STATEMENT OF C. EMILY FEISTRITZER
President
National Center for Education Information
Washington, DC

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD, YOUTH AND FAMILIES
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

TEACHER PREPARATION AND CLASSROOM SIZE REDUCTION
Tuesday, February 24, 1998
2175 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC

I. TEACHER SUPPLY AND DEMAND

The Administration and the Congress of the United States are being called upon again to respond to a projected demand for additional teachers in this nation.

The demand for more teachers is based on enrollment increases, increased retirements of teachers, general attrition, and most recently, efforts to reduce class size.

The current projections call for 2 million new teachers in the next decade or 200,000 new teachers per year for the next ten years.

But before millions -- or billions -- of additional dollars are spent to recruit, train and certify millions of new teachers, many of whom will never find a teaching job, the Administration and Congress need to look beyond these numbers at some of the realities behind this so-called teacher crisis.

First of all, none of these numbers are cause for alarm. They do beg for context, clarity and definition. Changing definitions of new teacher muddle the issue. New teacher can refer to new to the nation, new to a particular state, new to a school district, new to a school building, new teacher graduate or brand new to teaching. Another complicating variable in the teacher shortage issue is how teachers are counted -- whether or not part-time teachers, substitutes, private school teachers are included in the counts.

When most people hear that well need 200,000 new teachers every year for the next decade, they think it means brand new teachers -- people who have never taught before. Well, that is not what it means. That projection means that 200,000 teachers may be newly hired in a given year. To illustrate, 200,000 people who are not currently teaching in the 1997-98 school year might be hired to teach in the 1998-99 school year. They will be counted as new teachers, even though a large number of them will actually be former teachers coming back into the profession or people who trained to teach at some earlier time, but were not attending college the year immediately prior to being hired.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics Schools and Staffing Survey, 5.8 percent of the total teacher workforce of 2.39 million were newly hired in 1993-94 (the latest year for which these data are available). Of these 139,000 newly hired teachers, fewer than half (42 percent) were newly minted teachers, that is, teachers who had just finished a college program and had never taught before. Nearly one-fourth (24 percent) of them were delayed entrants -- people teaching for the first time, but who were doing something else other than going to college the year before teaching. The remaining third of new teachers were actually former teachers coming back into the profession. Six years earlier, more than half of the new teachers hired in 1987-88 (52 percent) were actually teachers re-entering the profession.

The largest teachers union, the National Education Association, reported in its Status of the American Public School Teacher, 1995-96 that only 2.1 percent of the 2.164 million public school teachers that year were teaching for their first year. That translates into approximately 44,000 teachers.

A survey of public school teachers conducted by our National Center for Education Information revealed the same thing -- about two percent of teachers said they had one years teaching experience.

These statistics are terribly important. The bottom line is the nation is hiring -- and is projected to need to hire -- approximately 45,000 newly minted teachers per year. That is a far cry from 200,000!

Now, just how many newly minted teachers is the country already turning out each year?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 106,079 bachelors degrees in education were conferred in 1994-95, the latest year for which NCES has published data. In addition, 101,242 Masters degrees in education and 6,905 doctorates in education were conferred. Every year in this decade, colleges and universities have been awarding more than 100,000 bachelors degrees in education alone. The education field is second only to business in number of degrees conferred.

There were more than 6 million people holding at least a bachelors degree in education in the United States in 1993, according to the Bureau of the Census, which published these data last year. They account for 16.2 percent of all bachelors degree holders in the country.

Most people who get a bachelors degree in education are considered qualified to teach. In fact, experts who are claiming that there are too many unqualified teachers teaching define qualified to teach as someone who has gone through a college education program approved by the state department of education which has the authority to then confer a license to teach.

There are a lot of people out there who, by this definition, are fully qualified to teach BUT who are not teaching -- more than 4 million of them! Its been known for a long time that only about a third of fully qualified teachers who graduate from the nations 1200 or so colleges that train teachers in any given year are actually teaching the following year.

Of note in this discussion is the fact that only about three out of four current teachers have a bachelors degree in education. One fourth have a bachelors degree in a field other than education.

Will -- without doing anything differently -- there be enough teachers to meet the demands of the next decade?

The 1996 Metropolitan Life survey of public school students in grades 9 through 12 revealed that 8 percent said they were very interested in becoming a teacher. An additional 23 percent said they were somewhat interested. Thats about one-third of approximately 13 million high school students expressing some interest in becoming a teacher. If the 8 percent who said they were very interested in becoming a teacher actually become teachers, it would translate into more than a million new teachers! -- Thats four years worth of current high school students producing half of the projected demand for new teachers in the next 10 years.

Another set of studies by the U.S. Department of Education concerning expected occupations of 8th, 10th and 12th graders by age 30 showed that 7.5 percent of 12th graders in 1992 (the latest year for which the Department has published data) expected to be teaching by age 30. That translates into about 182,000 teachers out of that class of high school seniors alone.

These data go on and on. The proportion of high school students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) who indicate they intend to major in education when they go to college has been steadily rising and is currently about 7 percent. Recruiting New Teachers (RNT), which gets millions of dollars to recruit new teachers reports that more than a million people have contacted them regarding interest in a teaching career. Teach for America, another nonprofit effort to get young, non-education degreed college graduates into teaching has no problem , with far more people wanting to get in their program than they are able to accommodate or find jobs for.

And all of these programs and all of these statistics pertain to the young.

Probably the biggest change that has occurred in this arena is the huge interest in teaching from older people -- life experienced people from other careers, early retirees from the military and other occupations, former teachers, people who have raised their own families and want to teach.

It is this huge market that is most ill served by the current system -- from the colleges that historically have had responsibility for training teachers, to the state departments that are responsible for licensing them , to the schools that are ultimately responsible for hiring teachers.

The current system was designed for high school graduates who go to college, complete an undergraduate state approved college teacher education program, resulting in a license to teach in that state , and who then get hired by a school district which generally assigns teachers on the basis of filling vacancies, not necessarily, qualifications.

The current system has produced and continues to produce far more people fully qualified to teach than the system can hire. So, why all the alarms about teacher shortages? Some of the obvious reasons are:

… The demand for additional teachers is not uniform throughout the nation. The demands for new teachers are greatest in inner cities and in specific subject areas, such as special education and bilingual education.

… Only about four percent of students in traditional college teacher education programs say they are interested in teaching in inner cities.

… The vast majority of teacher education candidates want to teach near where they currently live.

… Many people who get education degrees never intend to use the degree to teach.

… Licensing of teachers is structured such that mobility across state lines is difficult.

II. ALTERNATIVE TEACHER CERTIFICATION -- AN OVERVIEW

Alternative teacher certification offers a viable solution to both teacher quantity and teacher quality demands.

The alternative teacher certification movement rose out of a need for more and better teachers. Faced with the threat of teacher shortages and concern about the quality of the teaching force, states have stepped forward to meet the demand. They have developed new avenues whereby people could come into the teaching profession.

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.

The National Center for Education Information (NCEI) has been polling the state departments of education annually since 1983 regarding teacher education and certification. We have found a rapid development of alternative routes at the state level. By 1997, 41 states, plus the District of Columbia, report having some type of alternative teacher certification program. States report a total of 117 programs now available for persons who already have a bachelors degree and want to become licensed to teach. It is estimated that more than 75,000 persons have been licensed through such state-run programs. Thousands more are being licensed to teach who are participating in college alternative teacher preparation programs.

The term alternative teacher certification has been used to refer to every avenue to becoming licensed to teach -- from emergency certification to very sophisticated and well-designed programs that address the professional preparation needs of the growing population of individuals who already have at least a baccalaureate degree and considerable life experience who want to become teachers.

To understand how alternative teacher certification evolved, it is necessary to understand the process by which individuals become licensed to teach in the United States.

The authority for licensing teachers lies within each state in the United States. The regular route for licensing teachers is "the approved college teacher education program route." This process means that a college or university submits a plan for a teacher preparation program for each discipline and/or grade level(s), following state-established guidelines, which the state then "approves." A candidate for a teaching license applies directly to a college or university, takes the required courses and meets other specified requirements, such as student teaching, passage of tests, and any other requirements specified by the college's "approved program". Upon completion of the "approved program", the candidate is then granted a regular or standard license to teach.

The requirements for obtaining a license to teach through approved program routes vary enormously -- not only from state to state but from institution to institution.

Some states require passing different tests and differing lengths of time spent student teaching. Some require observation in schools before student teaching. Some institutions of higher education have added a "fifth year' to their teacher education programs. Others have added internships. Others have done away with undergraduate teacher preparation programs altogether -- and just have a postbaccalaureate program of teacher preparation.

Some states require only the initial certificate; other states require a second or third stage certificate -- sometimes with continuing education requirements and sometimes resulting in a life or permanent certificate.

The terminology used for various types of teaching licenses is terribly confusing. There are 30 different titles used for the initial teaching certificates, and more than 50 titles used for the second stage teaching certificates throughout the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

In an effort to simplify the process, alternative teacher certification has evolved as a respectable and sensible route for licensing teachers and has spawned many new programs that provide excellent preparation and training for a career in teaching.

Most of these programs are collaborative efforts among state departments of education whose responsibility it is to license teachers, colleges and universities that historically have had the responsibility for educating and training teachers, and school districts that actually hire teachers.

Alternative teacher preparation and certification programs focus on getting prospective teachers into actual teaching situations working with a mentor teacher early in the program. While this is a major criticism by teacher education experts, teachers themselves report that ones own teaching experiences followed by other teachers/colleagues and courses in subjects to be taught are the most valuable to them in developing competence to teach. The least valuable were the college of education faculty, inservice activities and education methods courses.

Growing numbers of governors, state commissioners of education, deans of education and other political and educational leaders are stepping forward in favor of some type of alternative certification. Local school administrators, school board presidents, parents of school children, and the general public also recognize the value of alternate routes as a means of improving America's educational system. The 1996 NCEI survey of teachers showed that more than half (54 percent) of public school teachers and 68 percent of teachers in private schools agreed that recruiting adults who have experience in careers other than teaching would improve America's educational system.

Despite the growing interest in alternative routes for certifying teachers, most states programs are underutilized, due primarily to opposition from state officials and colleges within the state that control teacher education and certification.

However, states such as California, New Jersey and Texas that have been aggressive in using their alternative programs not only to meet the demand for more teachers, but also to improve the quality of their teaching force, report huge success on both fronts.

Many in this nation have expressed concern about the declining numbers of minority teachers coming through traditional teacher education programs and, consequently, the declining proportion of the teaching force that is minority.

The use of alternate routes gives promise of increasing the representation of minorities in the nation's teaching force. Nationally, nine percent of public school teachers are minorities. This compares with about a third of teachers coming through alternative routes who are minorities.

Other areas of concern regarding demand for teachers are inner cities, bilingual education, special education and mathematics and science. Data support that response to those demands can be met. Surveys of individuals who had inquired about alternative teacher certification conducted by the National Center for Education Information in summer 1992 showed widespread interest in teaching in all parts of the country, all types of communities -- including inner cities -- and in all subject areas. Eighteen percent of those surveyed said they would teach in any state, and 44 percent said they were willing to teach in inner cities, 85 percent in small, non-rural towns, 69 percent in rural areas and 85 percent in suburban regions.

Alternative routes for preparing and licensing teachers are attracting large numbers of highly qualified, talented and enthusiastic individuals to the teaching profession. Applicants to these programs number in the thousands. Interest in these programs is immeasurably large. Most of these individuals are highly educated, life-experienced adults who want to teach and to improve America's educational system. Many of them think alternative routes not only make the most sense, but also provide the best preparation for the real world of teaching.

The Administration and Congress could well serve the nation by directing attention to the realities of the demand for teachers, the changing populations available and eager to respond to the demand and to changing the ways teachers are recruited, trained, certified and hired.

RESOURCES

Feistritzer, C.E. (1997). Alternative Teacher Certification: A State-by-State Analysis 1997. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Information.

Feistritzer, C.E. (1996). Profile of Teachers in the U.S. 1996. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Information.

Feistritzer, C.E. (1992). Who Wants To Teach? Washington, DC: National Center for Education Information.

Feistritzer, C.E. (1990). Profile of Teachers in the U.S. 1990. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Information.

National Center for Education Statistics. (October 1995). Digest of Education Statistics 1995. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

National Center for Education Statistics. (January 1995). Projections of Education Statistics to 2005. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

National Center for Education Statistics. (July 1996). Schools and Staffing in the United States, 1993-94. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

National Education Association. (1997). Status of the American Public School Teacher 1995-96. Washington, DC.

Dr. Feistritzer is the President of the National Center for Education Information in Washington, DC

[top]