The Regents 1998 plan, New York's Commitment: Teaching to Higher Standards, has resulted in reforms that prohibit the employment of uncertified teachers, raise teacher certification standards, add pathways to certification and improve services for certificate candidates. These reforms are consistent with the NCLB.

3a. Phase-Out of Uncertified Teachers. Since September 2000, SED has not issued temporary licenses to uncertified teachers for employment in the State's lowest performing schools. Since September 2003, SED has not issued temporary licenses for any school. As of September 1, 2003, SED will only issue “modified temporary licenses” for demonstrated shortage areas. These licenses are valid for one year at a time for school years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 and are only issued for individuals who have passed the New York State Teacher Certification Examination (NYSTCE) Liberal Arts and Sciences Test (LAST), earned the required college degree, and completed at least 27 semester hours of coursework required in the content core and/or pedagogical core. Local school district superintendents, or their equivalent, must certify that individuals with modified temporary licenses do not teach in schools in need of improvement or in violation of the requirements of the NCLB.

3b. New Certification Standards . All candidates for teaching certificates after February 1, 2004 must meet Regents new certification standards.

Initial certificate. Candidates for the first-level “initial certificate” must meet new educational requirements aligned with the State's Learning Standards and students' developmental levels. They must also pass three New York State Teacher Certification Examinations -- the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test (LAST), the Assessment of Teaching Skills-Written (ATS-W) and an applicable Content Specialty Test (CST).
Professional certificate. Within four years of receiving an initial certificate, teachers must qualify for the terminal-level “professional certificate” by having satisfactory teaching experience, including a first year of mentored teaching, and a master's degree focused on what they teach.

3c. More Pathways to Certification. The Regents established multiple pathways to certification to welcome all qualified individuals into teaching. The major pathways are (1) completion of a traditional teacher education program; (2) alternative teacher certification (ATC) through a State-approved ATC program; and (3) certification through an individual evaluation, the pathway that supplies the majority of new teachers in hard-to-staff subject areas such as math and science. Other pathways include reciprocity for out-of-state teachers, time-limited certificates for visiting lecturers and professors who pass teacher certification exams; time-limited certificates that enable selected teachers who have passed all their certification exams to complete their educational requirements; and certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In addition, licensed speech language pathologists can now qualify for provisional teaching certificates as teachers of speech and language handicapped children. The Regents will continue to consider new pathways to certification that uphold the Regents high certification standards.

3d. Better Service for Certificate Candidates. SED is improving services for certificate candidates in order to increase the supply of certified teachers.

Teacher certification exams are administered frequently, with extra administrations in New York City through special arrangements with the New York City Department of Education.
SED is re-engineering its teacher certification process to provide more accurate and timely service to certificate candidates, which will increase the pool of certified teachers available to LEAs and schools.

http://www.highered.nysed.gov/nclb01-2004b3.htm