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Has the Alternative Certification Policy Materialized Its Promise? A Comparison Between Traditionally and Alternatively Certified Teachers in Public Schools

The study compared the characteristics of traditionally certified (TC) and alternatively certified (AC) teachers by analyzing data from a nationally representative sample of public school teachers (N = 14,721). The sample was constructed from the Schools and Staffing Survey 1993–1994, a national survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The findings supported some of the arguments for AC, such as alleviating teacher shortages in mathematics and science and in urban schools and diversifying the teaching force by recruiting more people of minorities into teaching. However, the findings also raised serious concerns regarding the impact of AC policy: (a) AC teachers appeared to have lower academic qualifications than did TC teachers; (b) AC policy failed to recruit a significant number of experienced personnel from other occupations, and a large number of fresh college graduates took advantage of AC policy to circumvent the traditional teacher education program; (c) A lower percentage of AC teachers treated teaching as a lifelong career than did TC teachers; and (d) A high percentage of AC teachers working in inner-city schools raised the important issue of educational equity.