Offer an endorsement

What organizations are eligible to offer an endorsement?

Your institution must be either an approved residency teacher program or an approved CTE plan 1 program to offer an endorsement. Learn about program approval.

All residency teacher programs must offer at least one endorsement, and all CTE plan 1 programs must offer at least one basic area endorsement.

Proposal process

1. To offer a new endorsement, programs must submit a proposal to PESB at least 60 days before the PESB board meeting at which they would like your proposal to be considered. View a list of all endorsements and competencies.
2. PESB convenes a staff review team to review the endorsement proposal form.
3. The review team provides you with feedback and an overall recommendation of the endorsement proposal.
   • If the review team recommends approval of the endorsement proposal, the recommendation is presented at the board meeting and listed as a consent agenda item. The board always has the option to take an item off the consent agenda.
   • If the review team does not recommend approval of the endorsement proposal, you have the option to either present at the board meeting on the full agenda, or revise the proposal and re-submit it for a subsequent board meeting.

Through the proposal process, programs provide evidence of subject matter expertise, strategies, and endorsement design. If the proposal is approved, the program can offer the endorsement immediately. If the proposal is denied, the program cannot offer the endorsement. Programs can resubmit their proposal with changes that reflect board feedback.

View the endorsement proposal form.

Dual endorsement certification requirement

Programs should inform their candidates that specific endorsements must be paired with a second endorsement on a teaching certificate. Programs may still recommend a candidate for certification without both endorsements since this is a certification requirement rather than a program completion requirement. OSPI’s certification office will verify the dual endorsement requirement before issuing the certificate. Learn more about the dual endorsement requirement.

What organizations are eligible to offer a specialty endorsement?

• Nonprofits
• Accredited colleges and universities
• Approved preparation programs
• School districts and ESDs
• Tribal compact schools
• Approved private and charter schools
• Local, state, and federal agencies

Please note: The board is currently considering policy changes related to specialty endorsements. Until a final decision is made, the Board has paused accepting any proposals regarding specialty endorsements. When the pause has ended, this webpage will be updated with additional information.

Contact PESB staff  Jeffrey Youde (Jeffrey.Youde@k12.wa.us) and Prajakta Deshmukh (Prajakta.Deshmukh@k12.wa.us) if you have questions or would like to discuss offering a specialty endorsement.

Proposal process

To offer a specialty endorsement, organizations must submit and present a proposal to the Board for approval. Organizations will remain approved until June 30 of the year they are scheduled for re-approval, which occurs every five years.

View a list of specialty endorsements and essential learnings.

Through the proposal process, organizations will describe their specialty endorsement model, including the essential learnings, organizational capacity, and participant recruitment and retention strategies. Organizations will also detail how they are responding to educator, student, and community needs.

Organizations must include the following information in their proposal:

• Specialty endorsement proposal form (document)
• At least two letters of support from education or community-related organizations
• A budget as approved by your organization’s leaders including both revenues and expenses

If the Board approves the proposal, organizations can immediately begin offering the specialty endorsement. If the Board denies the proposal, organizations can resubmit it with changes that reflect Board feedback.

Educator information

Approved organizations should inform their educators that a specialty endorsement can only be added to an existing certificate with an endorsement. If pre-service educators are completing a specialty endorsement, they must first earn their certificate with an endorsement before the specialty endorsement can be recognized.

Proposal guidance

Proposal language should be specific, supported by evidence, and related to a projected outcome, strategy, action, or system. The strongest proposals make clear connections between an identified need, how the endorsement responds to that need, and how programs will bring their proposal to life.

Additional tips

• Before starting the process, familiarize yourself with the relevant endorsement competencies and specialty endorsement essential learnings. These outline the relevant subject matter for teacher candidates seeking that endorsement.
• PESB staff complete a review of all proposals and provide programs with detailed feedback. We encourage you to view our most frequent staff feedback before completing the proposal form.
• Proposals are formal documents; review and check all materials for completion prior to submitting.
• Board members review a lot of materials for Board meetings. Proposal language should be concise, direct, and avoid redundancies. You can cite descriptions from one section of your proposal in another section.
• Cite all sources via works cited list.