Why We Built This Site
Every state sets its own rules for becoming a math teacher: its own certificates, its own grade bands, its own approved programs and often its own exams. A requirement that applies in one state can mean nothing across the border. That makes the path hard to read, especially for career changers and for teachers moving between states.
MathTeacherEDU.org has covered that path for more than a decade. We lay out what each state requires, step by step, from the state’s own rules, so you can see which certificate fits you, which exam you’ll take and what to do next.
What You’ll Find Here
- The requirements most states share, plus a certification guide for every state and Washington, D.C.
- What the Praxis mathematics tests and the National Evaluation Series math exam cover
- The teacher performance assessments some states require during student teaching
- Math teacher education: degrees, educator preparation programs and alternative routes
- Math teacher salaries by state, from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data
- Math teacher careers and job outlook
Our Editorial Standards
We don’t summarize secondary sources and call it research. Every certification requirement on MathTeacherEDU.org is checked against the state’s own department of education and its administrative rules, and every exam detail against the official testing program.
Salary and employment figures come directly from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program.
Where sources conflict, we say so instead of picking whichever answer reads more cleanly. When a state has certification rule changes under review, we tell you that too.
We revisit content when certification rules change, when testing programs update their exams or passing scores, or when new data replaces old. If you find something that looks outdated, tell us at [email protected].
Everything we publish follows our editorial standards: where our facts come from, how we use AI, and how each article is fact-checked by a person before it’s published. Our fact-checker, Rebecca Turley, checks each page against those sources.