
The Alternative Teacher Certification Sector Outside Higher Education
Enrollment continues to grow in alternative teacher certification programs operated outside of colleges, but the number of students completing these programs is declining.
The K-12 Education team recognizes that no education reform effort can be successful without teachers. High-quality teaching is essential to all efforts to improve students’ learning and has the greatest impact for students who are mostly likely to start school behind their peers academically. For too long, teachers have been an afterthought, underpaid and undervalued. We are working to modernize and elevate the teaching profession so that teachers receive the training, pay, and respect they deserve, and every student has access to high-quality teachers.See the K-12 Education team’s other core priority areas:
Enrollment continues to grow in alternative teacher certification programs operated outside of colleges, but the number of students completing these programs is declining.
This fact sheet outlines the details of a proposed grant program that would increase recruitment and retention of highly qualified educators in schools with the highest teacher turnover.
The Center for American Progress proposes a new grant program to address the working conditions that contribute to job dissatisfaction and high turnover among the nation’s K-12 teachers in order to increase equal access to highly qualified teachers.
As the United States recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and schools return to in-person learning in the fall, it is key that educators learn from the successes of the past year and avoid making the same mistakes.
The current K-12 accountability system provides important information for education leaders, but local school communities need access to other timely and useful data to help improve the quality of education each child receives.
A growing number of students are enrolling in alternative certification programs for teachers run by operators outside colleges.
The next presidential administration must take immediate, bold action to provide a quality education for every child.
General education teachers must be explicitly taught how to work with all students, including those with disabilities.
Enrollment in teacher preparation programs has seen declines, but identifying the problem is only the beginning.
Numerous studies underscore the effects of high-quality curricula on student achievement, but to achieve the intended goal of adopting such curricula, careful attention must be paid to the implementation process.