That's right, they are not. Teachers who do not pass their
certification requirements are not teachers, either.
You obviously do not live in NYC. When the national proficiency exam was administered several years ago to newly-hired teachers, more than half failed. They remained on the job and remain on the job today.
News accounts at the time reported that a large percentage of NYC teachers (some estimated up to 40%) were not only uncertified, but uncertifiable.
Today, if you admininstered the 1960 NYC teacher certification test to working public school teachers, how many would remain on the job? At that time a NYC certification was recognized in every public school system in America.
And today...???