Career Advice & News Center

With many of the nation's elementary and secondary schools needing qualified subject-specific teachers, new programs aim to support mid-career professionals wishing to jump to a job in the education field. Of the individuals who reassess their career goals and decide to pursue training in a new industry, some may prefer online degrees or other avenues of non-traditional education which do not interfere with family and work obligations.

The New Teacher Project (NTP), a national nonprofit organization, supports students and new educators alike by training effective instructors in understaffed subject areas for school districts identified as high-need. Since the program began in 1997, NTP has hired about 33,000 teachers in 28 states.

The organization prepares qualified applicants who wish to pursue careers in education with its rigorous six week training session in which the job candidate will teach a practicum to students while being guided and monitored by a master teacher.

April Bernier, a mother of two and former medical research assistant, underwent the program's training and is in the final stages of being certified as a teacher.

Bernier told the Providence Journal, "I never could have gotten a regular teaching certificate with my life, married with two kids. This program is opening the door to a lot of people who will be amazing teachers and couldn't have done it otherwise."

Aside from offering a higher degree of convenience, alternative education programs produce teachers who are just as effective in the classroom as those who received traditional training.

Data collected by the National Center for Policy Analysis portrayed that no statistical difference existed between the achievements of students taught by traditionally trained teachers and those who advanced from alternate certifications, the Daily Reflector reports.

Assistant superintendent of human resources at Pitt County schools, Delilah Harris, told the news source that success in the classroom is "ultimately about the individual and their passion for the job."

According to NTP, a 2006 analysis of Los Angeles public school data concluded that "having a top-quartile teacher rather than a bottom-quartile teacher four years in a row may be enough to close the black-white test score gap."

As education officials began to recognize the success of non-traditional training programs, the employment of alternatively certified teachers rose nationally from about 4,000 in 1992 to 60,000 in 2006, the National Center for Alternative Education reports.

The traditional path to becoming a public school teacher involves completing a bachelor's degree from a teacher education program and securing a state license. However, many states provide alternative ways to licensure for those who have degrees in other fields.

Students and professionals who are serious about pursuing careers in education should note that private school teachers must a have a bachelor's degree, but are not required to have a teaching license.

Currently, however, some states like Michigan are considering addressing a shortage of qualified teachers by loosening restrictions which require traditional training for all of the state's elementary and secondary school instructors.

A new federal grant, the Race to the Top fund, will provide more than $4 billion to states that show a dedication to education reform, including allowing alternatively-certified teachers into the classroom according to NPR.org.

Jonathan Matthews, a department director at Cody High School in Detroit, told the news source that non-traditional programs are vital in drawing experienced professionals from an array of fields.

"As we grow we're going to need to be able to expand our net and pull in professionals from all kinds of fields." He added, "As we start looking at going to some specialty courses, we will need engineers, we will need former attorneys, former businesspersons to teach some of these classes."