Report Innovations in Education: Alternative Routes to Teacher Certification

Six alternative teacher certification programs are featured in the U.S. Department of Education's new booklet highlighting promising practices in education, Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today. The guide includes the Educator Certification Program of Region XIII in Austin, Texas; Alternative Certification Program of Hillsborough, Fla.; Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program, Northwest and Metro Educational Service Agencies, Ga.; New York City Teaching Fellows, N.Y.; Northeastern California Partnership for Special Education of Chico, Calif.; and Wichita Area Transition to Teaching of Wichita, Kan.

"Alternative routes to teacher certification are one promising way to attract talented people into the classroom," Secretary Paige said. "We must tap the energy, experience and eagerness of individuals from other fields and bring them into the teaching profession."

The Department's Office of Innovation and Improvement created the guide to share practical advice and concrete examples from six alternative route programs, all of which had an established track record of over three or more years and use promising practices to train their teachers such as, tailored, field-based programming and strong mentor support. The guide is the fifth of six booklets on promising and innovative education practices to be released this year.

The guide, in addition to providing six case studies, is organized around four action areas which emphasize the elements needed to create a promising alternative route program: (1) Recruit Widely, Select Carefully; (2) Design a Coherent, Flexible Program; (3) Provide Extensive Support; and (4) Engage in Continuous Improvement.

The guide provides rich descriptions of these six programs, as well as an overview of the common elements that have been gleaned from these programs to develop highly qualified teachers that are armed with the tools necessary to ensure that no child is left behind.

The Educator Certification Program, Region XIII of Austin, Texas, was created, like so many other alternative route programs, due to a shortage of teachers with qualifications in certain areas. In 1989, the most critical shortages for the 59 school districts in and around Austin, Texas were in special education. To help remedy this situation a program was created for professionals from many different fields to become special education teachers. The program has proven to be successful at remedying this problem. During the period from 1999 to 2001, the Educator Certification Program's completion rate was 89 percent. Local principals rave at the field support candidates receive during the induction year.

The Alternative Certification Program in Hillsborough County, Fl., was created to address growing shortages of qualified teachers, while providing the best educational opportunities for all students. Since its inception in 1989, 1,327 teachers have been accepted into the program, and the program has grown by over 300 percent in the past five years. Of the 530 teachers certified since 1998, 87 percent remain in the district.

The Georgia Alternative Preparation Program of Northwest and Metro Regional Educational Service Agencies was created to ensure an adequate supply of certified teachers amid the area's rapid population growth. The Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program (GA TAPP) is a two-year, research-based program, which offers a low-cost method for bringing fully certified, high quality teachers into Georgia schools. One of the best advertisements for the program are the successful teachers that have graduated from the program. Superintendents, principals, and other related school personnel claim that the teachers of GA TAPP are as prepared as, if not better prepared, than traditionally trained teachers. In fact, two of the three new teachers voted "Teacher of the Year" in one Georgia school district were GA TAPP candidates.

The New York City Teaching Fellows was created in 2000 to recruit, select, and train talented professionals from outside the field of education to teach in city schools that were struggling to find highly qualified teachers. In 1999-2000, 15 percent of New York City's current public school teachers and 60 percent of new hires lacked certification. Today, the program is helping to fill this significant need in New York City. For example, the program accounts for 30 percent of new hires in math. The popularity of the program is evident in the huge number of applications—around 17,000 a year. Its effectiveness is tracked through retention rates; roughly 90 percent of candidates complete their first full year as a teacher of record and return for the second year. The program is working with partner universities to begin to track longer—term completion and retention rates.

The Northeastern California Partnership for Special Education program was created in 1989 to address a daunting problem—the sparsely populated region, spanning 43,000 square miles, had at least 60 special education teachers on emergency credentials and a much larger group of substitutes with no credentials at all. In response to this crisis, the California State University at Chico (CSUC) developed the Northeastern California Partnership for Special Education. It offers an alternative route program in the form of an education specialist internship. Its mission is "to improve the quality of rural special education services to pupils and their families." This program can boast an unprecedented feat: it has eliminated special education emergency credentials in its sprawling service area. Since 1990, the program has had 331 graduates, and 91 percent of them now teach in the region's schools.

During the late 1980s, Wichita State University (WSU) reported that fewer people were entering the teaching profession at the secondary level through traditional teacher preparation programs. At the same time high-need urban districts like Wichita Public Schools were experiencing teacher shortages. In response to this need a partnership was created between WSU and the Peace Corps. Together the two organizations implemented an experimental alternative route to teacher certification program. The program provided returning Peace Corps volunteers with an alternative path toward becoming a certified teacher. The partnership proved to be a success. In the summer of 1997 the Kansas State Department of Education granted approval to WSU to expand its program to non-Peace Corps candidates. Since 1992, a total of 259 candidates have completed the program (including the 41 Peace Corps Fellows who participated in its first incarnation). Over the years, the program has had a 90 percent completion rate, and 85 percent of the candidates who have completed the program remain in education.

The No Child Left Behind Act is the bipartisan landmark education reform law designed to change the culture of America's schools by closing the achievement gap among groups of students, offering more flexibility to states, giving parents more options and teaching students based on what works. Under the law's strong accountability provisions, states must describe how they will close the achievement gap and make sure all students, including those with disabilities, achieve academically.

The Office of Innovation and Improvement was created in December 2002 to make strategic investments in and widely distribute information about promising education practices. The office also leads the Department's efforts to provide more information to parents about the options that the No Child Left Behind Act affords them for their children's education.

More information about the No Child Left Behind Act is available at www.ed.gov.

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