National Center for Education Information

NEWS RELEASE

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE
Thursday a.m., February 3, 2000

Contact: Emily Feistritzer
(202) 362-3444

Interest among the states in providing alternate routes for certifying teachers is escalating.

In 1998-99 alone, states have developed 10 new alternate route programs. In the past two years, 14 states have passed, introduced or plan to introduce new legislation to establish alternative programs for the preparation and certification of individuals who already have a bachelor's degree and want to become teachers. These states are: Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

More than 125,000 individuals have been certified through alternative routes. In 1998-99, more than 24,000 teachers were certified through alternative routes in just 28 states that kept these data.

Nearly all of the states -- 40 of them -- now have some type of alternative to going back to college and majoring in education in order to become a teacher. The states currently report 115 such programs.

These are among the findings in a new study conducted by the Washington-based National Center for Education Information and released February 3 in a 422-page report, entitled, ALTERNATIVE TEACHER CERTIFICATION: A State-by-State Analysis 2000.

"What we are seeing are market forces in action," said Dr. C. Emily Feistritzer, President of the National Center for Education Information and co-author of the study. "People from all walks of life are stepping forward to meet the projected demand for teachers. Many of these individuals already have at least a bachelor's degree, so the old model of training teachers in undergraduate education programs does not work. States are aggressively meeting the challenge by creating new training and licensing avenues for people to enter teaching," Dr. Feistritzer added.

These alternative teacher certification routes provide opportunities for people from various educational backgrounds and walks of life to become teachers. They have opened doors to teaching for persons from other careers, from the military, from liberal arts colleges, former teachers who want to upgrade their credentials and get back into teaching and for people who trained to teach years ago but never did.

In 1999, 36 states said they currently have programs targeted specifically to bring individuals from careers other than education, the military, retirees, liberal arts graduates, and others into the teaching profession.

Compared with recent college graduates who come into teaching directly from a traditional teacher preparation program, those entering teaching through alternate routes...

• Have degrees with majors in subjects other than education;
• Are more likely to have work experience in occupations other than education;
• Tend to be older;
• Are more likely to be people of color; and
• Are more likely to be men.

In addition, alternate route candidates teach where job demand is greatest -- in inner cities and in outlying rural areas -- and in high-demand subject areas.

NCEI found state officials reporting a marked increase in interest in alternative teacher certification from legislators, higher education officials, local school district officials -- but most especially, from people wanting to get licensed to teach.

And the states said the likelihood that individuals could find a teaching job is highest for those who have a background in mathematics, science, or special education.

Early data indicate that individuals entering teaching through alternative routes have higher retention rates than those entering teaching from traditional college-based programs. Reasons given for this are:

• Teachers coming through alternative routes generally are older, more experienced and have a strong commitment to helping young people learn and develop.
• They are making a definitive decision to teach at this point in their lives.
• Their preparation programs have provided intense field-based, in-the-classroom training and instruction.
• They have received on-the-job training under the guidance of mentor or master teachers.
• They have had the support of college faculty, schoolteachers and their peers while actually teaching.

One of the reasons given for the high attrition rate for new teachers in their first few years of teaching is that they receive very little support and professional development as beginning teachers. This issue is directly addressed in the very design of alternative preparation programs, which, if anything, err on the side of getting prospective teachers into classrooms too early.

Some major states now generate a significant percentage of their new teachers from alternative route programs. California gets about 18 percent of new teacher hires through its alternative routes. Texas gets 16 percent, and New Jersey gets 22 percent.