U.S. Department of Education

Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development

Policy and Program Studies Service

Results in Brief:

Prevalence of Teachers Without Full State Certification 

and Variation Across Schools and States

December 2016

Across the nation, uncertified teachers represent a very small percentage of the teaching workforce in public elementary and 

secondary schools. However, research has shown that student access to certified teachers varies across districts within states, across 

schools within districts, or across classrooms within schools, and that teachers who are not fully certified may be disproportionately 

assigned to teach students with greater needs. In order to better understand this issue, Congress directed the U.S. Department of 

Education (in the Managers’ Statement accompanying the fiscal year 2016 education appropriations bill) to provide information on 

the extent to which certain student subgroups are taught by teachers who are not fully certified, including students with disabilities, 

English learners (ELs), students in rural areas, students from low-income families, and students of color. Because national data on

the certification of individual students’ teachers are not consistently available, this report uses school-level data on uncertified 

teachers from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for the 2013–14 school year to examine the extent to which schools with high 

proportions of certain types of students and schools located in rural and urban areas have teachers who are not fully certified. 

STUDY QUESTIONS 

1. What percentage of teachers is not fully certified —

overall and in urban and rural schools, and in schools with 

high proportions of students of color, students from lowincome families, English learners, and students with 

disabilities?

2. How does the percentage of teachers who are not fully 

certified vary across schools and states? Are they more 

prevalent in high-poverty schools; rural schools; urban 

schools; or schools with high proportions of students of 

color, English learners, or students with disabilities? 

3. What proportion of schools has teachers who are not fully 

certified? How many have relatively high percentages of 

such teachers? What proportion of students attends such 

schools?

STUDY DESIGN 

This report uses school-level data from the CRDC for the 

2013–14 school year, together with demographic data from 

the Common Core of Data (CCD) for the same year, to 

examine the extent to which schools with high proportions of 

certain types of students and schools in rural and urban areas

have teachers who are not fully certified. This report relies on

school-level data, rather than the student-level data 

requested by Congress, because data that link teacher 

certification data to specific courses and students are not 

currently available across all states or in comparable 

specifications. Data from the CRDC include numbers of 

teachers who are not fully certified, total numbers of 

teachers, total student enrollment (overall and by 

race/ethnicity), and enrollment of ELs and students with 

disabilities. The CRDC data were combined with CCD data on 

numbers of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch 

and school locale codes. 

Highlights

• Although all states employed some teachers who were

not fully certified, these teachers made up a small 

proportion of all teachers (1.7 percent).

• The average percentage of teachers who were not fully 

certified was 3.1 percent in schools with high proportions 

of students of color, 2.9 percent in high-poverty schools, 

2.9 percent in urban schools, 2.6 percent in schools with 

high proportions of ELs, 1.8 percent in schools with high 

proportions of students with disabilities, and 1.0 percent 

in rural schools.

• In a majority (35) of the states, less than 2 percent of all 

teachers were not fully certified. However, 14 states had 

at least one school type in which 5 percent or more of 

teachers were not fully certified.

• About 15 percent of all schools employed teachers who 

were not fully certified; in those schools, teachers who 

were not fully certified usually accounted for less than 

15 percent of teachers in the school.

• Approximately 5 percent of all schools had more than 

10 percent of teachers who were not fully certified. 

• Over three-fourths of all students, overall and for each 

student subgroup examined, were enrolled in schools 

with no uncertified teachers. The distribution of students 

by school percentage of uncertified teachers was similar 

to the distribution of schools by percentage of 

uncertified teachers.
KEY FINDINGS

Across the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 1.7 percent 

of all teachers were not fully certified. The average 

percentage of teachers who were not fully certified was 

3.1 percent for schools with high proportions of students of 

color, 2.9 percent each for high-poverty and urban schools, 

2.6 percent for schools with high proportions of ELs, 1.8 

percent for schools with high proportions of students with 

disabilities, and 1.0 percent for rural schools (Table 1).

Table 1. Percentage of uncertified teachers, by school type: 2013–14

Type of school Percentage uncertified

All schools 1.7

High-poverty schools 2.9

Schools with 75%+ students of color 3.1

Schools with 20%+ English learners 2.6

Schools with 20%+ students with disabilities 1.8

Urban schools 2.9

Rural schools 1.0

In 35 of the 51 jurisdictions, less than 2 percent of all teachers 

were not fully certified. Similarly, in a majority of states, less 

than 2 percent of teachers were not fully certified in rural 

schools (41 states), schools with high proportions of students 

with disabilities (36 states), schools with high proportions of 

ELs (30 states), and high-poverty schools (29 states). The 

same was not true for states’ urban schools (24 states) or 

schools with high proportions of students of color (22 states).

Teachers who were not fully certified represented 5 percent 

or more of all teachers in Arizona, Colorado, the District of 

Columbia, and Montana. More than 10 percent of teachers 

were not fully certified in Colorado (11 percent) and the 

District of Columbia (18 percent).

Table 2. Number of states by percentage of uncertified teachers, 

overall and by school type: 2013–14

Type of school Zero

>0 to 

<1%

1 to 

<2%

2 to 

<5%

5% or 

more

All schools 0 23 12 12 4

High-poverty schools 2 15 12 17 5

75%+ students of color 5 8 9 19 8

20%+ English learners 2 19 9 14 6

20%+ students with 

disabilities 1 23 12 8 7

Urban schools 2 16 6 18 9

Rural schools 0 29 12 8 1

Approximately 85 percent of all schools had no uncertified 

teachers and another 5 percent of schools had more than

10 percent of teachers who were not fully certified (Table 3). 

There were similar distributions of uncertified teachers across 

high-poverty schools, schools with high percentages of 

students of color, and urban schools. The percentages of 

schools with no uncertified teachers were 78 percent, 76 

percent, and 79 percent, respectively. Furthermore, 8 or 9 

percent of schools in each of the three school categories had 

10 percent or more of teachers who were not fully certified. 

Eighty-two percent of schools with high proportions of ELs

and 85 percent of schools with high proportions of students 

with disabilities had no uncertified teachers. In 6 percent of 

schools in both of these categories, 10 percent or more of 

teachers were not fully certified. 

Rural schools were most likely to have no uncertified 

teachers. Eighty-nine percent of schools had no uncertified

teachers and 3 percent of schools had 10 percent or more 

teachers who were not fully certified.

Table 3. Percentage distribution of schools by percentage of 

uncertified teachers, overall and by school type: 2013–14

Type of school Zero

>0 to 

<5%

5 to 

<10%

10 to 

<15%

15% or 

more

All schools 85 7 4 2 3

High-poverty schools 78 8 5 3 5

75%+ students of color 76 9 6 3 6

20%+ English learners 82 8 4 2 4

20%+ students with 

disabilities 85 6 4 2 4

Urban schools 79 9 4 2 6

Rural schools 89 5 3 1 2

More than three-fourths of students, overall and for each 

subgroup examined, were enrolled in schools with no 

uncertified teachers (Table 4). The distribution of students by 

school percentage of uncertified teachers was similar to the 

distribution of schools shown in Table 3.

Table 4. Percentage distribution of students, by school-level 

percentage of uncertified teachers, overall and by student 

subgroup: 2013–14

Student subgroup Zero

>0 to 

<5%

5 to 

<10%

10 to 

<15%

15% or 

more

All students 80 12 4 2 2

Students eligible for FRPL 79 12 5 2 3

Students of color 76 13 5 2 3

English learners 79 11 4 2 3

Students with disabilities 80 11 4 2 2

Students in urban schools 77 13 4 2 4

Students in rural schools 85 9 3 1 1

STUDY LIMITATIONS

Although the congressional requestors had envisioned a 

study of the extent to which certain subgroups of students 

are being taught by teachers without full state certification, 

this report cannot directly address that question because it is 

based on school-level, rather than student-level, data. In 

addition, findings that suggest differences in students’ access 

to certified teachers may not mean that student achievement 

is affected by those differences. For example, rigorous 

evidence does not indicate that teachers who are enrolled in 

programs that provide alternative routes to certification are 

less effective than fully certified teachers. Finally, the 

available national data on uncertified teachers do not include 

data on other types of credentials that might be appropriate 

for staff who provide specialized instruction. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The complete report is available online at 

www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/opepd/ppss/reports.html.