Adding Content Endorsements to a NM Teaching License
Endorsements are attached to a teaching license to specify the teaching field (subject) in which a teacher is authorized to teach. Sometimes understanding the rules and regulations to endorsements to New Mexico teaching licenses can be confusing.
In general, once you have your initial content area for your teaching license, you can add other content area endorsement by either having 24 college credits in the content (click here for a list of subjects that count towards each endorsement), or by taking and passing the NMTA content exam for the subject you want to teach. That said, there are some tricky rules to figuring all of this out based upon the license you are adding an endorsement to, and the endorsement.Adding endorsements to an early childhood, elementary, or special education license: Individuals seeking to add endorsements to these licenses must either have 24 college credits (at any level 100-400) or take and pass the NMTA content exam in the endorsement area. One exception to this rule, is the bilingual endorsement (discussed below). Also, while endorsements can be added to all teaching licenses, endorsements in the core content areas of math, science, language arts, and social studies (history, economics, geography, civics and government) will not be added to the early childhood, elementary, or special education license. However, teachers on an elementary or special education license interested in being "highly qualified" to teach these content courses in middle school must still follow the endorsement requirements even though the endorsement will not be added to the license. NMTA has middle level content exams in these four areas. Special educators seeking to become "highly qualified" to teach these subjects in high school must follow the requirements for adding an endorsement to a secondary license.
Adding endorsements to a secondary license: Individuals seeking to add endorsements to this licenses must either have 24 college credits with at least 12 of these credits "upper level" (300 or higher) or take and pass the NMTA content exam in the endorsement area. One exception to this rule, is the bilingual endorsement (discussed below). Middle level content exams cannot be used to add endorsements to the secondary license.
Bilingual Endorsement: All individuals adding a bilingual endorsement to any license must take and pass the New Mexico Spanish Language Proficiency Exam (Prueba de Español). Additionally, individuals must complete at least 12 credits of coursework in the teaching of bilingual education. However, if you hold a TESOL endorsement on an existing New Mexico teaching license, you only need 6 credits of coursework in the teaching of bilingual education. But (here's where it gets really tricky) if you are adding this endorsement to a secondary license, you must have 12 credits at the "upper level" (300 or above). CNM has some coursework that can apply towards a bilingual or TESOL (Teaching English Speakers of Other Languages) endorsement. For advisement regarding the courses we offer towards the bilingual/TESOL endorsement, please contact us.
If you are a CNM student and have questions about adding endorsements, please contact us at teachered@cnm.edu.
