Becoming a high school english teacher

Not sure about California because it varies by state. In many states one would not need a bachelor's degree in English, but rather in English Education and complete a teacher's certificate program. When I was in college many decades ago it was a 3-4 year program unless one went the route of bachelor's degree in English and then went to get a Teacher's Certificate in which case that would be 4 years undergrad and 2 after. Hiring requirements can also vary by school. A private or religious school might accept someone to teach even if they don't have a teacher's certificate. They might require that the person does night classes and be working on a certificate.

Others with more current knowledge on the topic will want to know what time this is set in?

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Lived in CA in from 1956 to 1978 (with a break for two year at UCSC). You definitely need all three things. The year of teacher's training follows the BA in English. So, 5 years for the degrees. Not sure how long certification takes, but probably not that long. Also not sure if there's an extra year of student teaching or if that's part of the teaching program.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

In many states, including California, there are two paths to becoming a teacher: getting a degree in education, or getting a degree in a subject (Math, English, History, etc) and then being a student teacher for a set amount of time. It involves taking a few courses, teaching for a set amount of time (often under supervision of a trained teacher), and then there's a certificate at the end of it.

DH used to teach English in TN. He had a BA in English, went to the school system and said, "I want to teach English." And they said, "Okay, you can be a student teacher." So he did student teaching for a bit, realized he didn't care for it, and never went past that.

In TX, I part-time substitute teach, but in my school district, all I need to substitute teach is a high school diploma/GED equivalent. However, pay scale is tied to your educational advancement: someone who only has a high school diploma will make $x/day, whereas someone with a Bachelor's will make $y/day, and someone with a Master's will make $z/day. And it would be possible for someone to teach English for an extended period as a sub-- for example, if the usual English teacher is on maternity leave, or something like that, the sub will take on 100% of the teacher's normal duties, versus the abbreviated duties that you cover for one-off's.

Moving beyond anecdote, requirements for teaching in a California public high school are pretty well-defined and easily found. Here they are.

I advise going to the Department of Education website for the state in which you are interested in teaching (California), then check on the multiple paths to licensure for that specific state.

Also, one can teach in a private school without certification. For example, I worked with people who had "real" (not Education) degrees in their subjects in the private school setting. Some of these people had actual doctorates, but were not allowed to work in public because they lacked certification. The drawback to working in private is that the salary is considerably less than that of public.