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Tennessee

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

Tennessee 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 2021, 5.8% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-08.

5.8%
classified ELs (2021-10-01)
view trend →
ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual education

Not offered.

ESL Endorsement

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

ESL endorsement codes 488 (K-8), 489 (6-12), 490 (PreK-12). Praxis 5362 required (Professional Assessments Policy 5.105). Two pathways: traditional EPP-approved program, or TDOE's no-cost Additional Endorsement Program for already-licensed teachers (asynchronous coursework + Praxis), authorized under Educator Licensure Policy 5.502 (revised Feb 2025). ESL programs minimum 18 hours, 6 hours of college-level world language, aligned to TESOL P-12 Standards (Policy 5.505 §English as a Second Language). Practicum coded null because Policy 5.505 does not enumerate clinical/practicum hours separately for ESL — set by EPPs. 2024 update: TDOE moved EL assessment from WIDA/ACCESS to ELPA21 effective July 1, 2024 (first ELPA21 Summative Feb 5, 2025) and adopted ELPA21 ELD Standards in place of WIDA 2020. EL share rose from 4.6% (2019 baseline) to ~9% (TDOE May 2024 SBE workshop, 93,433 students); the current TDOE English Learners landing page (retrieved 2026-05-08) reports the EL count 'exceeded 83,000 in 2024-25' but does not publish a precise percentage, so the 9% / 2024-05-30 figure remains the most recent SEA-published number that can be coded precisely. NCES Digest 2023 Table 204.20 (Fall 2021) reports a lower 57,799 / 5.8% under a different denominator and is included for context.

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

Rule 0520-01-19-.03(8) requires annual ESL training only for teachers who provide Direct or Indirect ESL Services, not 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: www.tn.gov (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 Tennessee'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. ELP assessment migrated WIDA → ELPA21

    Per the May 30, 2024 SBE workshop 'English as a Second Language ELPA21 Transition' presentation, Tennessee transitioned from the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs to ELPA21 effective July 1, 2024, with the first ELPA21 Summative administration on February 5, 2025. The transition also introduced new Tennessee ELD Standards (10) aligned to the ELPA21 framework. The TDOE EL Assessments page now references ELPA21 as the operative annual ELP measure.

    tn.gov (opens in a new tab) · tn.gov (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] Tennessee 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] TDOE Licensure Resources — Endorsement Code Listings (PreK-12 ESL = 490; K-8 = 488; 6-12 = 489) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] TDOE Additional Endorsement Programs (SPED, ESL, CS) — State Board presentation, 2023 (Praxis 5362; Policy 5.502 + 5.505 + 5.105 references) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] State Board Rule 0520-01-19, English as a Second Language Programs (Sept 2024 Revised) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] TDOE English as a Second Language Manual (September 2023) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] TDOE English Learner (EL) Assessments — current page links to ELPA21 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] TDOE / SBE workshop — ESL ELPA21 Transition (May 30, 2024): WIDA→ELPA21 effective July 1, 2024; first ELPA21 Summative Feb 5, 2025; new TN ELD Standards (10) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  9. [9] TDOE Academic Standards — English Language Development (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  10. [10] Tennessee Teacher Code of Ethics (T.C.A. 49-5-1001 et seq.) — statutory ethics code, not the teaching standards document (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  11. [11] TN SBE Policy 5.505 — Literacy and Specialty Area Standards for Educator Preparation (Adopted 02/08/2019; Revised 11/21/2025). Source for professionalStandardsMentions: explicit references to diverse, cultural, linguistic, and English Learners across literacy and specialty-area standards; ESL programs aligned to TESOL P-12 Standards. (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  12. [12] TN SBE Policy 5.502 — Educator Licensure (Revised 02/21/2025). Operative SEA licensure policy authorizing endorsement pathways including ESL. (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  13. [13] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 — English learners enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools, by state: Fall 2011 through Fall 2021. Tennessee Fall 2021: 57,799 ELs / 5.8% (cross-state comparability reference; TN catalog primary remains the more recent TDOE 2024 figure). (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  14. [14] TDOE — English Learners landing page (current). Reports EL count 'exceeded 83,000 in 2024-25'; no precise percentage published. (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). Tennessee EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/tn/
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_tn_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{Tennessee EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/tn/},
  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.