Standard.net reported today, Sen. Chris Buttars of Utah is proposing bills that will make getting a specialized teaching certification less complicated with less time based on real world experience. This is an awareness win for alternative teacher certification advocates. According to the story, Public school groups want those teaching in classrooms to have their kind of professional training.
Buttars won Monday morning when Senate Bill 48 passed out of the Senate Education Committee on a 4-2 vote.

The West Jordan Republican repeatedly and emotionally railed against the “red herring” that teachers should have training in “short stories and poetry” before being able to teach in a classroom, especially when hundreds of substitute teachers have less education.

Currently, to get a competency-based license, an applicant has to pass a series of classes proposed by the school district involved. It can often take a year and a half to complete those classes, which discourages some from attempting to earn the certificate.

That someone can’t be a teacher “unless they have these ancillary classes is ridiculous,” Buttars said.

SB 48 would allow prospective teachers to apply directly to the state Board of Education. Buttars, who has a college degree in marketing, said he once taught a marketing class in high school that ended up with excited students pursuing patents and developing marketing plans. The next semester, the high school didn’t ask him to teach again. When he finally called the school, officials told him that he wasn’t certified to teach. Read the rest of the article here.

According to Cleve Bryan at News2, th North Charleston Cultural and Civic Center The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence held an informational session throughout the state this week to tell people about how their program can get them into the classroom as quick as this fall.

The program is partially sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and helps make you eligible for alternative route certification. The average age of those who enrollment is 40 from that area.

The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence is a non-profit organization, founded via a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and dedicated to recruiting, preparing, certifying and supporting dedicated professionals to improve student achievement through quality teaching. ABCTE is an innovative teacher preparation and certification program for highly knowledgeable individuals who want to change careers and become teachers.

Much like candidates for ACT, ABCTE certification must hold a bachelor’s degree in any subject area and pass a background check, an examination in teaching knowledge and an examination in the subject area they want to teach. Candidates are not required to take additional college courses in order to earn a teaching certificate. ABCTE offers certification in South Carolina for grades 9-12 in English, math, general science, biology, physics
and chemistry.

According to the Newsstar.com, Other states are catching on to the benefits of alternative teacher certification for the public at large and to the would-be teachers. University of Louisiana just started their own curriculum through the TEACH Delta Region program, a collaboration with Jackson State University, is specially tailored to individuals with bachelor’s degrees in subjects other than education. Students take nighttime or online classes during their teaching year. The program can be completed in as few as 14 months or take as long as three years.

TEACH Delta replaced TeachNortheast, which was funded by a state four-year grant before it ran out.

The new program is a critical piece of an alternative certification program at ULM that is gathering national attention. In December, a state study singled out ULM for producing high-performance teachers as part of The New Teacher Project. The Governor’s Office and the Board of Regents publicly praised ULM’s education program as a model for schools across the state. Read the whole article

When I first applied for a job at the local school district, I had no idea that special education even existed. The certified personnel representative who interviewed me advised me to go into special education after taking a look at my major in psychology. I had some experience teaching English to Mexican college students, but high school was a completely different ball game.
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