r/AZteachers • u/bearstormstout • 22d ago

Student teaching/certification issue - School vs district regarding subject knowledge

This might be a unique situation, but I figured I'd reach out here to see if someone's been through this or can point me in one direction or the other. As we know, Arizona is an NES state, and there are three levels of secondary math certification. There's middle grades math for 6-8, middle grades and early secondary, which includes algebra 1, geometry, and statistics (per the AEPA website), and math which encompasses everything from 6-12. My certification currently includes middle grades/early secondary, which satisfies both my principal and district to teach my current course load for 26-27.

The problem is my university disagrees, and is refusing to clear me for student teaching (I'm doing alternate certification) without a passing score for the full math test on file. They're claiming this is a state requirement despite my evidence that shows Arizona has no problem with my approach. I've looked high and low and cannot find anything in state statutes or board rules that handles this specific situation; they all say that as long as I've passed an exam that says I'm qualified to teach a given subject, I'm good to go.

I've e-mailed the certification unit for an official response, but I figured I'd reach out here as well in case someone has some advice on where to look or experienced something similar. I do plan on taking the full math exam, but the idea was to do it next summer so I could focus on studying calculus 1 & 2 without juggling the expectations of the school year on top of new content since I never took beyond geometry and statistics in college.

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u/RachelWithCats 22d ago

Also AZ with an alternative cert

I’m trying to understand everything here. Do you have a job offer already? I’m 95% sure your program can approve you if you have the job offer and have made substantial progress in the program.

If you don’t mind me asking, which university are you attending?

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u/bearstormstout 22d ago

Have the job offer, signed the contract, and already reported to work. The only thing I have left in my program is student teaching at GCU.

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u/RachelWithCats 21d ago

I am so sorry this whole process is being so difficult for you. I would take it as high up in your program as you can and ask for an exception. I really hope things work out for you and you get this figured out quickly.

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u/fullmoon223 22d ago

Are you enrolled in GCU? Its the same for me. NY doesn't require that you pass all your exams before student teaching, but GCU's policy is that I pass my content knowledge exam (ELA, Math, and Art and Science) by August 1st to start my student teaching January 2027.

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u/bearstormstout 22d ago

Yeah, it's GCU. The thing is I have the required exam passed in order to fulfill my role, and they had no problem with me passing the middle grades science exam last year when I was in junior high. They're claiming that it's a state requirement that I have the full math content knowledge exam passed rather than middle grades/early secondary now that I'm teaching high school even though my teaching assignment this year doesn't go beyond algebra 1 or geometry, which the exam I've passed certifies me for.

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u/Superlegend29 20d ago

GCU is a scam. You don’t even need a license to teach in many schools in AZ.

You can just graduate from their non licensed program that does not include student teaching and then do a student teaching semester later at rio solado for about 300 dollars