Licensure
Certification Partners
Certification Partners are the certifying bodies for your teacher license. They also play a key roll in your ongoing development as a teacher-leader. Enrolling and remaining in good standing with your graduate program is a requirement both for certification and Teach For America.
National Louis University
All 2025 Illinois Corps Members will attend National Louis University
All 2025 Northwest Indiana Corps Members will attend the University of Indianapolis. You can see some highlights about our partnership below. Please read the Indianapolis Certification Overview for more information about Indiana licensure requirements. While this is geared towards TFA Indianapolis CMs, the information still applies to you in Northwest Indiana.
All classes will be online. You will not need to travel to Indianapolis
With the AmeriCorps award, your tuition for the licensure program will be covered. The only out of pocket costs you will incur is for books. If you’re interested in the optional Master’s program then you will have out of pocket expenses for that.
Your passage of a Praxis exam will depend on your GPA/major. Please read more in the Certification Overview above and reach out to Steven Grosso about your specific requirements.
Pre-Service University Partner Courses
For all Corps Members who are not already certified traditionally trained teachers, you’re required to take your first grad school courses with your University Partner over the summer. These courses are required in order to receive your teaching license by the first day of school. These courses will set up your foundation for further grad school courses and provide you with the skills and knowledge needed to create a strong classroom culture for the first day of school.
Your class times will be built into your summer Practicum schedule. We will release a full summer 2025 schedule closer to the summer.
Next Steps
When you’re done reading the process and timeline, learn more about the content exam(s) you’re required to pass.