IntroductionIntroduction
Alternative routes for certifying teachers are proliferating at a rapid rate in the United States. What began in the early 1980s as a way to ward off projected shortages of teachers and replace emergency certification has evolved into a sophisticated model for recruiting, training and certifying people who already have at least a bachelor's degree and want to become teachers.
Every state in the nation is now taking seriously the challenge to create alternatives to the traditional undergraduate college teacher education program route for certifying teachers.
The Federal government has entered the field by appropriating $41.65 million in the current 2003 fiscal year budget for a Transition to Teaching program to assist mid-career professionals to obtain certification as elementary and secondary teachers. This represents an increase of $6.65 million over last year’s appropriation.
In addition, the Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) legislation in December 2001 that authorized $3.175 billion for fiscal year 2002 and "such sums as may be necessary for each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years" for "Title II -- Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High Quality Teachers and Principals." The provision includes "establishing programs that … recruit qualified professionals from other fields … and provide such professionals with alternative routes to teacher certification, including developing and implementing hiring policies that ensure comprehensive recruitment efforts as a way to expand the applicant pool, such as through identifying teachers certified through alternative routes, and using a system of intensive screening designed to hire the most qualified applicants."
We at the National Center for Education Information (NCEI) have been surveying the states since 1983 regarding alternative routes to the traditional undergraduate college approved program route for certifying teachers. The results of those efforts are published annually. This publication provides information and analyses to prospective teachers, as well as policy and decision-makers, about alternative routes to teacher certification, in the United States. This current edition, ALTERNATIVE TEACHER CERTIFICATION: A State-by-State Analysis 2003, is organized into six parts and includes:
Executive Summary
Overview of Alternative Teacher Certification
Results of 2003 NCEI State Survey of Alternative Teacher Certification
State Contacts for Alternative Teacher Certification Routes
Summary of Entry and Program Requirements for Alternative Routes
Profile and Classification of Each Alternative Teacher Certification Route in
Each State
Classification system developed by NCEI to characterize different programs states identify as “alternative routes.”
A detailed description of each of the alternative teacher certification programs in each of the states.
Lists of colleges and universities in each state that have developed alternative teacher preparation programs.
Lists of colleges and universities in each state that have any type of teacher preparation program.
Numbers of types of teaching licenses issued in each state in the last decade.
Numbers of teachers in each state and numbers of new hires in each state for each of the past 10 years.
Contact people within each state for alternative teacher certification and for finding a teaching job.
I wish to thank the many people who made this project possible -- the people in every state agency of education who answered our questions, who put up with our numerous telephone calls, e-mails, faxes and mailings and came through with the information that makes this manual so valuable. They have enabled us to tell this current and complete story of alternative routes to teacher certification in the United States. Lastly, I wish to thank my colleague and friend of 15 years, David Chester, without whom this -- and all the projects NCEI undertakes -- would not be possible.
Emily Feistritzer
February 24, 2003
All sales are final and there are NO REFUNDS!
Also visit the State Alternative Certification Contacts list.
Dr. Feistritzer is president of the National Center for Education Information
in Washington, D.C.
The National Center for Education Information
4401 Connecticut Ave., NW, #212
Washington, D.C. 20008
http://www.ncei.com
Tel: (202) 822-8280 Fax: (202) 822-8284
