Over the last two decades, alternative certification programs have sprung up across the nation as a viable solution to mitigate the teacher shortages and development. For example, in the state of Texas, alternative certification is the source of nearly 54% of its new teachers, over 13,000 (Texas Education Agency, 2017-2018 ASEP Report). The vast majority of these new teachers are late-hire alt cert teachers, who generally have fewer types of education coursework and shorter field experiences than their traditionally certified colleagues.

This late-hire alt cert teacher policy has mitigated teacher shortages in Texas by removing barriers to recruiting personnel for hard to staff schools. However, the Texas Educational Agency (TEA) has data that suggest that an overabundance of late-hire alt cert teachers are employed in schools that serve the state’s highest-need students: children-of-color-living-in-poverty. Results of the TEA Principal Survey indicate that principals are more dissatisfied and concerned about the quality of late-hire alt cert teachers than they are about traditionally certified teachers (TEA, 2017). 

Coalition members in US PREP are focusing on high-quality teacher preparation pathways – by building on the strengths of both traditional and alternative certification models. An example of this is Tech Teach Across Texas.  TechTeach Across Texas is a fast-track, one-year teacher preparation program, combining intense clinical experiences with applicable online courses in district-based partnerships around the state. Teacher candidates receive classroom coaching from skilled, experienced Site Coordinators and Mentor Teachers, and are able to immediately apply their learning from their practice-based coursework. TechTeach Across Texas allows students to complete a Bachelor of Science degree and earn teacher certification in one calendar year.