Numerous studies have been conducted and released over the last few years regarding the number of teachers needed in the coming years. Almost unanimously, these studies have shown that we are facing a potentially catastrophic teacher shortage in less than a decade. The logic is sound. Baby-boomer teachers are retiring from their long held positions en masse, and the population continues to rise, particularly among immigrating minorities, meaning more students in the schools. Other studies show that new teachers are not following in the footsteps of their baby-boomer predecessors and staying in teaching for the entirety of their careers, indicating that teacher retention is decreasing also. With retirement and retention taking teachers out while increased enrollment is bringing more students in, the recipe is there for a potentially devastating blow to the education system.
So what is a nation to do? Thankfully, some visionary educators and elected officials have started to combat the problem already by providing alternative certification programs. Currently in 47 states and Washington D.C., these programs enable college-educated people who did not receive their bachelors in education to begin teaching in their subject area while gaining the appropriate certification.
Since New Jersey pioneered the movement by approving the Provisional Teacher Program in 1984, nearly every other state has followed suit. However, every state has their own unique alternate certification routes (many have four or more unique to their own state) and no two routes are exactly alike. There has been a huge influx in these types of certification programs since 2000, with more than half of the over 130 routes created since that date. Most created this decade are administered by colleges and universities in collaboration with the state licencing agency.*
Regardless of their history, shape, or form, these alternate certification routes are creating more teachers and having a positive impact on the classroom. A study done by researchers from Stanford University shows that alternate certification programs overwhelmingly bring more minority teachers to the classroom. Minorities have been shown to be far less likely to choose education as an undergraduate major, and as a result are underrepresented in the classroom as teachers. A far greater percentage chooses to complete alternate certification programs, decreasing the degree to which they are underrepresented and increasing the achievement of their students of the same race.
The same study also found there to be no significant difference in the student achievement from traditionally certified teachers vs. alternatively certified teachers. While this may seem to be a mark against alternative certification, it actually disproves the primary objection raised by opponents. Who could possibly be opposed to programs that bring more teachers into the classrooms? The answer is simple: traditional undergraduate education programs and teachers unions. The traditional certification programs persist in claiming that they are the only way to ensure proper teacher education and generally oppose all programs that provide a different way to arrive at the certification they bestow. Teacher unions serve same purpose as other unions, namely attempting to keep the supply of teachers as low as possible in order to leverage higher demand for higher pay. Even with a potentially crippling teacher shortage imminent, these unions continually reiterate their opposition to alternate certification programs.
Thankfully, it appears as though these alternate programs are continuing to gain momentum, and are being seen as a viable option both for decreasing a teacher shortage and maintaining or increasing student achievement in the classroom. If this continues to be the case, teacher unions and traditional programs will have to step aside in order to get more passionate, capable, and alternately certified teachers into our nation’s classrooms.
*NOTE: At the time of writing, the author is enrolled in one of these alternate certification programs run by a university in collaboration with the state licencing agency.
Wow – I love this post but it raises a lot of questions for me. Especially methodology ones. Is it REALLY SAME race that makes students of color learn more or could it have to do with the ‘ism’s we have talked about? Can black students REALLY not learn as well from white or asian teachers? Do teachers with more experience do better? – ok – maybe just being older makes you better? Why do minority students not select education as an undergraduate major..ugh. What could be an alternate future for teacher preparation in general? Why don’t we require all students to learn a subject and then give them 1 year or ed psy/classroom management/lesson plan work??
Can you imagine a new way to prepare teachers that might look more what the ‘alternative’ is now?
Comment by THE professor — July 21, 2009 @ 6:54 pm |