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All states / Maine

Maine

Verified against current sources (2026-05-08) Cite this page ↓

Maine does not offer a bilingual education credential; ELD/ESL is an add-on endorsement. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2021, 3.1% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-08.

3.1%
classified ELs (2021-10-01)
view trend →
ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual education

Not offered.

English as a Second Language Endorsement K-12 (660)

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

Endorsement 660 (ESOL) under Chapter 115 Part II §1.8. Pathway 1 = approved Maine ESOL preparation program; Pathway 3 = 24 SH coursework + one academic semester (≥15 weeks) student teaching; Pathway 5 = approved portfolio. The 5/14/2025 amendment dropped the conditional-cert and Pathway 2 floors from 24 to 15 SH. requirements.test is null because Chapter 115 Part II does not name a Praxis content test for 660; third-party sites cite Praxis 5362 but the binding rule does not.

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

Sheltered instruction is one optional service component per the 10/9/2025 administrative letter and multilingual-services staffing guidance, not a statewide mandate.

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.

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. Maine adopts Seal of Biliteracy

    Maine joined the Seal of Biliteracy program in October 2018, recognizing high school graduates who demonstrate proficiency in English and one or more world languages. Administered through the Maine DOE.

    sealofbiliteracy.org (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 Maine'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. Chapter 115 Part II amended; ESOL coursework floor reduced 24 → 15 SH

    The 5/14/2025 amendment to Chapter 115 Part II §1.8 reduced the conditional-certificate floor and Pathway 2 floor for the 660 (ESOL) endorsement from 24 to 15 semester hours. Pathway 3 retains its 24 SH and one-semester student-teaching requirement. The amendment did not introduce a state-named Praxis content test for the endorsement.

    maine.gov (opens in a new tab)

  4. DOE administrative letter on multilingual-services staffing

    Maine DOE issued an administrative letter and accompanying staffing guidance clarifying that sheltered instruction is one optional component of a district's multilingual-learner service model rather than a statewide mandate for all teachers. Confirms the schema's `sei.mandatedForAllTeachers: false` coding.

    maine.gov (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Maine Department of 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] Maine Chapter 115 Part II — Endorsement 660 (ESOL) requirements (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] Maine DOE — Multilingual Learner program hub (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] Maine DOE — Multilingual Services staffing guidance (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] Maine DOE — MECAS / ACCESS for ELLs page (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] Maine Initial Teacher Standards (InTASC, Rev. 8/2016) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] NCES Digest of Education Statistics, Table 204.20 (English Learners in Public Schools, fall 2021) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] Seal of Biliteracy — Maine (sealofbiliteracy.org) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08

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 8). Maine EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/me/
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_me_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Maine EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/me/},
  urldate = {2026-05-08},
  note    = {Last verified 2026-05-08}
}
@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.