Education Online explains that a teaching credential allows a college graduate to legally become a classroom teacher.At this site, they share that real world career experience and a bachelor’s degree can be easy steps to getting a teaching credential.

How do you get a teaching credential?

Getting a teaching credential is an important requirement to becoming a career teacher and there are several steps to take, especially if you want to teach in a public school in California. While there are many routes to success, most involve the successful completion of an accredited teacher preparation program.

The state of California wants to be sure that teachers, and potential teachers, are free from a criminal record, and they do this in a couple of ways. Teaching candidates are required to have a background check and be fingerprinted. To be sure they qualify to be in the classroom, they also need to take required tests and complete university-approved coursework.

Teachers are generally given a credential to either teach elementary school or to teach a specific grade level in middle school or high school. Those who are changing levels have to take a test to prove that they are capable of teaching in the area that they are focusing on.

Much of the work can be structured through a teaching credential program that will prepare the candidate and set up a chance to acquire the 300 hours of required training, with 30 of those hours in a mentor-observed classroom.

With a teaching shortage still causing hiring challenges within the state, some teachers in the classroom are more qualified or have more experience than others. Some have a teaching credential while others are only working with a teaching license. A teaching license can grant temporary authorization to teach when the individual has experience but lacks the relevant preparatory coursework.

The term “certificated teacher” means the individual has gone through legal authorization to teach in a public school, although this is not a requirement for teachers in private school or those who are homeschooling. There are some states that use certification and not licensing, to determine authorization.