Teacher Credentialing in California
(Bilingual) Crosscultural, Language and Academic Development (CLAD/BCLAD) Credential

With 25% of California students who are categorized at LEP students in California and over 100 spoken languages in California schools, the Bilingual Teacher Training Program (BTTP) was created to help teachers prepare in the methodologies used to facilitate EL students to acquire English and their academic development. There are two programs that are established at this time: the Crosscultural, Language and Academic Development (CLAD) and the Bilingual, Crosscultural, Language and Academic Development (BCLAD) certificates. These are the basic documents that authorize instruction to English language learners in the state of California. The BCLAD Certificate authorizes instruction in the students native language.  These certificates are granted after taking a series of examinations. The BCLAD certification requires passage of six exams while the CLAD certification only requires passage of the first three tests:

 Test One - First and second language development

 Test Two - Methodology and theories of bilingual education

 Test Three - Culture and diversity

 Test Four - Methodology for primary-language instruction

 Test Five - Covers a specific culture - there are multiple versions of this test

 Test Six - Covers a specific language - there are multiple versions of this test

There are a number of versions of this certification including emergency and intern certification.  General information about the CLAD/BCLAD certification examination can be found at the CLAD/BCLAD page on the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) website.

General information on all documents that authorize instruction to English Language Learners, including information about emergency certification, types of instruction authorized under different credentials, internships, BCLAD certification, specialist credentials, and a list of institutions with approved B/CLAD programs can be found at Leaflet CL-622 - Serving (LEP) Students on the CCTC website.

Specific information about CLAD certificates can be found at Leaflet CL-628c - CLAD Certificates on the CCTC website.  This includes types of instruction authorized, requirements for the certificate, information about the specific examinations, and the language requirements for the certificate.  Information about BCLAD certificates can be found at Leaflet CL-628b - BCLAD Certificates.

1998 Revisions can be found at
Revised Knowledge and Skill Areas Assessed on Tests 1-3 of the B/CLAD Examinations

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