Alternative Teacher Preparation Programs

The Development and Status of Alternative Licensure

The way the vast majority of teachers are licensed to teach is that they participate in a college or university teacher preparation program in which they spend 1–2 years in education courses and “practice” teaching. Increasingly, a substantial amount of the preparation time is spent learning in public schools designated as “professional development schools.” Upon completion of this course of study, the college or university “certifies” to the state education agency that the candidate is qualified to receive a license to teach. In most states, prospective teachers must pass written tests approved by the state and when they do, the state awards a provisional license. After 2–3 years of satisfactory experience, most states award teachers with full licensure. Note that while the terms are often used interchangeably, licensure and certification are not the same thing.

The characteristics of alternative licensure policies and practices vary greatly among and even within states. This is not surprising. Teacher educators who might seek standards for alternative licensure (AL) run the risk of legitimizing alternative programs and calling into question what they require in their programs. Advocates of AL, on the other hand, often argue that the regulation of teacher education is the problem and urge that we let market forces decide what approach to teacher education is most desirable.

The great variety of programs for AL (the National Center for Alternative Certification identifies 11 different categories of programs within which there is substantial variation). Some of these involve almost as many education courses as do conventional teacher preparation (CTP) programs, making it difficult to know with certainty the percentage of teachers at any given time who enter teaching through genuinely alternative routes. However, there is no doubt that the number is increasing.

In the early 1980s, less than 10 states had authorized alternative routes to licensure. By 2006, there were almost [Page II-44]500 alternative route programs and every state and the District of Columbia provided licensure for their participants (National Center for Alternative Certification, 2007). Some estimates assert that the number of teachers licensed annually through alternative routes went from about 1,000 to almost 60,000 in the last 20 years and that as many as a third of all new teachers hired are now prepared in alternative routes (National Center for Alternative Certification, 2007). However, these estimates include many participants in programs that are not very different in content and duration from CTP programs. The National Center for Teaching Quality (2007), which is a strong advocate for programs that minimize professional education requirements and place teachers in full-time positions with no more than a short preparation experience, argues that only 21 states even come close to offering what it defines as alternative routes to teacher licensure.

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