The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) approved the first nationally registered K-12 teacher apprenticeship program in January 2022, opening the door to a rapidly growing pathway for prospective teachers. DOL has now approved registered teacher apprenticeships in more than 30 states. Kentucky's first program is registered through the Kentucky Career…

This study delved into the experiences of novice secondary teachers (NST) in California, with a focus on the support systems and preparation programs that influence their professional growth. Through two interconnected phases, district support systems were analyzed via interviews, followed by NST interviews to gauge their perceptions of support.…

Each year, thousands of novice teachers are hired, and within a few years, many of these teachers decide to leave the profession. Job-embedded practitioners, teachers who have yet to fulfill their academic requirements at their universities to become fully licensed teachers and are taking an alternative route to obtain their teaching licenses,…

Numerous techniques and methods are used in School-Based Agricultural Education. These techniques are vital to the goal of educating a diverse and expansive population that exist within secondary agricultural science courses. Agricultural educators, both traditionally and alternatively certified, know and understand the value of using multiple…

Enrollment in traditional special education teacher preparation programs has declined while enrollment in alternative preparation programs has increased in Georgia (Georgia Insights, 2024). Since alternative preparation programs have become the viable recruitment vein for rural schools challenged to fill special education teaching vacancies,…

Schools in economically marginalized areas often have a disproportionate number of low-performing or ineffective teachers and face challenges in recruiting and retaining highly effective teachers. The grow your own (GYO) model recruits and trains recent high school graduates and school employees who are interested in becoming classroom teachers.…

Texas's educator workforce has been characterized over the past few decades by high attrition rates contributing to persistent teacher shortages and increased hiring of underprepared and uncertified teachers. These conditions have motivated state investment in a multifaceted strategy to seed and support teacher residency programs. State guidance,…

Background: Prior work examined the relationship between teacher preparation programs (TPPs) and teacher attrition and turnover. However, such research aggregated all types of non-traditional certification programs (non-TCPs) into a single non-TCP group. This practice masks some critical differences among non-TCPs, and could send a misleading…

This critical collaborative autoethnography critically examines how three women (Black, Asian American, and white) teacher educators negotiated their roles as diversity, equity, and inclusion facilitators for a national alternative educator preparation program. A major category that emerged from the research was how our racialized experiences…

With the gradual improvement of open teacher selection mechanisms, the comparison of traditionally and alternatively certified teachers has become one of the international focuses in teacher research. Current studies have compared teachers of different certification pathways from multidimensional perspectives; however, no study has yet compared…

Alternative pathways to licensure (APL) programs have proliferated nationally as a potential solution to the ongoing critical shortage of qualified special education professionals. Although these programs attract more diverse teacher candidates, they have been criticized for a lack of preparation and support provided to new professionals. This…

The traditional approach to teacher training has been receiving an undergraduate degree in education. However, the rise of alternative teacher preparation programs due to teacher shortages, an increased importance placed on testing, and the rise of charter and voucher schools have caused people to question the effectiveness of traditional…

Given the national shortage of special educators, many are entering the profession through alternative certification, assuming full responsibility for classrooms or caseloads before they are fully licensed as special education teachers. This qualitative study explores the support provided to beginning alternative certification teachers in a…

Society's perception, recruitment, and retention of alternative certified teachers entering the education system is a critical issue in Career and Technical Education (CTE) (Heilig, 2007). Although public education is an important factor in our society and the nation's future, fewer college and university students are majoring in education…

This comparative study explored self-efficacy and ability for scientifically-based literacy instruction between a traditional and residency model of teacher preparation. Pre-/post-survey data was collected using the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy for Literacy Scale. Mentor teachers completed a modified version of the survey on candidates' abilities.…