United States Virgin Islands Department of Education

 Division of Human Resources

To view information on the No Child Left Behind Act, click on the banner:

Certification Information

General Certification Requirements

Every school-based professional appointed to the Virgin Islands public school system AFTER the 1991-1992 school year must complete a course in Virgin Islands History within the first year of employment.

Also, every new secondary school teacher or elementary content area teacher (art, music, physical education, etc.) hired AFTER the 1995-1996 school year must take and pass the Praxis I examination, which consists of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics sections.  Elementary K-6 teachers must take the Praxis II examination in Elementary Education: Content Knowledge.

The Virgin Islands passing scores for the Praxis I paper and pencil exams are:

173 for Reading

172 for Writing and

171 for Math

For the computer based test, the passing scores are:

322 for Reading

320 for Writing and

315 for Math

According to the V.I. Board of Education's Certification document (available here), there are also general course requirements for any person who would like to teach in the United States Virgin Islands. Elementary school teachers need 36 Education credits, and Secondary school teachers need 26 education credits.

The areas are:

1. Foundations of Education. (This group includes areas such as philosophy of Education, school effectiveness, history of education, and comparative education);

2.    Educational Psychology (This group includes such areas as growth and development of children from birth through life span, psychology of learning, child-adolescent psychology and mental hygiene);

3.  Curriculum and Methods (This group includes a minimum of [18 for elementary, 8 for secondary] semester hours of credit in teaching language arts, reading, mathematics,  fine arts, science, social studies,  and effective teaching skills, classroom management, measurement and evaluation);

4.    Educational Technology;

5.   Special Education;

6. Student Teaching (supervised observation, participation and full-time responsible teaching in an elementary school, totaling at least 6 but not more than 12 semester hours of credit). Teachers who have taught in the Virgin Islands public school system with satisfactory or better evaluations for five consecutive years do not have to complete a student teaching course. This applies only to teachers hired in 1997 or before.

All teachers must have a minimum of a Bachelor's Degree, and secondary school teacher applicants must possess a minimum of a college major and/or 30 credits in any area they wish to teach. Secondary school applicants with less than 30 credits in their content area, but more than 15 credits in that area, can take the Praxis II exam in that subject area to show content area competency.

Virgin Islands Board of Education (St. Thomas)

P.O. Box 11900 Dronningens Gade Nos. 60B, 61 and 62

St. Thomas, V.I. 00801

Tel: (340) 774-4546 Fax: (340) 774-3384

Virgin Islands Board of Education (St. Croix)

Sunny Isles Professional Building, Suite #1

St. Croix, V.I. 00820

Tel: (340) 772-4144 Fax: (340)772-2895

If you have any specific questions about certification, we have a copy of the V.I. Board of Education's Certification Regulations Document. Current and prospective teachers are encouraged to download a copy for their records by right-clicking here (PDF, 130k)

St. Croix:
P.O. Box 5166
Christiansted, St. Croix
U.S. Virgin Islands 00823
Telephone: (340) 719-0031
Fax: (340) 719-0025

St. Thomas:
P.O. Box 11060
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
U.S. Virgin Islands 00801
Telephone: (340) 714-7437
Fax: (340) 714-7927

To view the certification requirements for the Vocational Board, click here.  44k (PDF)

Troops to Teachers Program

Troops to Teachers provides referral assistance and placement service to military personnel interested in beginning a second career as a teacher in K-12 public education. The purpose of the Troops to Teachers program is to recruit quality teachers for schools serving low-income families. It helps relieve teacher shortages, primarily in Math, Science, & Special Education, and to assist military personnel transition to second careers as teachers in K-12, public schools. There's been a major change to the program: eligibility now extends to National Guard and Reserve Component Personnel. For more information on the Troops to Teachers program, click HERE for their official site. The contact person for the United States Virgin Islands Troops to Teachers program is Lieutenant Steve Alexander. His email address is: steve.alexander@vi.ngb.army.mil

If necessary, the University of the Virgin Islands offers Undergraduate and Graduate level courses to meet the certification requirements. You can get more information by visiting their web site here.

The Division of Human Resources has a teacher information database that can be used to assist current teachers in determining which courses might be needed for certification. In St. Croix, you can call (340) 773-1095 ext. 358 and ask for either Mr. Saul Santiago or Mr. Cletus Emmanuel. In St. Thomas, you can call (340) 774-0100 ext. 3077 and ask for Mr. Andy Rey.

(since 9/12/05)

Send mail to Saul Santiago at Teachusvi@doe.vi with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 02/25/08