A recent study released by Mathamatica Policy Research finds that students who have teachers certified through alternative-training programs do no worse in mathematics or reading achievement than students whose teachers have been certified by traditional teacher education programs.
The study, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, also found no correlation between teacher effectiveness and the amount of coursework that teachers received as part of their alternative or traditional teacher-training programs.
The Mathematica study compared students from the same schools who were randomly assigned to teachers from alternative-certification programs or regular teacher education programs. It tracked 2,600 students in 63 schools in six states.
The researchers stated that since most alternative-certification programs are not very selective in picking candidates, they chose to examine those types of programs. Similarly, most traditional teacher education programs are not very selective.
The study found that while the amount of coursework required by training programs varies greatly within alternative-certification programs and within traditional programs, the number of course hours did not affect student achievement. In fact, students of alternative-certified teachers scored higher than students of their traditionally certified counterparts as often as they scored lower.
It is clear that more evaluation work will be needed to examine the diversity in the coursework and the uniqueness of teaching candidates of specific programs. For example, a recent study of teacher education of New York City programs finds that while there are many programs, the characteristics of the programs are quite similar. It will be interesting to learn what specific characteristics lead to effective teachers, especially in measuring the effectiveness of well-known alternative certification programs such as Teach For America and the New Teacher Project. Join in the debate on the effectiveness of particular teacher certification programs by sending us your opinions and ideas.