The School of Education offers Post Baccalaureate licensure programs at the Elementary, Middle, and Secondary levels.

Questions about licensure?

Erin Sotelo
Licensure Officer
Erin.Sotelo@uis.edu
217-206-7370

Types of Licenses

Professional Educator License (PEL) - This is the initial teaching license. A PEL requires student teaching.

Subsequent Endorsements (SE) - Subsequent endorsements are optional. They are added to a PEL to expand the level and/or content in which you’re licensed to teach. An SE usually requires fewer content-specific credit hours.

Both the PEL and an SE require:

  • Passing a content test (there are a few exceptions to this!)
  • Specific coursework

A PEL requires student teaching.

Subsequent endorsements usually require fewer content-specific credit hours.

Professional Educator License (PEL)

Basic Licensing Requirements for PEL

  1. Bachelor's Degree
  2. Required coursework completed
  3. Required field hours completed
  4. Pass appropriate content test
  5. No course grades lower than C- and meet minimum GPA requirements
  6. Final Student Teaching grade of at least C

For a PEL, students choose one level and (if applicable) one content area. UIS offers the following:

  • Elementary Education (Grades 1-6, self-contained classrooms)
  • Middle Grades (Grades 5-8)
    Content options: English, Math, General Science, Social Science
  • Secondary (Grades 9-12)
    Content options: English, History, Sociology/Anthropology, Political Science, Math, Biology, Chemistry

It’s recommended that you work closely with your academic advisor for course planning. See the advising page for more information.

Subsequent Endorsements

The School of Education offers subsequent endorsements in the following areas:

  • Computer Applications
  • Computer Science
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Educational Technology
  • English as a Second Language
  • Learning Behavior Specialist 1

The PEL serves as a foundation to which subsequent endorsements can be added. 

  • Subsequent endorsements are not required. They are optional.
  • Subsequent endorsements can be added at any grade level.  They do not have to be the same grade range as the PEL.
  • Specific requirements and additional subsequent endorsements can be found on the ISBE website.