or explore preparatory coursework at a community college
3. Baccalaureate degree at a U.S. institution (either with teacher preparation or without teacher preparation)
4. Baccalaureate degree at an institution outside the U.S. (with or without teacher preparation)
5. Post-Baccalaureate degree at a U.S. institution (either with teacher preparation or without teacher preparation
6. Post-Baccalaureate degree at an institution outside the U.S.

Prior Occupational Experience:

There are at least 4 different levels of prior experience that are relevant for any pathway into teaching:

1. No prior experience in teaching and you have a bachelor's degree or higher
2. Experience as a teacher's assistant in the U.S.
3. Teaching experience in another state in the U.S., either in a public school (certified) or a private school (non-certified): RIDE certification page
4. Teaching experience in another country: consult information regarding Teacher Certification in Rhode Island

Additional Resources

• General Education Development (GED): view CCRI's available programs
• For information about institutions of higher learning, visit Schools Offering Teacher Education Programs
• Certification in Rhode Island: visit RIDE's Certification webpage
• To explore an alternative route to teaching for individuals with a bachelor's degree and no preparation, visit the Rhode Island Teaching Fellows website
• Download a list of U.S. agencies for evaluation of foreign transcripts
• For more information contact RIDE to explain your unique circumstances: eqacride.ri.gov

Rhode Island Teaching Fellows Program

The Rhode Island Teaching Fellows Program seeks outstanding professionals and recent college graduates to make a difference in the lives of students who most need them. This highly-selective program is designed to recruit and train socially-driven individuals who want to make a difference in public education in Rhode Island by becoming teachers in some of the state’s highest-need public schools. Each year, the Teaching Fellows program offers 25 individuals an accelerated route into the classroom to teach critical-shortage subject areas such as secondary math, science and special education in classrooms within the urban school districts in Rhode Island that have historically had a record of low student achievement.

Information about the Rhode Island Teaching Fellow program is available on their website.