This qualitative descriptive study explores the perspectives of alternatively certified novice teachers regarding onboarding processes associated with district-selected curriculum in Louisiana during their first year of teaching. Addressing the issue of insufficient onboarding support, which impacts curriculum implementation, the study uses the…

This ethnographic case study offers a description of an alternative teacher certification program within an HBCU-based teacher preparation program within Xavier University of Louisiana. The program is named the Norman C. Francis Teacher Residency Program (NCFTR). Data from the study offers insights from six in-service, alternative teaching…

The purpose of this mixed-methods research study in Southeast Louisiana was to explore factors that impact certified public elementary school teachers' decision to remain in the education profession focused on how these factors contribute to teacher retention through job satisfaction or lead to teacher attrition through job dissatisfaction. Phase…

The purpose of this study was to examine dispositions of teacher candidates, explore differences in leadership aspirations between traditional and alternative certification groups, and develop an unbiased predictive model for identifying future education leaders. Literature suggests that dispositions can be assessed, taught, and developed, but…

This study examined the perceptions of practitioner teacher and mentor teachers about the development of instructional self-reflection and self-regulation skills through the first round of a state-mandated mentoring for practitioner teachers during the 2020-2021 school year. The referenced Louisiana mandate requires mentoring for certain…

For decades, teacher education programs have suffered from teacher shortages in many content areas. Due to high teacher turnover rate there has been an increase in the number of teachers who are entering the field through alternative certification programs. It has been noted that the professional development needs of traditionally and…

New data and analysis from the National Council on Teacher Quality finds significant progress on the science of reading instruction in teacher preparation. For the first time since NCTQ began publishing program ratings in its 2013 Teacher Prep Review, the number of programs in the nation to embrace reading science has crossed the halfway mark,…

The teacher turnover issue impacts education on national, state, and local levels. On a national level, at the beginning of the 21st century 50% of teachers left the profession within the first five years, creating the need for districts to fill vacancies (Gonzalez, Brown, & Slate, 2008; Greiner & Smith, 2006; Heller, 2004; Ingersoll,…

All but four states in the nation now permit teachers to come into the profession through an "alternate route," compared to only a few 30 years ago. Alternate routes into the classroom have grown so acceptable that about one in five teachers now enters the profession through one of these programs, which offer some real benefits to the…

Most children in the U.S. spend time in some form of early childhood education (ECE) program prior to entering kindergarten. In fact, children spend an average of 25 hours per week in nonparental care, including center-based care and informal family, friend and neighbor care. Children develop a foundation for learning during these early years, so…

Despite the importance of teachers, the preparation programs intended to train them and provide them with the foundational skills they need to grow into high-quality educators vary in format, curriculum offered, quality, and more. Alternative teacher certification programs that are run outside of institutions of higher education (IHE) are an…

The powerful nature of novice teachers' experiences in their first years of teaching has been well documented. However, the variance in novices' initial immersion in the school environment is largely dependent on perceived personal and professional support as well as the environmental inducements that lend to novice teachers' success in the…

This article seeks to characterize Teach For America's (TFA) theoretical framework as engendering disillusionment among its corps members. Given that the corps members have little to no pedagogical or methods training prior to taking on teaching positions through TFA, the lessons learned during the summer training set the stage for the…

This article critically analyzes the application of charter school techniques in teacher education, especially in two noteworthy programs: the newly developed Relay Graduate School of Education and Match Teacher Residency. We describe how their approaches to teacher preparation differ from traditional teacher education programs. We also raise…

This study investigated the efficacy beliefs of two groups of special education teachers who had completed certification requirements in mild/moderate disabilities. The first group included 26 special education teachers who had completed an alternative certification program at a midsize public university in Louisiana between 2003 and 2008. The…