Ideas for Obtaining Missouri or Kansas Teaching Certification

Hi K.!
Your husband's dream is mine as well! Here is what I have discovered. There are a couple of options for your husband. He can return to school to acquire an alternative certification. In the state of Missouri, there is a teacher shortage, so they have established some new programs to help people who have a desire to teach. If you go to the Mo Dept of Ed website, you will find at least one of them. Here is the web address:(http://dese.mo.gov/divteachqual/teachcert) The program that is known as the ABCTE program might work very well for your husband. It is an online set of courses that will only cost about $1200 to complete. There are a couple of things to be aware of though, with this program. The completion percentage is fairly low, so make certain he feels comfortable with on-line courses before you invest your money. Another opportunity is the TEACH grant. This is a grant your husband can take advantage of if he agrees to teach in a high needs school district for the first 4 years of his teaching career. (A high needs school district could even be Independence, MO) This grant would re-pay up to $4000 of his tuition if he agrees to do this. (I believe it is $4000 per year) This is something I discovered when I enrolled at UCM in Lee's Summit. Also, once your husband enrolls in a certified Master's of Teaching program, he is able to obtain a full time teaching position because he will have a provisional teaching certificate. This means he is enrolled in school, is working toward his education and can actually teach. The provisional certificate is only good for middle school (5th grade) and above. I am very happy with Univ of Central MO. I also checked out other local area colleges and universities. (I have an undergrad degree from MO State Univ., a Master's from KU, part of a Master's from Univ of Washington, and now finishing my work at UCM) I sure hope this helps! Good luck to both of you and I think he is VERY lucky and blessed to have such a supportive wife!
A. M.

Many of my friends have used this place to help pay for their schooling. They refer to it as FCC. THey get a grant for $3000 a semester or something like that. Yo contact them and than go take some kind of test and they help pay for school, gas and books. http://www.feckc.org/home.html
Hope that helps.

I really don't know of any "programs" but I've done mine through Avila University. It's been a wonderful program for us, as classes are accelerated and only meet one night a week.

Have him apply for the Kansas City Teaching Fellows program. I believe it pays for your education for a Masters in Education while you teach in either Kansas City, MO or Kansas City, KS public schools. There's a commitment of so many years then you are free to go teach somewhere else.

Certain school districts have programs that pay for schooling.I don't know where you live, but check out inner city schools such as Kansas City, Kansas, they have a teaching fellows program where you teach and get your masters at the same time. So you are getting paidfull time & you are getting your school paid for. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Go to the website for the Kansas City KS Public Schools--they have a program there where you can complete your Teaching Certificate hours through Pittsburg State while teaching in their district and it is called the KCK Fellows Program (applies only if you plan to teach in the areas of Math, Sciences, English or Spanish). Also, he might look at becoming a permanent employee in a capacity other than teacher (such as a classroom aide) in the KCK school district, as they also have a tuition program called Employee to Teacher. Good Luck to your family on your husband's efforts to become a teacher! JAHC