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All states / Iowa

Iowa

Verified against current sources (2026-05-10) Cite this page ↓

Iowa does not offer a bilingual education credential; 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 2023, 7.0% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

7.0%
classified ELs (2023-10-01)
view trend →
ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual education

Not offered.

Iowa requires an 'Authorization' to teach in a non-English language.

ESL K-12 Endorsement

  • Standalone certification
  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Required
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Unknown
Subject test
Unknown

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2018.

Source: sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

ELP assessment

Annual English Language Proficiency test used for EL identification and reclassification.

ELPA21 · ELPA21 consortium member.

Source: educate.iowa.gov (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

Dated policy and verification events shaping this state's EL teacher credentials.

  1. Iowa adopts the State Seal of Biliteracy

    House File 2304 (87th GA, 2018) authorized the Iowa Seal of Biliteracy, administered by the Iowa Department of Education for high-school graduates demonstrating proficiency in English plus one or more world languages.

    educate.iowa.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. 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 Iowa's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.

    doi.org (opens in a new tab)

  3. Iowa DOE rebrands to educate.iowa.gov domain

    The Iowa Department of Education migrated its public-facing domain from educateiowa.gov to educate.iowa.gov, with redirects in place. Earlier citations against the prior domain may resolve through the redirect chain.

    educate.iowa.gov (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Iowa Department of Education (legacy domain educateiowa.gov; superseded by educate.iowa.gov in 2023) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  2. [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. [3] Iowa Department of Education — homepage (current canonical domain) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] Iowa DOE — endorsements list (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] Iowa DOE — K-12 English Language Learners (Endorsement 104) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] Iowa DOE — licenses and authorizations (Native Language Teaching Authorization) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] Iowa Admin. Code r. 282-13.28(20) — ESL endorsement minimum content (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] Iowa DOE — English Learners hub (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] Iowa DOE — ELPA21 page (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] Iowa DOE — Biliteracy Seal page (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  11. [11] Iowa Teaching Standards and Model Criteria (Iowa Code § 284.3) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  12. [12] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 (fall 2021 EL share by state) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  13. [13] Iowa Department of Education, Comprehensive State Literacy Plan 2024-2032 (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
projectcert. (2026, May 10). Iowa EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/ia/
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
@misc{projectcert_ia_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Iowa EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/ia/},
  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.