Decades of research has documented the negative effects of physical punishment, including spanking (Heilmann et al., 2021). Since 1998, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has endorsed the use of time out from positive reinforcement (TO) as an alternative to corporal punishment (Sege et al., 2018). Despite urging at the federal level…

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…

The national teacher shortage makes it challenging for principals and superintendents to hire certified teachers. To address this problem, a university in a rural state in the Midwest partnered with their state's agencies to develop a teacher apprenticeship pathway (TAP) for 78 paraprofessionals working in the state's public, non-public, and…

Teachers enhance their professional competencies, knowledge, and performance by attending various professional development activities, whose main goal is to assist them in helping students to achieve better results. The effectiveness of such events depends on matching the professional development to teachers' needs, experience, and objectives.…

Only 3% of alternatively certified teachers in Florida are retained after receiving certification. When teachers' self-efficacy improves, so does their motivation, mental health, job satisfaction, and student performance. Teacher self-efficacy is unstable and often influenced by situational conditions. A gap in the literature exists regarding how…

A School District Principal Preparation Partnership Program is designed to establish collaboration between a University and school districts that employ the school leaders graduated by the university. This collaboration improves school principal preparation by integrating relevant school district policies, practices, knowledge, and skills into a…

While young people are generally better educated today than ever before, recent graduates tend to lack practical skills -- especially digital skills. Certification programs offer one effective way to address this digital skills gap. They give learners a way to gain the skills they need to compete, and also to demonstrate credibly that they possess…

Teacher residency programs have emerged as an alternative teacher preparation program that prepares teacher candidates; also known as residents, for high-need areas such as special education in the United States of America. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature on teacher residency programs in the United…

Developing teachers for leadership is an important step needed to build strong instructional programs in our schools. As a method for developing leadership, project-based learning (PBL) has incredible potential. The project used in this study asked in-service teachers (ISTs) taking a graduate level mathematics education course to develop and lead…

This study is one in a series on K-12 curricula discovery, selection, and adoption processes in the U.S. The COVID-19 pandemic sparked significant changes in how classes were taught and curriculum materials were sourced, and this survey's focus shifted to studying that impact. The pandemic-induced move to remote instruction was only possible…

Teacher preparation refers to a "state-approved course of study, the completion of which signifies that an enrollee has met all the state's educational or training requirements for initial certification or licensure to teach in the state's elementary or secondary schools" (Department of Education, 2016, p. 6). The widespread concern for…

Teach For America (TFA) is nationally recognized as an alternate route teacher preparation program that has sought to address the shortage of effective teachers specifically in high-poverty rural and urban schools across the US (Teach For America, 2010). The purpose of this review is to use systematic procedures that limit bias in the retrieval,…

Urban school districts often rely on alternative teacher certification programs to help address ongoing demands for recruiting and hiring qualified teachers. These programs offer pathways into teaching outside of traditional university-based teacher education programs. TNTP's Teaching Fellows program has been one of the most prominent alternative…

Black teachers are disproportionately underrepresented in U.S. public schools. Over the past five decades, the percentage of Black teachers has not surpassed nine percent. Considering this trend, teacher education programs play a vital role in the retention of Black teachers. Hence, inadequate teacher preparation produces ineffective teachers,…

In 2017 Georgia instituted a flexibility policy through which school districts enter into performance contracts with the state that grant districts waivers from state rules and allow schools and districts greater autonomy. In exchange, schools and districts must meet academic performance targets. The performance contracts are intended to…