Alternative Certification: A Review of Theory and Research

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

The Impetus for Alternative Certification Alternative certification programs have grown rapidly across the U.S., in large part due to concerns about teacher quantity (Feistritzer & Chester, 2000). Estimates of the increases in numbers of students and teacher retirements over the next decade have led to the suggestion that we will need over two million new teachers in the next ten years (U.S. Dept. of Education, 1999). While this number is debatable, it has been one of the primary drivers of the alternative certification movement. In the Midwest, where fully one-quarter of the nation's school-aged children reside, the issue of teacher quantity is particularly salient. A recent NCREL study of teacher recruitment and retention found that 58% of districts in the north-central region reported hiring teachers under temporary licensure (Hare & Heap, 2001); this proxy measure of teacher supply and demand indicates a significant need for teachers in our region.

There are several other reasons why proponents of alternative certification have pushed for the development of these programs. Some advocates suggest that colleges of education are producing mediocre teacher candidates, and that alternative approaches that allow individuals to become certified without graduating from teacher preparation programs offer the opportunity to recruit highly-skilled people from the private sector who have developed real-world experience with subject matter (Haberman, 1991). This pool of potential teachers includes those who have decided to change careers, have left the military, have graduated with degrees in areas other than education, or who have received teaching certificates or education degrees years ago and now want to teach.

Two additional reasons cited by supporters for the need for alternate routes to teacher certification include the desire to address regional and subject-specific teacher shortages and the desire to diversify the teaching force—particularly in urban areas. This is because teacher shortages are more likely to be found in urban and rural schools than in suburban schools (Berry, 2000) and in specific subject areas such as math, science, and special education. Many states and school districts have created alternative programs to address these particular issues. In terms of diversity, Feistritzer and Chester (2000) note that nine percent of teachers and 26 percent of students in the U.S. are minorities. Alternative certification programs have the potential to recruit qualified people of color into the teaching profession.

Analyses of these assumptions by skeptics of AC programs cast some doubt on their validity. For one thing, concerns about the overall teacher shortage are somewhat inaccurate. While there is little doubt about certain demographic trends—such as the aging of the teaching force—closer examination of the data reveals that the impending dramatic shortage of teachers may be overstated. Many vacant teaching positions will be filled in the future not only by new graduates of teaching-preparation programs, but also by teachers who have relocated, left positions for other reasons, or returned to the teaching force after an extended absence.

In terms of teacher supply, recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that less than half of the teaching positions across the U.S. were filled by teachers who had just completed teacher education programs (Feistritzer & Chester, 2000). The rest of the positions were filled by people who had either earned their degrees over one year before or who were returning to teaching after having left for a period of time. Feistritzer and Chester estimate that colleges of education graduate more than twice as many new teachers each year (over 100,000) as are hired to teach immediately after graduation, and that about 25 percent of all current teachers hold undergraduate degrees in fields other than education. This means that there are actually plenty of people with education degrees, and if we consider the fact that many teachers hold degrees outside education, the pool of potential teachers is actually quite large. The frequently-cited figure of two million teachers needed over the next ten years becomes less daunting when one considers that schools of education will graduate over one million potential teachers in that period, and that many more potential teachers will come from other fields. The regional and subject-specific shortages described above will certainly continue to be significant problems, but are really issues of teacher distribution rather than availability.

Some proponents suggest that alternative certification programs offer the chance to circumvent inadequate schools of education and to increase the number of minorities entering the teaching profession. Opponents counter that less preparation is hardly an answer to concerns about teacher quality (Tozer & Miretzky, 1999). In addition, they note that, in urban districts with high percentages of students of color, almost 40% of the teachers are minorities. Regardless of the arguments, AC programs have proliferated substantially over the last 30 years. The number of alternative certification programs (as defined by Feistritzer & Chester, 2000) has grown to at least 85 across 40 states, and it is estimated that over 125,000 people have been certified through these programs. From 1998-1999, about 24,000 teachers gained certification through alternative programs (Feistritzer & Chester, 2000).

Early Approaches to Alternative Certification Two of the first alternative certification programs in the country started in Texas (1984) and New Jersey (1985). New Jersey's program required candidates to have earned a bachelor's degree, and included 200 hours of instruction, passage of a competency test, district-based supervision, and approval of the candidate by district personnel (Dill, 1996). The program was highly centralized, with the state taking responsibility for training, monitoring, and supervision.

As the number of AC programs began to grow, so did the variety of types of programs. While the New Jersey program was centralized, programs in Texas and California relied more on local school training and instruction by college faculty (Dill, 1996). Early programs typically included some amount of college course work, supervision of the first year of instruction, and mentoring by principals, college professors, or other professionals. Researchers followed these early programs closely, and evaluations of them (described below) showed mixed results.

Summary Alternative certification programs are intended to provide a different path into the field of teaching from the traditional one that includes a degree in education, supervised internship, and acceptable scores on tests of basic skills and knowledge of pedagogy. AC programs have been created to address perceived shortages of teachers, and offer a path into the field of education that does not require individuals with undergraduate degrees to become full-time college students again. People with the desire to change careers—including those who have left the military, as well as individuals with previous teaching experience or education—can enter AC programs and in a relatively short time be teaching a classroom of students.

While the components of AC programs vary widely from state to state and region to region, they typically involve some period of intensive, condensed academic course work or training. In addition, they usually require a period of supervised, on-the-job training in which new teachers are expected to learn their teaching skills in the classroom. Supervision ranges from very little to intensive oversight and mentoring on a constant basis for at least the first year. Typically, new teachers are expected to eventually pass certification tests and become fully certified teachers.