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District of Columbia
District of Columbia offers Bilingual Education both as a standalone certification and as an add-on endorsement; ELD/ESL is available both as a standalone license and as an add-on endorsement. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2024, 14.1% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.
Credentials
Bilingual Education Credential
- Standalone certification
- Add-on endorsement
- Approved program
- Required
- Coursework
- Unknown
- Practicum
- Unknown
- Subject test
- Required
- Language proficiency
- Unknown
OSSE 9/2025 exam matrix has no Praxis content exam for Bilingual Education; a completed degree major OR completion of an approved program is required, plus a PLT pedagogy exam. No language-proficiency exam (e.g., ACTFL OPI) is listed by OSSE; leider-2021 coded languageProficiency=true, so the field is set to null pending a direct SEA confirmation.
ESL Credential
- Standalone certification
- Add-on endorsement
- Approved program
- Unknown
- Coursework
- Unknown
- Practicum
- Unknown
- Subject test
- Required
DC's canonical SEA term is 'English as a Second Language' (ESL). Praxis 5362 (English to Speakers of Other Languages, score 155) is the required content exam, with PLT or World Languages Pedagogy as the pedagogy exam.
Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)
Not mandated for all teachers.
DC recognizes five EL program models for LEAs (dual language, inclusion/collaborative, content-based ESL, sheltered content, newcomer) but does not mandate sheltered English instruction training for all teachers.
State policy signals
Seal of Biliteracy
Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.
Adopted in 2014.
ELP assessment
Annual English Language Proficiency test used for EL identification and reclassification.
ACCESS for ELLs · WIDA Consortium member.
History of licensure
Dated policy and verification events shaping this state's EL teacher credentials.
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DC adopts the State Seal of Biliteracy
The DC State Board of Education and OSSE established a Seal of Biliteracy for high-school graduates demonstrating proficiency in English plus one or more additional world languages, making DC one of the earliest adopters in the country.
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EPAA 29(100) document analysis (Leider, Colombo & Nerlino, 2021)
Leider, Colombo & Nerlino published in Education Policy Analysis Archives 29(100) a comprehensive document analysis of every state and DC's bilingual, ELD/ESL, and SEI teacher-credentialing requirements, professional teaching standards mentions, and EL-percentage figures, based on primary SEA sources collected October–December 2019. The 2019 coding of District of Columbia's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.
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OSSE publishes refreshed Educator Credentialing Exams matrix
OSSE's September 2025 Educator Credentialing Exams document is the operative exam-requirements reference for DC educator credentials. For ESL it specifies Praxis 5362 (English to Speakers of Other Languages, score 155) plus PLT or World Languages Pedagogy; for Bilingual Education it requires a completed degree major or completion of an approved program plus a PLT pedagogy exam, with no Praxis content exam and no language-proficiency exam listed.
Sources
- [1] DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
- [2] Leider, Colombo & Nerlino (2021), EPAA 29(100). Tables 2-5 + Appendix A. (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
- [3] OSSE — English Learner Policy and Programs (ACCESS for ELLs, WIDA standards, five program models) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [4] OSSE — Educator Credential Areas and Fee Schedule (Bilingual Education, Bilingual Special Education, ESL — primary + endorsement) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [5] OSSE — Educator Credentialing Exams 9/2025 (Praxis 5362 ESOL for ESL; PLT pedagogy; approved program for Bilingual Education) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [6] DC Professional Standards for Teaching (1/29/13 — currently published; keyword scan: diverse/cultural/language present; no EL/ELL mentions) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [7] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 — DC Fall 2021: 10,035 ELs (11.3%) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [8] Seal of Biliteracy — DC state page (adopted Dec 4, 2014) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
- [9] DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education, 2023-24 Enrollment Audit (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-10
Cite this page
Site content is published under CC BY 4.0. When citing a fact from this page, please cite both projectcert and the original Leider et al. (2021) paper the dataset extends.
- APA
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projectcert. (2026, May 10). District of Columbia EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/dc/
Leider, C. M., Colombo, M. W., & Nerlino, E. (2021). Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(100). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.5279
- BibTeX
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@misc{projectcert_dc_2026, author = {{projectcert}}, title = {{District of Columbia EL teacher certification}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://projectcert.org/states/dc/}, urldate = {2026-05-10}, note = {Last verified 2026-05-10} }@article{leider2021decentralization, author = {Leider, Christine M. and Colombo, Michaela W. and Nerlino, Erika}, title = {{Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs?}}, journal = {Education Policy Analysis Archives}, volume = {29}, number = {100}, year = {2021}, doi = {10.14507/epaa.29.5279} }
See the methodology for how these data were collected, or the glossary for term definitions.