Alternate Route Preparation: Colorado
Expanding the Pool of Teachers Policy
Analysis of Colorado's policies
Colorado offers one- and two-year alternate route programs. Both alternate routes require that candidates complete 225 clock hours
of instruction in teacher preparation courses that meet state performance-based
standards and include training in dropout prevention. Specific details of the
coursework are not outlined. A program advisory council may exempt candidates
from some coursework requirements based on an applicant's previous experience
or demonstrated knowledge.
Although Colorado does not require a practice-teaching opportunity, alternatively licensed teachers are to be supervised by a support team, which includes a qualified mentor-teacher.
Recommendations for Colorado
Establish coursework guidelines for alternate route preparation programs.
Colorado should articulate guidelines regarding the specific
nature of coursework required of candidates. Requirements should be manageable
and contribute to the immediate needs of new teachers. Appropriate coursework
should include grade-level or subject-level seminars, methodology in the
content area, classroom management, assessment and scientifically based early
reading instruction. Simply mandating coursework without specifying the purpose
can inadvertently send the wrong message to program providers—that
"anything goes" as long as credits are granted. However constructive,
any course that is not fundamentally practical and immediately necessary should
be eliminated as a requirement.
Provide induction experience for all new teachers.
While Colorado requires all alternate route candidates to be paired with mentors, the state should consider further strengthening these guidelines by ensuring a practice teaching prior to teaching in the classroom, intensive mentoring with full classroom support in the first few weeks or months of school, a reduced teaching load or release time to allow new teachers to observe experienced teachers during each school day.
State response to our analysis
Colorado was helpful in providing NCTQ with facts that enhanced this analysis.
The state indicated that all
designated agencies’ proposals to offer alternative teacher preparation curricula
must be aligned with current state standards for teachers. Alternative teacher preparation programs must undergo a review process and must
be authorized by the State Board of Education. Moreover, the curricula do not
have to happen via an institution of higher education. Whether the program is 225 clock hours or
credit-bearing coursework, the curriculum must be authorized by the Board.
Colorado noted that mentoring
for all alternatively licensed candidates, whether they are candidates with a two-year or a one-year alternative license, is mandated by state statute and
rule. State rules
require that alternative preparation programs provide an orientation to the
school and its population, as well as policies and procedures that affect
teaching and classroom management strategies and teacher responsibilities
prior to the start of the school year.
The state further noted that the alternative preparation routes in Colorado, as well as across the nation, have evolved in
multiple ways. In Colorado, there are five
alternative preparation programs that are residency models of preparation,
allowing alternative candidates to engage in a clinically rich year of learning
to teach alongside a mentor in one classroom. Moreover, there are alternative special education programs that must
offer content beyond the content outlined above because candidates need to
learn the knowledge base of special education.
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Colorado
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Pensions
Research rationale
Alternate route
programs must provide practical, meaningful preparation that is sensitive to a
new teacher's stress level.
Too many states have policies requiring alternate route
programs to "backload" large amounts of traditional education
coursework, thereby preventing the emergence of real alternatives to
traditional preparation. This issue is especially important given the large
proportion of alternate route teachers who complete this coursework while
teaching. Alternate route teachers often have to deal with the stresses of
beginning to teach while also completing required coursework in the evenings and
on weekends. States need to be careful to require participants only to meet
standards or complete coursework that is practical and immediately helpful to a
new teacher.
Induction support is
especially important for alternate route teachers.
Most new teachers—regardless of their preparation—find
themselves overwhelmed on taking responsibility for their own classrooms. This
is especially true for alternate route teachers, who may have had considerably
less classroom exposure or pedagogy training than traditionally prepared
teachers. While alternate route programs will ideally have provided at least a
brief student teaching experience, not all programs can incorporate this into
their models. States must ensure that alternate route programs do not leave new
teachers to "sink or swim" on their own when they begin teaching.
Alternate Route Preparation: Supporting Research
For
a general, quantitative review of the research supporting the need for states
to offer an alternate route license, and why alternate routes should not be
treated as programs of "last resort," one need simply to look at the
numbers of uncertified and out of field teachers in classrooms today, readily
available from the National Center for Education Statistics. In addition, with
U.S. schools facing the need to hire more than 3.5 million new teachers each
year, the need for alternate routes to certification cannot be underestimated.
See also E.R. Ducharme and M.K. Ducharme, "Quantity and quality: Not enough to go around." Journal of
Teacher Education, Volume 49, No. 3, May 1998, pp. 163-164.
Further,
scientific and market research demonstrates that there is a willing and able
pool of candidates for alternate certification programs—and many of these
individuals are highly educated and intelligent. In fact, the nationally
respected polling firm, The Tarrance Group, recently conducted a scientific
poll in the State of Florida, identifying that more than 20 percent of
Floridians would consider changing careers to become teachers through alternate
routes to certification.
We
base our argument that alternative-route teachers should be able to earn full
licensure after two years on research indicating that teacher effectiveness
does not improve dramatically after the third year of teaching. One study
(frequently cited on both sides of the alternate route debate) identified that
after three years, traditional and alternatively-certified teachers demonstrate
the same level of effectiveness, see J.W. Miller, M.C. McKenna, and B.A. McKenna, "A comparison of alternatively and traditionally prepared teachers". Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 49, No. 3, May 1998, pp. 165-176. This finding is
supported by D. Boyd, D. Goldhaber, H. Lankford, and J. Wyckoff, "The Effect of Certification and Preparation on Teacher Quality." The Future of Children, Volume 17, No. 1, Spring 2007, pp. 45-68.
Project
MUSE (http://muse.jhu.edu/), found that student achievement was
similar for alternatively-certified teachers as long as the program they came
from was "highly selective."
The
need for a cap on education coursework and the need for intensive mentoring are
also backed by research, as well as common sense. In 2004, Education Commission
of the States reviewed more than 150 empirical studies and determined that
there is evidence "for the claim that assistance for new teachers, and, in
particular, mentoring [have] a positive impact on teachers and their retention."
The 2006 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher validates these conclusions. In
addition, Mathematica (2009) found that student achievement suffers when
alternate route teachers are required to take excessive amounts of coursework.
See An Evaluation of Teachers Trained
Through Different Routes to Certification: Final Report at: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED504313.pdf
See
also Alternative Certification Isn't Alternative (NCTQ, 2007)
at: http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/Alternative_Certification_Isnt_Alternative_20071124023109.pdf.