1. Before anyone can add the Library Media Specialist to his or her Kansas
teaching license, he or she must complete the content test. Test number
10310 is offered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Registration
Bulletins may be obtained at any four-year institution of higher education
and at most junior colleges. This requirement was effective September
1, 2003.
2. For those completing the SLIM LMS program before September 1, 2004,
if you apply for the endorsement before that date you will fall under
the present certification requirements. After that date, you fall under
the new licensure requirements which stipulate you must have a master’s
degree, complete the school library media program (27 hours) and have
a professional or five-year standard certificate. Remember you have to
apply before September 1, 2004. If you do not, you are subject to the
new licensure requirements. Details follow.
3. After September 1, 2004, you are not eligible for a conditional Library
Media License unless you have a professional license or a current 5-year
certificate. To move from a conditional license to a professional license,
you must successfully complete the supervised internship on the job.
This is the performance assessment for advanced degree programs. If the
LMS is not employed as a LMS in a public school during the time of the
first two-year conditional, he/she may apply within five years of issuance
of the first two-year conditional for a two-year extension (another two-year
conditional). If a person does not apply within five years of issuance
of the first two-year conditional, he/she can retake the content test
provided it has not been completed within one year or take eight graduate
semester hours in Library Media.
4. If a LMS is not employed as a school librarian and cannot complete
the performance assessment and uses both two-year conditionals, current
Kansas State Department of Education Regulations do not allow for a teacher
to qualify for an additional or third conditional School Library Media
license.
5. A person may be hired in a public school library if he/she has completed
fifty percent of the program (14 hours) and has a professional license
or the current five-year standard certificate. This is a provisional
license, is valid for two years, and may be renewed for two additional
years by completing fifty percent of the remaining hours of the approved
program (7 hours). After finishing the program (27 hours), a person will
be granted a conditional license and be subject to completion of the
performance assessment. In addition, after September 1, 2004, a person
must have an advanced degree. Always contact the licensing officer at
Emporia State University for the applications for the provisional(s)
and for the application for the first conditional license.
Judy Wild is the Emporia State University certification/licensure office
and can answer individual questions. Her phone number is 620/341-5412.
Please
note that under the new guidelines, an individual just graduating
from an institution of higher education with a completed teacher
education program and a bachelor’s degree may not become a licensed LMS because
that person does not have a professional teaching license. Also note
that after September 1, 2004, the new requirements stipulate a Master’s
Degree plus the program hours, another major change from the old
certification guidelines. The new KSDE Regulations do provide for
a provisional license
but only if you have a professional license (or a standard five-year
certificate). The content test, 0310 Library Media Specialist,
is required for anyone applying for the first conditional license.
A passing score
is not a requirement until September 1, 2005. Successful completion
of a yearlong internship is required to move from a conditional
to a professional
license.
