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Massachusetts

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

Massachusetts offers Bilingual Education as an add-on endorsement; ELD/ESL is a standalone teaching license. SEI training is mandated for all teachers. As of 2023, 13.1% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

13.1%
classified ELs (2023-10-01)
view trend →
Bil + ELD + SEI
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual Education Endorsement

  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Unknown
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Required
Subject test
Not required
Language proficiency
Required

ESL Licensure

  • Standalone certification
Approved program
Unknown
Coursework
Unknown
Practicum
Required
Subject test
Required

SEI Endorsement

Mandated for all teachers.

SEI endorsement required for core academic teachers, administrators, and (since July 1, 2021) vocational educators. Statutory backbone: LOOK Act (2017); endorsement framework codified at 603 CMR 7.14(1).

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2017.

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

ELP assessment

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

ACCESS for ELLs · WIDA Consortium member.

Source: wida.wisc.edu (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

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

  1. Massachusetts enacts first-in-nation transitional bilingual education mandate (Ch. 1005 of the Acts of 1971)

    An Act Providing for the Equal Educational Opportunities of Children with Limited Speaking Ability of the English Language (codified at M.G.L. c. 71A) required districts enrolling 20 or more students of the same non-English language background to provide transitional bilingual education (TBE) in that language. Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to mandate bilingual instruction; the statute became the template cited in the federal Bilingual Education Act's later reauthorizations and in subsequent state TBE laws.

    malegislature.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. Voters pass Question 2 — English-only mandate replaces TBE (Ch. 386 of the Acts of 2002)

    Ballot Question 2 ("English Language Education in Public Schools"), modeled on California Proposition 227 (1998) and Arizona Proposition 203 (2000) and bankrolled by Ron Unz's English for the Children campaign, passed roughly 68%–32%. It rewrote M.G.L. c. 71A to repeal the 1971 transitional-bilingual mandate and require Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) for nearly all EL students, with narrowly drawn parental waivers. Effective for the 2003-2004 school year. The mandate remained in force until partially repealed by the 2017 LOOK Act, which restored district choice over program model.

    malegislature.gov (opens in a new tab)

  3. U.S. DOJ / MA DESE settlement triggers RETELL and the SEI endorsement framework

    Following a federal investigation that found Massachusetts's pre-existing "Category 1-4" SEI training out of compliance with the Equal Educational Opportunities Act and the Castañeda v. Pickard standard, the U.S. Department of Justice and MA DESE entered a settlement agreement. DESE responded by launching RETELL (Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners) in 2012 — a statewide initiative that promulgated 603 CMR 7.14(1), the Sheltered English Immersion endorsement, and required core-academic teachers and administrators of ELs to obtain it on a phased schedule. RETELL is the operational backbone the LOOK Act later codified.

    doe.mass.edu (opens in a new tab)

  4. Massachusetts enacts the LOOK Act (Ch. 138 of the Acts of 2017)

    An Act Relative to Language Opportunity for Our Kids (LOOK Act) repealed the 2002 English-only mandate and authorized districts to choose program models including dual language, two-way immersion, transitional bilingual, SEI, and other research-based approaches. The act also authorized the State Seal of Biliteracy and codified the SEI endorsement framework binding core-academic teachers of ELs (later operationalized at 603 CMR 7.14(1)).

    doe.mass.edu (opens in a new tab) · doe.mass.edu (opens in a new tab) · malegislature.gov (opens in a new tab)

  5. Massachusetts authorizes State Seal of Biliteracy

    The LOOK Act simultaneously authorized the Massachusetts State Seal of Biliteracy. DESE administers the credential for high-school graduates demonstrating proficiency in English plus one or more world languages.

    sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

  6. BESE adopts Bilingual Education Endorsement

    The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education promulgated regulations establishing the Bilingual Education Endorsement, the operational pathway implementing the LOOK Act's directive that DESE create bilingual program credentials.

    doe.mass.edu (opens in a new tab)

  7. 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 Massachusetts'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)

  8. SEI endorsement requirement extended to vocational educators

    Effective 2021-07-01, MA DESE extended the SEI endorsement requirement (already binding on core-academic teachers and administrators of ELs) to vocational educators serving ELs. This expanded the operative scope of `sei.mandatedForAllTeachers = true` in MA without changing the underlying coding.

    doe.mass.edu (opens in a new tab)

  9. 603 CMR 7.00 amended (MTEL Alternatives and Other Updates)

    The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education amended 603 CMR 7.00 (Educator Licensure and Preparation Program Approval) under the heading "MTEL Alternatives and Other Updates," with follow-on guidance on Communications & Literacy Skills MTEL waivers issued April 29, 2026.

    doe.mass.edu (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Massachusetts Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education (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] MA DESE — SEI Endorsement (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  4. [4] MA DESE — Bilingual Education Endorsement (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  5. [5] MA DESE — Academic PreK-12 teacher field/grade levels (ESL license) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  6. [6] 603 CMR 7.00 — Educator Licensure (incl. 7.06, 7.08 Professional Standards for Teachers, 7.14 Endorsements) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  7. [7] NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 204.20 (English Learners in Public Schools, fall 2021) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  8. [8] Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Selected Populations Report (2023-24) (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). Massachusetts EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/ma/
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_ma_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Massachusetts EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/ma/},
  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.