The critical shortage of qualified teachers in hard to staff urban schools has been a persistent issue in the U.S. for decades. Teachers and researchers have pointed to the inadequacy of teacher preparation programs to prepare teacher candidates to address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students and special education students…

Since its founding 34 years ago, Teach For America has prepared nearly 70,000 recent college graduates and career-changers to teach in high-poverty schools across the United States. Unlike traditional teacher-preparation programs, it places "corps members" in short-staffed public schools after an intensive summer seminar, before they are…

For more than three decades, educational professionals and researchers have warned about the impending teacher shortage in America's public school system. As we are currently in the midst of the shortage, school districts are facing the reality of fewer qualified teachers and filling the teaching gaps. This is especially evident in high-poverty…

This qualitative study examined the perspectives of 14 Teach For America (TFA) Corps Members (CMs) in a city where there was no teacher shortage. CMs discussed the benefits and challenges of being in TFA. Benefits included serving others, developing leadership skills, and being part of a flexible organization. CMs also highlighted some of the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of mentor teachers in an urban teacher residency program within a school-university partnership. The authors used a qualitative interview study design to add to the literature about the benefits and challenges of mentoring teacher residents placed in urban elementary and Special…

As of 2015, approximately one in five special educators received licensure through an alternative pathway. Although evidence suggests that emotional exhaustion contributes to special educator attrition, few studies examine firsthand the emotional experiences of novice, alternatively certified special educators. Guided by Tuxford and Bradley's…

Teach for America (TFA) collaborates primarily with universities in most of its 53 regions throughout the United States, yet there is little research that examines these partnerships. This qualitative interview study explored how TFA Corps Members (CMs) perceived their learning in a small college's graduate teacher education program and how…

New York State is experiencing teacher shortages in specific subject areas. One way to address these shortages is through the certification and placement of new teachers. This study explored the pathways through which new teachers between 2015/16 and 2017/18 earned certificates, their certification areas, and their subsequent placement and…

For many non-traditional candidates, the path into teaching is riddled with bumps and detours. They must pay for increasingly expensive coursework and certification costs, attend classes that conflict with work schedules, and forgo wages to complete unfunded student teaching requirements. These roadblocks can deter valuable local…

New York State is experiencing teacher shortages in specific subject areas. One way to address these shortages is through the certification and placement of new teachers. This study explored the pathways through which new teachers between 2015/16 and 2017/18 earned certificates, their certification areas, and their subsequent placement and…

This Study Snapshot highlights key findings from a study that explored the pathways through which new teachers between 2015/16 and 2017/18 earned certificates, their certification areas, and their subsequent placement and retention in districts across the state, particularly high-need districts. New York State provides multiple certification…

These are the appendixes for the report, "Teacher Shortages in New York State: New Teachers' Certification Pathways, Shortage Areas, District of Employment, and Retention in the Same District." New York State has been experiencing teacher shortages in specific subject areas. One way to address these shortages is through the certification…

In this age of teacher accountability, school districts are increasingly interested in using the best possible methods in evaluating their teachers. This interest impacts new alternative certification teachers, as well as traditional teachers. An increasingly popular assessment is the Danielson Framework, which is a set of 22 components of…

In an era of increasing teacher accountability, charter schools are finding ways to circumnavigate the restrictions placed on public schools in regard to teacher certification. These efforts purportedly are being made to fill teacher shortages in high need areas, but realistically allow charter school teachers to avoid expensive and time-consuming…

This qualitative study describes the development of hybrid teacher preparation programs that emerged as a result of a "forced" partnership between university-based and alternative teacher preparation programs in New York City. This hybrid experiment was a short-lived, yet innovative by-product of a somewhat pragmatic arrangement between…