This essay presents the background for understanding why defining alternative certification has been made a difficult matter, and proposes an operational definition of the term.

To adequately prepare effective teachers for urban schools, traditional university-based programs of teacher education need to make serious structural and content changes. This article offers 16 assertions about specific changes that are needed and maintains that, in many alternative certification programs, most of the 16 assertions are…

Describes the Milwaukee Teacher Education Center (MTEC), a new system of alternative preservice and inservice teacher education which meets the needs of the Milwaukee Public Schools and prepares teachers to succeed with children in poverty within an urban school district. The paper discusses what works in preparing urban teachers and explains how…

The findings of two studies conducted with resident teachers participating in alternative teacher certification programs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are reported in three reports; a summary and two study reports. The role of the teacher in diagnosing the physical and learning disabilities of students is not clearly identified, but…

Study surveyed students in an alternative, multicultural teacher certification program to determine how well the Urban Teacher Selection Interview could predict the success of future urban teachers. Comparisons between their interview rankings and their rankings as classroom teachers indicated that degree of future teaching success can be…

The purpose of this publication is to examine five standards of excellence for judging teacher education programs. The paper is organized into five sections with the standards stated as questions and summarized as guidelines. The five questions discussed are: (1) What are the attributes sought in those selected to become teachers? (2) What is the…