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Seeking Alternatives to Alternative Certification: The Challenge and Opportunity of Preparing Second-Career Elementary School Teachers

. . .” (Dickens, 1859/1980) exemplifies the dilemmas, challenges, and opportunities consuming colleges of education today. Although opinions may differ as to the extent to which these really are the worst of times, teacher educators would probably agree that these are far from the best of times. Teacher shortages in many states are regularly reported in the media, and university programs in those states have simply not had the capacity to keep up with the increasing demand. As a result, many states and school districts have responded by setting up alternative routes to train and certify teachers who can be placed in classrooms, particularly in “high need” areas such as math education, science education, special education, and foreign language. This daunting task of preparing teachers is further complicated by outside forces. While facing state budget cuts, public and political attacks, and pressure from standards-driven functionalist-oriented governmental demands (Helsby, 1999), teacher education in the university setting also faces competition from the quick-fix teacher certification outlets that dominate cyberspace and strip malls (Finn & Madigan, 2001). Given these challenges, faculty in our colleges of education have felt compelled to become engaged in efforts to seek solutions to the teaching shortage. While committed to providing teachers to school districts eager to staff each classroom, we are also determined to maintain quality teacher preparation programs. That is, we believe that we are accountable for establishing programs that produce professional educators who can reach and teach the complex learning variations of diverse students (Villegas & Lucas, 2002), not simply train teachers who narrowly construct pedagogy as an extension of curricular texts. This article chronicles the efforts of one college faculty and their school partners to respond to the contemporary challenges faced by teacher education. It depicts our journey through the planning and implementation of an innovative initial certification master’s of arts in teaching (MAT) program in elementary education in the southeastern United States. The desperate local need for such a program, the process of program design, and the lessons we