A divided state board split ­Friday on granting variances that some Teach For America recruits need to teach this fall, granting four of seven applications.

The Minnesota Board of Teaching also rejected a variance for one TFA member who had taught in another state, then reversed that, and also tabled another such application.

The board granted all other applications in a pool of 24 people seeking a community expert waiver from teacher licensing requirements. The three people rejected from that pool were all TFA recruits.

Board members say that they want to give particular scrutiny to teachers who plan to teach elementary education. Opponents of the waivers argued that there are plenty of job applicants in that field who are licensed graduates of teacher colleges. Most of the approved variances were for immersion programs where special language skills are required, or summer school only.

Teach For America is a national program that recruits recent college graduates, giving them short but intensive training before sending them to schools with high enrollments of poor and minority students.

TFA has been granted a blanket waiver from state licensing for the past four years, but a board now filled with appointees of DFL Gov. Mark Dayton has taken a tougher line. It voted down a fifth blanket waiver in June.

That left TFA with two avenues for getting its expected 43 new recruits into Twin Cities area classrooms this fall. Most of the 32 who have been offered jobs so far are seeking temporary limited licenses, but those require that the applicant had at least a college minor in the field. TFA planned to apply for such licensing for most of those applicants Friday. The other avenue is applying as a community expert — someone without a license but with a special expertise, which requires board approval.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438

Twitter: @brandtstrib