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West Virginia

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

West Virginia 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, 0.8% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-08.

0.8%
classified ELs (2021-10-01)
view trend →
ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual education

Not offered.

Policy 5202 (eff. 2025-01-11) lists no bilingual teaching specialization or endorsement; only ESL Pre-k-Adult appears as the EL-related credential.

ESL Endorsement

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

ESL Pre-k-Adult is a standalone teaching specialization in Policy 5202 (Tbl, eff. 2025-01-11). Issuance pathways: (1) completion of a WVBE-approved EPP aligned to TESOL national standards (Policy 5100 §6.6, eff. 2023-12-11) plus the Content Specialization Praxis (Policy 5202 §10.1.c.2.A.2); or (2) additional endorsement on an existing professional teaching certificate via passing the appropriate content-proficiency exam (Policy 5202 §21.1–§21.2). Field-based and yearlong-residency clinical experiences are required by Policy 5100 §6.7.b and §6.8. No language-proficiency exam is required for ESL (those requirements are limited to ASL and the modern foreign languages).

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

No SEI mandate appears in Policy 5202, 5100, or 5310. WV relies on the ESL-endorsed specialist model rather than requiring all teachers to complete SEI coursework.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2021.

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.elpa21.org (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 West Virginia'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. West Virginia adopts the Seal of Biliteracy

    Per the national Seal of Biliteracy state tracker, West Virginia adopted the Seal of Biliteracy on 2021-03-18, recognizing high school graduates who attain proficiency in English and one or more additional languages. Prior to this verification the record had `adopted: false` based on a now-stale Wikipedia table; the SoB national page confirms WV adoption.

    sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

  3. WVPTS reaffirmed in revised Policy 5310

    WVBE Policy 5310 (Performance Evaluation of Professional Personnel and Athletic Coaches, 126CSR142) is amended; §13.1 continues to set the West Virginia Professional Teaching Standards as five summary elements that determine 80 percent of a teacher's summative rating. None of the five elements explicitly references diverse, cultural, linguistic, or English Learner content.

    apps.sos.wv.gov (opens in a new tab)

  4. Educator preparation rules amended (Policy 5100)

    WVBE Policy 5100 (Approval of Educator Preparation Programs, 126CSR114) is amended. EPPs leading to the ESL Pre-k-Adult specialization must align to the National Standards for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and to the current state-approved content standards, with field-based and yearlong-residency clinical experiences required for all initial-licensure programs.

    apps.sos.wv.gov (opens in a new tab)

  5. Licensure rules amended (Policy 5202)

    WVBE Policy 5202 (Minimum Requirements for the Licensure of Professional/Paraprofessional Personnel, 126CSR136) becomes effective. ESL Pre-k-Adult is retained as a teaching specialization; §18.10 articulates the ESL teacher's role with English Learners; §21.1–§21.2 allow an additional endorsement on an existing professional teaching certificate via the appropriate content-proficiency Praxis score.

    apps.sos.wv.gov (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] West Virginia 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] WVBE Policy 5202, Minimum Requirements for the Licensure of Professional/Paraprofessional Personnel (126CSR136), eff. 2025-01-11 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  4. [4] WVBE Policy 5100, Approval of Educator Preparation Programs (126CSR114), eff. 2023-12-11 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  5. [5] WVBE Policy 5310, Performance Evaluation of Professional Personnel and Athletic Coaches (126CSR142), eff. 2023-10-16 (houses the WVPTS at §13.1) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  6. [6] NCES Condition of Education, English Learners in Public Schools (Fall 2021) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  7. [7] Seal of Biliteracy — West Virginia state page (adopted 2021-03-18) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-08
  8. [8] WIDA Consortium — member-state roster (WV not listed, consistent with ELPA21 use) (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). West Virginia EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/wv/
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_wv_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{West Virginia EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/wv/},
  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.