Essay - Alternative Teacher Certification Issues Introduction - Why are Schools Hiring...

Alternative Teacher Certification Issues

Introduction - Why are Schools Hiring Non*****Credentialed Teachers?

Because many school districts across the United States have been experiencing severe teacher shortages [***** U.S. Department of Education projects that up to 2.7 million new teachers will be needed by 2013 (Shepherd, et al, 2003)], ***** ***** have turned to unqualified, non-certified college graduates, to fill in for the dearth ***** fully-credentialed teachers. This policy puts people with ***** degrees *****to jam-packed classrooms, but are they really *****? Of course not. And, ***** they able to teach writing, reading, math, science - and give bona fide tests - with the same degree of comp*****ence as teachers who have gone through the entire training period ***** have received *****ir credentials? Certainly not, in most cases, this paper shows.

Surely, it is safe to say that schools that hire non-credentialed individuals and call them "teachers" in order to put warm bodies in the ***** contribute - w*****tingly or unwittingly - to the "dumbing down" ***** America.

***** Literature on Alternative Teacher Certificati***** Programs

The issue of schools hiring non-credentialed college graduates as "*****" is a very red-hot *****nd contentious one.

***** example, David G. Imig, ***** is president and chief executive officer of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), who ***** against non-credentialed instruc*****rs in the classroom, was verbally attacked last year by ***** gro***** that is in support ***** "alternative teacher licensing," the ***** Board ***** Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE). According to ***** American School Board Journal (ASBJ) (August, 2003), ***** is alleged by the ***** of "theft" - ***** is, stealing a ***** certification test materials that ABCTE was in the process developing, ***** ********** "distributing [the *****] to colleagues in an attempt to discredit the exam."

But, the question of whether non-credentialed teachers are truly "qualified" is the real issue, ***** paranoia and pranks. According to an article in Educational Leadership journal (Berry, 2001), 41 states (as of *****) have some form of alternative ***** replaces the requirement for teachers to return to college for a ***** following their undergraduate work. Fourteen ***** (again, as of 2001) ***** passed laws relating to ***** teaching methods, and approximately two-thirds ***** the 1,354 universities and *****s that offer teacher training classes have at least one program for "mid-c*****er" professionals.

Moreover, some 80,000 "teachers" ***** entered the field *****out credentials over ***** past ten years, and between the ***** 1998-1999, over 24,000 "teachers" (in the 28 states that keep those data) were given alternative certification despite *****ir failure to complete the normal training process. Further, the article points out that the National Center for Education has identified "only 12 of ***** 41 ***** that ***** alternative licensure as having at ***** one exemplary program... and even those identified as ***** are of questionable quality..." Tex***** has as many ***** 27 different licensing programs for non-***** *****ing to step in***** the classroom sans a legitim*****te credential.

Alternative teacher ***** programs now contribute about one-third of the