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All states / Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

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

Pennsylvania does not offer a bilingual education credential; ELD/ESL is an add-on endorsement. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2022, 5.3% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-10.

5.3%
classified ELs (2022-10-01)
view trend →
ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual education

Not offered.

PDE does not issue a bilingual or dual-language certification. State regulation 22 Pa. Code § 4.26 names 'bilingual-bicultural' as one program type a district may operate, but no credential is awarded for it.

ESL Program Specialist

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

ESL Program Specialist PK-12. Add-on to a PA Instructional I or II certificate (CSPG #68, rev. 7/1/2023). State-approved preparation program with field experience/student teaching with ESL students. No state ESL test (per PDE ESL FAQ).

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

No SEI-style in-service mandate. However, 22 Pa. Code § 49.13(b)(4)(i) requires all teacher preparation programs to include at least 3 credits or 90 hours addressing the instructional needs of English language learners — a pre-service requirement, not the AZ/CA/MA SEI endorsement model.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2022.

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. 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 Pennsylvania'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)

  2. Pennsylvania Seal of Biliteracy adopted

    Pennsylvania adopted a State Seal of Biliteracy in 2022, awarding the seal to graduating high school students demonstrating proficiency in English and one or more additional languages.

    sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

  3. PDE CSPG #68 ESL Program Specialist policy revised

    PDE issued the current revision of Certification Staffing Policy Guideline #68 effective 2023-07-01, clarifying that to teach ESL in a PA public school an educator must hold a PA Instructional I or II certificate plus the ESL Program Specialist PK-12 add-on (or a comparable out-of-state ESL certificate earned via a full instructional program with student teaching).

    pa.gov (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Pennsylvania 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] PDE — ESL Program Specialist (Current PA Educators) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] PDE — CSPG #68: ESL Program Specialist PK-12 (Certification Staffing Policy Guidelines, rev. 7/1/2023) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] PDE — ESL Frequently Asked Questions (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] PDE — Basic Education Circular: Educating Students Who Are English Learners (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] PDE — Educating English Learners (program overview) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] 22 Pa. Code Chapter 49 — Certification of Professional Personnel (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] 22 Pa. Code Chapter 354 — Preparation of Professional Educators (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] 22 Pa. Code Chapter 235 — Code of Professional Practice and Conduct for Educators (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  11. [11] WIDA Consortium — overview (member states) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  12. [12] WIDA — Pennsylvania member page (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  13. [13] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 — English learners in public elementary and secondary schools, by state, fall 2011–2021 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  14. [14] Pennsylvania Department of Education, Enrollment data (FY 2022-23) (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). Pennsylvania EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/pa/
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_pa_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Pennsylvania EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/pa/},
  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.