Alternative Certification and Licensure

1. Alternative Certification and Licensure Jacob D. Joseph, Suzanne Mann, Karen T. Schaeffer, Patricia Moore Shaffer College of William and Mary

2. What is an ATCP? • State sanctioned alternative to traditional campus based certification programs • Faster route achieved by combining practical teaching experience with concurrent pedagogy instruction

3. “ATC programs have established their place in education. Therefore, the focus should shift from whether they should exist, to ensuring effective teacher preparation programs are created and high-quality teachers are produced.” -Zientek (2007)

4. History of ATCPs • 1980s - ATCPs were a response to shortages of teachers and to the increasing number of emergency and provisional licenses issued • ATCPs are not standardized between and even within states, and there are large variations between programs • 1991 NCEI published Alternative Teacher Certification: A State by States Analysis

5. History of ATCPs • Late 1990’s common program characteristics emerged: • Recruit, prepare and license individuals with a bachelor’s degree, and in some cases careers in fields other than education • Rigorous screening process • Field-based programs • Coursework of equivalent experiences in professional education studies before and while teaching • Work with mentor • High performance standards set for completion of the programs. (Feistritzer, 2008)

6. Growth of ATCPs • In 1985-86, 275 teachers reportedly received licensure through alternative training as reported by the National Center for Education Information. • Twenty years later in the 2005-06 school year, 59,000 teachers received licensure through ATCPs (Feistritzer, 2008).

7. ATCPs Today • As of 2007: • ATCPs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia • Approximately 130 alternative routes implemented in approximately 485 program sites • ACTs must be licensed by the state

8. Motivations behind ACTP development • To increase the number of qualified teachers in response to attempts to fill vacancies with provisionally certified or uncertified teachers • To increase the number of teachers available in hard to staff subject areas, especially in special education, science, and math • To increase the diversity of the teaching workforce

9. How well have ATCPs met these goals? • As a whole… • ATCPs have attracted more teachers, BUT • ATCPs have not increased the number of teachers in hard to staff subjects • ATCPs have not increased the number of teachers in hard to staff schools • ATCPs have not attracted a more diverse workforce

10. How well have ATCPs met these goals? • Due to the diversity of ATCPs, the results of each individual ATCP have to be compared with the results of traditional programs or other ATCPs, rather than comparing ATCPs as a whole to traditional programs • Need to examine the correlation between student achievement and types of teacher certification

11. What contributes to an effective ATCP? • Increases the number of qualified teachers • Increases the number of teachers in difficult to staff subject areas • Increases the number of teachers in difficult to staff geographic areas • Decreases the attrition rate of new teachers • Increases student achievement • Increases the diversity of the teaching population

12. What contributes to an effective ATCP? • Supportive school environment • Effective mentoring program • Targeted professional development • Partnerships between school system and ATCP • Selective admission process • Continual improvement and assessment

13. Examination of a specific ATCP – EducateVa • Virginia Community College System • For people with a substantial combination of education and experience who wish to switch careers • Certifies science, math, English or foreign language teachers at the middle or high school level and ESL teachers at the K-12 level

14. Teacher Shortages • In the 2007-2008 school year, there were 1,273 unfilled teaching positions from a total of approximately 98,000 full time positions (Virginia Department of Education, 2008).

15. ATCPs in Virginia • EducateVA Career Switchers Program • 500 students since 2004 • 77% currently teaching • 83% project they’ll be teaching in 5 years (EducateVA, 2009)

16. EducateVa – The Program • Level I is a 16-week, 180-hour program which includes online coursework, face-to-face sessions, and 30 hours of classroom experience • Level II provides online and offline seminars along with on-site support by a trained mentor during the first year of employment.

17. Research Focus • What were teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of EducateVA in preparing them for the classroom? • How do the graduates perceive their self-efficacy across the domains of effective teaching?

18. Research Focus • Was this program effective in meeting the goals of ATCPs: • To increase the number of qualified teachers • To increase the number of teachers available in hard to staff subject areas • To increase the number of teachers in hard to staff schools • To increase the diversity of the teaching workforce

19. Methods • Survey on teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the EducateVA program and of their self-efficacy (based on Stronge’s Qualities of Effective Teachers) • Interview with EducateVA program manager: degree to which EducateVA matches the qualities of effective ATCPs • Review of program documentation, including marketing materials

20. Graduates’ Perceptions of Effectiveness of EducateVA

21. Graduates’ Perceptions of Effectiveness of EducateVA

22. Graduates’ Perceptions of Effectiveness of EducateVA • Insufficient time for field placements • Insufficient subject-specific instruction • Poor quality of mentoring • Insufficient emphasis on preparing lessons • Lack of preparation for student behavior

23. Graduates’ Perception of Self-Efficacy

24. Effectiveness in Meeting ATCP Goals • Program is highly selective • All teachers had bachelors and one-third of teachers had a masters or terminal degree • Graduates are not diverse • Students surveyed were predominantly female and Caucasian • Marketing of program is passive

25. Effectiveness in Meeting ATCP Goals • EducateVA grads hired by districts to teach in high-need areas, including ESL, mathematics, and science • - While program not designed to prepare elementary teachers, 29% of survey respondents taught in elementary schools

26. Conclusions • Evidence supports ATCPs as a viable option for training people who are educated and experienced in specific content areas to become teachers. • While it appears that ATCPs have satisfied some of their original charter, there is considerable variation in outcomes among programs

27. Conclusions • Mentoring is vital to the success of ATCPs and is something which is not done well

28. Further Questions • What are local school district administrators’ perceptions of the effectiveness of EducateVA graduates? • What is the degree of involvement of local districts in the planning and coordination of the EducateVA program? • What is the long-term retention rate of EducateVA graduates?

29. Further Questions • What is the impact of EducateVA graduates on student achievement relative to their traditionally prepared peers?

30. Implications for Further Research • Benefits afforded to education by ATCPs should include data on student learning outcomes in order to determine if compacted preparation affects teacher quality • Surveys of school administrators would provide much needed data on perceptions of teacher effectiveness

31. Implications for Further Research • More extensive comparison of programs throughout the United States could inform school systems of what works when implementing ATCPs • Examining components of programs that successfully recruit and train applicants from minority groups and in hard to fill subjects and schools could provide basis for formulating future field research

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