Staffing shortages in public schools have reached a crisis level. Although pervasive, this crisis has disproportionally impacted the field of special education. Due to the dual roles of special education teachers, specifically serving as teacher and case manager, and other factors, such as addressing the needs of a highly diverse student…

The Commonwealth of Virginia has seen an increase in the number of educators completing Alternative Teacher Certification Programs, contributing to the diversity in the teaching work force. The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of alternatively certified public K-12 teachers regarding their preparedness to teach. The researcher…

We used 14 years of state licensure and classroom data from Virginia to follow 19,878 special education teachers (SETs) who completed either the alternative route (AR) internship or traditional programs. Findings reveal that a greater percentage of SETs of color participated in AR programs compared to traditional licensure programs, while a…

The purpose of this multiple case study was to understand the impact of a traditional mentorship program on 13 alternatively certified teachers in a suburban school district in the southeastern part of the state of Virginia. This research utilized a qualitative multiple case study design. Guiding this qualitative study were Knowles' adult and…

Tremendous teacher shortages and shifts in the preparation of technology and engineering (T&E) teachers have been occurring for some time (Litowitz, 2014; Moye, 2009; Volk, 1997, 2019). The training and certification of these teachers is extremely varied since each state certifies T&E teachers independently and most states offer several…

Special education teachers enrolled in a Virginia-based alternate route certification program were surveyed to determine if they perceived the program was valuable for creating effective special educators, and the focus of the study was on the effectiveness of alternative route programs for teacher preparation. The literature review showed scant…

Building a strong, diverse teacher workforce in sufficient numbers requires understanding of the points along the pathway into the teaching profession where aspiring teachers are most likely lost. Currently, policymakers, state education agencies, and teacher prep programs have limited insight into the obstacles along this pathway, largely due to…

Despite the growing evidence of the benefits of having a teacher of the same race and ethnicity as the student, the educator workforce remains overwhelmingly White, while the K-12 student population is becoming more diverse (Egalite & Kisada, 2018; Gershenson et al., 2016; National Center on Education Statistics, 2019). Historically Black…

Districts across the country are facing severe shortages of teachers--especially in certain subjects (math, science, special education, career and technical education, and bilingual education) and in specific schools (urban, rural, high-poverty, high-minority, and low-achieving). The severity of the teacher shortage problem varies significantly by…

Creating a pipeline of great teachers for all schools and students in each state is a crucial policy goal. Strengthening teacher pipelines requires states to examine multiple policy areas, including certification requirements, educator evaluation, compensation and career ladders, educator environment (e.g., working conditions), and the range of…

Quantitative analysis was used to investigate relationships between sense of class community and perceived learning among alternative licensure candidates (N = 58) based on their scores from two separate standardized instruments measuring the constructs. Study results provide evidence that relationships do indeed exist and that differences between…

Teacher residency programs are a relatively new method for building stronger teacher pipelines. Research assessing the impact of these programs is still limited, but some early reports suggest that residency programs hold promise for improving teacher effectiveness and retention rates (Barrett, Hovde, Hahn, & Rosqueta, 2011; Papay, West,…

This research examined the impact of teacher licensure routes, particularly those identified as either traditional or alternative on student achievement by comparing Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) end of year scores in math and reading for minority students in grades six through eight during the period from 2005 through 2009. To compare the…

House Joint Resolution 678 requires that the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) study "the shortage of classroom teachers in the Commonwealth, and especially explore methods to attract students to the Virginia Community College System for the first two years of a teacher…

One controversial aspect of No Child Left Behind is the highly qualified provision. The 2001 act required that teachers of core academic subjects be highly qualified by 2006 or school districts would lose federal funding. Virginia districts are still scrambling to hire qualified teachers. Although the federal government has modified the 2006…