Alternate Routes to Certification for Potential School String Teachers

Abstract

The ASTA with NSOA National Executive Board named “working to solve the national shortage of string teachers” as its first priority in its strategic plan ratified in 1998. One of several initiatives toward achieving this goal, an Alternate Route Certification Task Force was appointed in 1999 to examine the viability of non-traditional routes to certification in helping to alleviate string teacher shortages. By providing information concerning alternate routes to certification, ASTA with NSOA hopes to encourage mid-career string-playing professionals to enter the school-teaching workforce.

Alternate route or alternative certification—a path to public school teaching certification that differs in some way from traditional teacher education programs—has been described as a short-term or condensed credentialing program that provides “intensified professional education to post-baccalaureate teacher candidates.”¹ In an ERIC Digest article, Ebo Otuya describes it “as a process designed to certify candidates who have subject-matter competencies, without going through formal teacher preparation.”²

As implied by these two differing definitions, an alternate route to certification can take many different forms, including paths that are very similar to or quite different from traditional teacher training. In Alternative Teacher Certification: A State-by-State Analysis 1998-99, Emily Feistritzer and David Chester write, “The term ‘alternative teacher certification’ has been used to refer to every avenue to becoming licensed to teach, from emergency certification to very sophisticated and well-designed programs that address the professional preparation needs of the growing population of individuals who already have at least a baccalaureate degree and considerable life experience and want to become teachers.”³

The ASTA with NSOA Alternate Route Certification Task Force has adopted a more restrictive definition of alternate route certification—that is, condensed programs designed especially for mid-career professionals with significant life experiences who are interested in becoming school string teachers.

Alternate Route Certification: A Controversial Policy Issue

According to Mark Littleton and Bill Larmer in their article “Alternative Education: Reflection on the Past and Implications for the Future,” many state departments of education “use alternative certification programs to address projected teacher shortages and recruit highly qualified individuals into the teaching profession.”⁴ While certainly not the only strategy for solving shortage problems and not the only reason for their emergence, alternate routes to certification are often designed to attract individuals with content knowledge and life experience to work in hard-to-fill teaching jobs.

Alternate route certification is a fairly controversial educational policy issue. Opponents say that alternate route teachers aren't adequately trained and therefore contribute to problems of educational quality. Proponents argue that the current system needs reform and that poor-quality teachers can come out of traditional programs as easily as they can come from alternate routes. Several research studies have been conducted to examine whether alternative certification fulfills its stated goals. Two sources in particular well summarize both sides of this issue: a 1996 book titled Currents of Reform in Preservice Teacher Education and a 1998 article in the Journal of Research and Development in Education titled “The Impact of Alternative Certification on the Elementary and Secondary Public Teaching Force.”⁵

Regardless of the debate, many state educational policy makers are looking to alternate routes of certification as a means of alleviating current or anticipated teacher shortages in all subjects. And many mid-career professionals, including string players or non-certified string teachers, are turning to alternate routes for a means of entering the school workforce.

Yet non-traditional potential teachers may not be willing to invest several years without income to return to school to complete a traditional teacher training program, especially knowing that teacher salaries start low. In the string teaching field, for example, the curricula of performance degrees and music education degrees at most colleges and universities overlap for only the first couple of years. A string player with a Bachelor of Music or Bachelor of Arts in music is often faced with three or more years of full-time coursework in order to make up deficiencies in licensure requirements. Alternative routes to certification may provide condensed coursework, credit for life experiences, or practical hands-on training to accelerate that certification process.

Alternate Routes for String Players

To identify and determine the components of alternate route programs around the country, as well as how they might apply to string teachers, a survey was sent by ASTA with NSOA to fifty state education departments in July 1999. Nineteen surveys were returned. Before calling the other thirty-one education departments to obtain the necessary information, two primary sources were consulted and compared:

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The web sites of each state education department, Availability of information ranged from full listings of all requirements for all areas of teacher certification to no certification information at all. All fifty state education departments can be accessed from the web site: www.ed.gov//Programs/bastmp/SEA.htm. The University of Kentucky College of Education web site www.uky.edu/Education/TEP/usacert.html also provides links to certification requirements of all fifty states, although some of these need to be updated.

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A publication titled Alternative Teacher Certification: A State-by-State Analysis 1998-99 published by the National Center for Education Information (NCEI).⁶ This publication describes 117 alternate route programs by state and categorizes them into one of nine classifications.

In almost all instances of alternate routes to certification, a bachelor's degree in the subject area to be taught is a prerequisite. Specific music degrees—that is, B.M., B.A., or B.S.— were not specified by the survey respondents or other sources of information. Many states did, however, specify the number of credit hours in various music subjects that were a prerequisite. Almost all states specified a minimum grade point average of between 2.75 and 3.25.

Most state certification offices also specify that teacher candidates pass standardized assessments before entering a classroom. Every state has a different requirement for which of the various available tests must be taken. Some tests are administered by national organizations—such as the NTE (National Teacher Exam) or PPST (Pre-Professional Skills Test) administered by the Educational Testing Service in New Jersey. Other states require state-developed and administered exams.

Some alternative certificates are restricted to shortage areas only. That is, the hiring school district must prove that every attempt was made to find and hire a traditionally certified teacher to fill the position. In these instances, the alternately certified teacher could easily be replaced when a fully certified teacher is found. Alternative certificates designed to remedy emergency shortage situations are outside the focus of the research described here.

While the NCEI survey of alternate routes classifies programs into nine categories, three broad categories emerged from the surveys, web searches, and phone calls described above: Internship Programs, District-Based Training Programs, and Eminence Certificates.

Internship Programs

Non-traditional students complete some or a majority of coursework necessary for a post-baccalaureate or master's degree program in music education. Then, instead of student teaching, the candidate is hired by a school district and has full responsibility for a classroom. After a successful provisional period, the candidate is awarded regular certification. These programs are administered through higher education institutions, local school districts, or by a consortium of representatives from a university, a state department of education, and a local school district.

In Idaho, for example, the Alternate Route Program consists of an individualized two-year program developed by a consortium of a mentor teacher and representatives from the school district administration, the Department of Education's Office of Teacher Education and Certification, and a participating higher education institution with an approved secondary education program. For string teaching, the candidate must have received his or her baccalaureate degree in music at least five years prior to application and must be assured of full-time employment to enter the program. Nine semester hours of courses in educational psychology and related methods courses are required before being placed in a classroom. During the internship period, in which the teacher candidate has full responsibility for a classroom, nine additional semester hours of coursework must be completed. The candidate “must be assisted by and guided throughout the two-year training period by a certificated [sic] employee of the district who has been designated as a mentor teacher. Principals must ensure that teacher trainees are provided with direct assistance, which should include close clinical supervision, especially at the beginning of the internship.”⁷

In Georgia, several colleges offer post-baccalaureate or Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) programs that facilitate certification for non-traditional students, according to Certification Coordinator Tim Spencer.⁸ For string teaching, candidates must hold a bachelor's degree or have been admitted to or completed a master's degree in music. In many cases, the colleges will set up internships that allow candidates to be hired as teachers in lieu of student teaching requirements. The candidates must first pass appropriate standardized assessments and have the employing school district request a Provisional Certificate. All certification requirements must be completed within the three-year provisional period.

The local school district develops and implements a professional development plan for California's District Internship Certificate candidates who hold a bachelor's degree with a major in the subject to be taught. Before entering the classroom, candidates must complete six semester units of coursework or 120 clock hours of training in child development and methods of teaching the subjects and grade levels. After reviewing the candidate's background, the local district administrators make a recommendation concerning additional university courses required of the candidate. Employing agencies must verify that the district intern will be assisted and guided throughout the training period by a certified employee.

String Teacher Shortage in Perspective

A year ago, principals from around the nation said they faced the most serious teacher shortage in recent memory, according to an August 31, 1999 New York Times news service story found on the National Association for Bilingual Education web site (www.nabe.org/press/reprints/990831f.htm). On December 15, 1999, Channel 4000 WCCO-TV in Minneapolis reported on a study conducted by the Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota; the study predicted 24,500 statewide teaching vacancies in five years and prompted a Minnesota House Education Subcommittee to seek solutions. Likewise, Massachusetts “is expected to see 30,000 to 35,000 of its graying teacher population retire during the next decade,” according to Ed Hayward in his December 27, 1999 Boston Herald story “Study Warns of Teacher Shortage.”

The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning in Sacramento published a report indicating that the problem in California is not simply related to growing numbers of school children and more teachers retiring. “Conditions in poor schools have declined so much that many qualified teachers don't want to teach there. Between 30 percent and 50 percent who come out of the state's education schools with full credentials don't go on to teach” (Sacramento Bee Editorial, December 6, 1999).

As the California report implies, the teacher shortage is often rooted in geography and subject matter. “The problem is not a depleted pool of teachers nationwide: There are at least 180,000 recent graduates with teaching degrees and about 80,000 veterans looking for new jobs, enough to fill the estimated 200,000 teaching vacancies posted in the nation's public schools,” the New York Times news service reported on August 31, 1999 (“Big Teacher Shortage Rooted in Geography and Subject Matter”),

A national study titled “The Urban Teacher Challenge” conducted by the non-profit organization Recruiting New Teachers (RNT) found that shortages are most pervasive in urban districts in the areas of math and science, special education, bilingual education, and education technology. (The full report is available on the web at www.cgcs.org or www.rnt.org.) This report confirms a 1998 study by the National Association of State Boards of Education, titled “The Numbers Game: Ensuring Quantity and Quality in the Teaching Workforce,” which was covered by Ann Bradley in her November 4, 1998 Education Week story “Uneven Distribution Contributes to Teacher Shortages, Study Warns.” Both reports make recommendations to state policy makers for making teaching in urban schools more attractive.

For example, programs have been established to cancel or defer federal student loans for recent graduates who teach in federally designated low-income or subject-matter shortage areas. While music doesn't top the list of federally declared shortage areas, it has recently been cited as a shortage area in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Washington. For more information, contact the Direct Loan Servicing Center at 800-848-0979 or visit www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/Students/repayment/teachers/dlffel.html. (Note that most state education departments do not differentiate between instrumental and vocal music; no states differentiate between orchestras and band when reporting student enrollments and teacher statistics.) The states with music teacher shortages indicate that rural schools also have difficulty recruiting certified individuals.

Anecdotal evidence supports the premise that string teaching jobs are most difficult to fill in certain geographic regions of the country, notably low-income rural or urban areas. Yet, more affluent suburban areas are also having trouble filling string teaching jobs, according to reports from other string teachers, especially in California, Virginia, and Texas. To confirm this anecdotal evidence, ASTA with NSOA has appointed a Research Committee to systematically investigate the shortage of school string teachers. Among the topics the committee will look at are: where the shortages are most severe, how many college and university string students are becoming certified to teach in the public schools, and what compels college students to be string education majors. (For more information, see the February 2000 issue of AST, page 12.)

District-Based Training Programs

These programs are administered at the local school district level, sometimes in collaboration with universities and state departments of education, and often provide a brief intensive training period in pedagogical methods before placing candidates in teaching jobs. Usually, candidates are required to attend professional development training programs on weekends and after school to achieve regular certification. These programs are taught by school district personnel on school premises, rather than at a university.

In Connecticut, for example, candidates with a bachelor's degree in music attend an eight-week summer program administered by the Department of Education and are then placed in a classroom. Candidates then enter into the Beginning Educator and Support and Training Program (BEST) for two and a half years. The BEST program assigns a mentor or support team to all new teachers in the district and provides regionally scheduled discipline-specific seminars and Connecticut Competency Instrument Clinics. Teachers in the BEST program are required to put together a portfolio that is assessed at the end of the induction period.

The Alternate Certification Program in Arkansas includes week-long intensive courses during summers and seven day-long seminars on Saturdays during the school year while the certification candidate teaches under the guidance of a mentor. Training seminars are conducted over a period of two years, and mentoring is required for at least three years. Program participants pay $500 per year for coursework. The programs, which are operated by the Department of Education, are being offered in eighty-five school districts, according to Certification Officer Ron Toison.⁹

A consortium of representatives from the Department of Education, Chief School Officers, and state universities implements a training program in Delaware that includes a 120-hour summer institute prior to teaching. The first year of teaching includes intensive on-the-job coaching by a brained mentor and supervision by a school administrator, plus approximately 120 hours of seminars on teaching in the evenings and weekends.

Kentucky's Local District Certification Option is designed by a support team consisting of the hiring school principal, a mentor teacher, and a college faculty member. Candidates must have obtained their bachelor's degree in the content area five years prior to applying to enter this program. The support team is responsible for developing with the candidate a three-phase professional development plan. Phase 1 consists of eight weeks of site-based instruction and preparation. Phase 2 divides the candidate's time evenly between teaching and on-site instruction for eighteen weeks. Phase 3 consists of eighteen weeks of full-time teaching with ongoing monitoring, training, and evaluation.

Eminence Certificates

These certificates are awarded by many states to individuals who are accomplished in their field and have a great deal of content specialty knowledge that can be shared with students. Only a few states offer these types of certificates, and they are generally intended for visiting and temporary teachers.

The Idaho Department of Education issues a Consultant Specialist Approval if a letter of request is submitted from the hiring school superintendent and president of the School Board. The candidate must be “highly and uniquely qualified,” and the use of this provision should be exceptional and occasional. The approval is valid for one year, but may be renewed.

Kentucky's College Faculty Certification Option is for people with a master's or doctorate degree in music who have taught full-time at a college or university. This provisional (renewable) one-year certificate can only be converted into a standard certificate if the candidate enters into the Local District Certification Option described above.

Important Components of Alternate Route Programs

While some education professionals would argue that no alternate route certification program is a good program, some components can be identified as contributing to the effectiveness of producing well-prepared teachers: namely, mentoring programs and prerequisite professional work experience.

A mentoring component could be considered essential to any teacher induction program. Certification requirements in twenty-seven states contained language that specifically mandated an alternately trained teacher be assigned a mentor. Some of this language was very vague, simply stating that the district was required to appoint a mentor teacher for one or two years. Other states specified that a support team must be established to help the candidate but did not specify a length of time. In Kentucky, for example, the newly hired teacher must be assigned to a support team consisting of the principal, a mentor teacher, an instructional supervisor, and a college faculty member. Similarly, in South Carolina a three-member support team must be established before the alternatively certified teacher begins to teach,

A few states require mentoring programs for all newly hired teachers, not just those who are in alternate route programs. Arkansas has set up a three-year Master Teacher Mentoring Program for all new teachers. Connecticut's program is called BEST, for Beginning Educator Support and Training Program. Louisiana and Pennsylvania are other states with induction programs for all first-year teachers.

In South Carolina and Illinois, the school district is required to provide a substitute teacher and release time to the mentor teacher to enable him or her to provide assistance to the newly hired teacher. In New Hampshire, the mentor teachers are required to complete a twelve-hour mentor-training program. New York provides a 20 percent reduction in teaching load or additional compensation to teachers who serve as mentors.

Age restrictions are another important component of alternate route programs. Several states required alternate route applicants to have at least five years of professional work experience before applying. This prerequisite prevents alternative certification programs from competing with traditional four- or five-year college teacher education programs designed for the eighteen- to twenty-four-year-old student,

Eminence certification programs, by their nature, require significant experience in the content subject matter. Ten states had such “life experience” requirements attached to their internship or district-based training programs. Alabama, Kentucky,

Michigan, and Oklahoma require the equivalent of at least two years of professional work experience. Idaho, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, Utah, and Wisconsin require either five years of professional experience or that the candidate must have received his or her bachelor's degree at least five years prior to applying to the program.

According to Susan Leib, executive director of the Education Professional Standards Board at the Kentucky Department of Education, previous professional experience for string players could include playing professionally in a recognized regional or national symphony orchestra or military band or orchestra.¹⁰ Private teaching would count as professional experience if the candidate could show that he or she taught full-time or on a contract basis with an academy or community music program. Awards or various forms of recognition such as involvement in state and local professional associations would help the certification office determine if an applicant qualified, Leib said.

Finding the Right Program

In addition to the two components described above, mid-career string players or private teachers interested in seeking an alternate route to certification should seek coursework that addresses the needs of older, non-traditional students. The majority of existing programs involve college coursework. In a 1994 University of Virginia Ph.D. dissertation, Sheryl Anne Maxwell recommends that, to satisfy the needs of second-career teachers, “teacher educators should value the rich backgrounds of second career individuals, help create support systems, incorporate adult learning/teaching models within the university classroom, and keep up-to-date with both instructional methodologies and the nature of today's school classroom.”¹¹

Similarly, in the dissertation “Non-Traditional Teachers: Personal Learning Styles and Teaching Styles,” Teresa Harrison suggests that it is “important for teacher educators to consider prior experience and learning styles in developing teacher education courses” for older, non-traditional students.¹² If possible, prospective candidates should interview the college faculty regarding their attitudes toward non-traditional students.

What's Next for the Alternate Route Certification Task Force?

The Task Force on Alternate Routes to Certification will use the data collected by Laura Racin to encourage and facilitate certification for more string players. Specifically, the Task Force will:

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Evaluate the data in order to create an alternate route model(s) that complies with the Standards for the Preparation of School String and Orchestra Directors, published by ASTA with NSOA in 1998. This model can be circulated to organizations and teacher preparation institutions interested in developing or improving alternate routes to certification.

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Recommend studies to discover whether alternative certification programs exist where the demand is greatest. If not, ASTA with NSOA will send recommendations to those institutions in the area of demand.

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Encourage existing summer workshops and professional development conferences to present clinics specially designed for alternatively certified string teachers.

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Continue to monitor listed and predicted string teacher openings, facilitating alternatively certified candidates’ access to openings that are going unfilled and ascertaining that predicted shortages are continuing.

ASTA with NSOA members interested in providing input regarding alternate routes to certification should contact Louis Bergonzi at 716-274-1546 or email: lbgz@uhura.cc.rochester.edu

Because alternative certification programs are controversial, not every university is going to willingly facilitate an alternative program. State Music Consultant Mel Pontious of the Wisconsin Department of Education writes in reference to a new option for certification, “Wisconsin's music educators, colleges and universities, and the Department of Public Instruction opposed this move by the legislature…. There are some real threats to quality education in measures like this. The public and private colleges and universities felt so strongly about it that they refused to develop the 100-hour program described in the statute and rules.”” The NCEI book Alternative Teacher Certification lists universities by state that offer alternate route programs for all subjects. Interested readers will need to determine which of those universities offer music education programs.

String teachers who want to pursue an alternate route must understand that they are breaking new ground and that the school districts may also be resistant to change. In a University of Southern California dissertation, Marietta S. Palmer surveyed school personnel administrators and found “an unenthusiastic acceptance of alternative certification models based on need but confirmed a clear preference for university-based preservice programs over district training models.”¹⁴ A thick skin and perseverance are qualities needed for string teachers interested in pursuing an alternate route to certification.

Future Research and Policy Recommendations

The first phase of this research consisted of identifying alternate route programs and their components by state. Most states were unable to provide statistics regarding the number of music educators, and specifically string teachers, who completed an alternate route to certification. The next phase of research will involve identifying and contacting school districts that have hired alternatively certified string teachers as well as the teachers themselves. Possible topics for investigation include:

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Did the requirements for alternate route certification differ significantly for string teachers than those for academic teachers (identified in phase 1)?

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Did alternatively certified string teachers feel they were adequately prepared for their particular teaching situations?

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Were hiring principals satisfied with the performance of the alternatively certified string teachers?

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What characteristics of alternate route teachers helped determine their success and retention in the field?

For more information about various states’ alternate routes to certification, contact Laura Racin, 468 Rebecca St., Morgantown, WV 26505; tel. 304-598-3249; fax 304-598-3259; email: EditorAST@aol.com.

Armory Center for the Arts Partners in Professional Development Program, Pasadena, California

The Armory Center is working in collaboration with a consortium of Los Angeles arts institutions, universities, and school districts to implement and evaluate alternative means of providing professional development in arts education for preservice teachers and in-service alternatively certified teachers. Information can be found on the web site of Arts Education Partnership, in Washington, DC (202-326-8693). The Arts Education Partnership (formerly the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership) is a coalition of education, arts, business, philanthropic, and government organizations that demonstrates and promotes the essential role of arts education in enabling all students to succeed in school, life, and work. The Arts Education Partnership was formed in 1995 through a cooperative agreement between the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Education Department, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and Council of Chief State School Officers.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Southfield, Michigan and Arlington, Virginia

www.nbpts.org 1-800-22-TEACH, 248-351-4444, 703-465-2700 NBPTS's mission is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do, to develop and operate a national, voluntary system to assess and certify teachers who meet these standards, and to advance related education reforms for the purpose of improving student learning in American schools. NBPTS publications concern teaching standards, such as the “What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do” pamphlet and the quarterly magazine Accomplished Teacher. National Certification in Music will be offered to teachers beginning in 2001-02. To download the eight-four-page Content Standards, visit the organization's web site.

National Center for Alternative Teacher Certification Information, Houston, Texas

www.altcert.org 713-667-6185 NCATCI provides consultation to state departments of education, school districts, regional educational entities, state and federal legislators, and any partnership or group interested in eliminating teacher shortages by envisioning entirely new paradigms of teacher education via alternative routes to teacher and administrative certification.

National Center for Education Information, Washington, DC www.ncei.com 202-362-3444 NCEI sponsors research and publishes books and reports concerning alternative teacher certification; profiles of teachers, school administrators, and prospective teachers; and a state-by-state report card on the quality of education today.

National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC http://nces.ed.gov 202-502-7300 NCES publishes statistical reports concerning all aspects of education. Some publications related to certification include: Teacher Quality: A Report on Teacher Preparation and Qualifications of Public School Teachers; Are High School Teachers Teaching Core Subjects without College Majors or Minors in Those Subjects?; and The Redesign of the Schools and Staffing Survey.

Recruiting New Teachers, Inc., Belmont, Massachusetts www.mt.org 617-489-6000 Recruiting New Teachers is a national organization created to raise esteem for teaching, expand the pool of prospective teachers, and improve the nation's teacher recruitment and development policies and practices. The organization's programs consist of public service and outreach campaigns, research, advocacy, networking, technical assistance, publications, and convening national conferences. RNT's web site contains links to state departments of education and other related web sites.

Laura Reed Racin is editor of AST. She is founder and director of the North Central West Virginia Community Orchestra in Fairmont, West Virginia.

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13.

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14.

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