Alternate Route Preparation: Minnesota
Expanding the Pool of Teachers Policy
Analysis of Minnesota's policies
Minnesota requires that alternate route programs provide a minimum of 200
instructional hours to candidates before they can assume classroom
responsibilities. The state provides no specific guidelines about the nature of
the coursework for its alternate route except to say that it should be
research-based and focused on best practices. There is also no limit on the
overall amount of coursework, nor on the amount of coursework a candidate can
be required to take while also teaching.
The state requires alternate route programs in partnership with districts to
provide "intensive, ongoing, and multiyear mentoring and induction support for new teachers," but no further details or definitions are articulated.
Candidates are issued a two-year limited term license while completing the
alternate route program. In some cases the state will renew this limited
license one additional time for a one-year term. Upon completion, alternate
route candidates may be recommended for the standard teaching certificate.
Recommendations for Minnesota
Establish coursework
guidelines for alternate route preparation programs.
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. Appropriate coursework should include
grade-level or subject-level seminars, methodology in the content area,
classroom management, assessment and scientifically based early reading
instruction.
Ensure that new teachers are
not burdened by excessive requirements.
While requiring some preparation prior to entering the
classroom is important, Minnesota requires alternate route candidates to take a
considerable amount of coursework before they begin teaching, an amount more
typically associated with a traditional preparation program. All coursework
requirements should be manageable for career changers and other nontraditional
candidates and should contribute to the immediate needs of new teachers.
Offer opportunities to practice teach.
While Minnesota is
commended for offering high-quality mentoring support to new alternate route
teachers, the state may want to consider providing its candidates with a
practice-teaching opportunity prior to their placement in the classroom.
State response to our analysis
Minnesota asserted that it is a standards-based state, and the standards required for all programs are required for alternative programs, but the state will not prescribe the courses that need to be part of the preparation program. Therefore, “anything goes” isn’t a reality. Rather, the standards must be evidenced as being taught and assessed in the program or it won’t be approved.
The state additionally commented that it does not mandate the number of courses a program requires, rather, the developers of the program determine how to deliver the standards and provide evidence of that being accomplished, which is the basis for approval.
Lastly, the state indicated that as part of the alternative program application, the providers must articulate their plan for induction/mentorship, and that plan is evaluated as part of the review of the proposed program application. This flexibility allows for a variety of alternative program types, rather than a “cookie cutter” design for mentorship.
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Minnesota
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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.