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Alternate Route Usage and Providers:
Mississippi

Expanding the Pool of Teachers Policy

Look at National Findings
Goal

The state should provide an alternate route that is free from regulatory obstacles that limit its usage and providers.

Meets a small part of goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Alternate Route Usage and Providers: Mississippi results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/MS-Alternate-Route-Usage-and-Providers-7

Analysis of Mississippi's policies

Mississippi limits the usage of its alternate routes. Mississippi's alternate routes cannot be used for elementary K-3 certification.

The Mississippi Alternate Path to Quality Teachers candidates may only teach in the areas of art, biology, business, chemistry, English, French, German, home economics, marketing, math, music, physical education, physics-social studies, Spanish, speech communications, technology education and special education for grades 7-12.

Master of Arts in Teaching candidates may only teach in the areas of art, biology, business, chemistry, elementary education for grades 4-8, English, French, German, home economics, marketing, math, music, physical education, physics, social studies, Spanish, speech communications and technology education.

Teach Mississippi candidates may only teach in the areas of biology, business, chemistry, English, French, German, home economics, marketing, math, physics, social studies, Spanish, speech communications, technology education and special education in grades 7-12.

American Board Certification for Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) candidates may only teach in the areas of biology, chemistry, English, math and physics in grades 7-12.

Although the state is host to a diversity of providers, including ABCTE and Teach For America, all programs operate in partnership with a university or college. Further, the specific requirements for the state's three alternate routes are articulated in terms of credit hours, effectively precluding non-higher education providers.

Citation

Recommendations for Mississippi

Broaden alternate route usage.
Mississippi should reconsider grade-level and subject-area restrictions on its alternate route. Alternate routes should not be programs of last resort for hard-to-staff subjects, grade levels or geographic areas but rather a way to expand the teacher pipeline throughout the state.

Further expand the diversity of alternate route providers.
The state should continue to consider policies that encourage additional providers, such as school districts and other nonprofit organizations, to operate programs. 

State response to our analysis

Mississippi recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

    • Best practice
    • Meets goal
    • Nearly Meets goal
    • Meets goal in part
    • Meets a small part of goal
    • Does not meet goal

  • Mississippi

    Mississippi map
Part Time Teaching Licenses
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Research rationale

From a teacher quality perspective—and supporting NCTQ's contention for broad-based, respectable, and widely-offered programs—there exists substantial research demonstrating the need for states to adopt alternate certification programs. Independent research on candidates who earned certification through the alternate-route Teach For America (conducted by Kane, Parsons and Associates) and the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and ABCTE) programs has found that alternate route teachers are often as effective, and, in many cases, more effective, than traditionally-prepared teachers.  See also Raymond, M., Fletcher, S., & Luque, J. (2001). Teach for America: An evaluation of teacher differences and student outcomes in Houston, Texas. Stanford, CA: The Hoover Institution, Center for Research on Education Outcomes.

Specifically, evidence of the effectiveness of candidates in respectable and selective alternate certification requirements can be found in J. Constantine, D. Player, T. Silva, K. Hallgren, M. Grider, and J. Deke, An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification, Final Report. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Services, U.S. Department of Education (2009), D. Boyd, et al. "How Changes in Entry Requirements Alter the Teacher Workforce and Affect Student Achievement." Education Finance and Policy, (2006).  T. Kane, J. Rockoff, and D. Staiger. "What Does Certification Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness? Evidence from New York City." National Bureau of Economic Research. (2006). 

A number of studies have also found alternative-certification programs such as Teach for America to produce teachers that were more effective at improving student achievement than other teachers with similar levels of experience.  See Z. Xu, J. Hannaway and C. Taylor, "Making a Difference?  The Effects of Teach for America in High School." The Urban Institute/Calder. (2009); D. Boyd et al "Recruiting Effective Math Teachers, How Do Math Immersion Teachers Compare? Evidence from New York City." Calder Institute (2009).  

For evidence that alternate route programs offered by institutions of higher education are often virtually identical to traditional programs, see Alternative Certification Isn't Alternative (NCTQ, 2007) at: http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/Alternative_Certification_Isnt_Alternative_20071124023109.pdf.

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