The Core Knowledge Blog

A large study comparing the effectiveness of traditional teacher training with alternative certification programs finds no difference in student outcomes.  The Mathematica study examined 2,600 students in six states at 63 schools with at least one alternatively certified (AC) teacher working at the same grade level as a relative novice teacher who graduated from a traditional certification (TC) program.  The major findings include:

• No statistically significant difference in performance between students of AC teachers and those of TC teachers.
• No statistically significant differences between the AC and TC teachers in their average scores on college entrance exams, the selectivity of the college that awarded their bachelor’s degree, or their level of educational attainment.
• No evidence that greater levels of teacher training coursework were associated with the effectiveness of AC teachers in the classroom. 

“This study found no benefit, on average, to student achievement from placing an AC teacher in the classroom when the alternative was a TC teacher, but there was no evidence of harm, either,” the report concludes.  “In addition, the experimental and nonexperimental findings together indicate that although individual teachers appear to have an effect on students’ achievement, we could not identify what it is about a teacher that affects student achievement. Variation in student achievement was not strongly linked to the teachers’ chosen preparation route or to other measured teacher characteristics.”

Teacher Beat’s Stephen Sawchuck points out the Mathematica study is “a big deal” because most alt cert studies have focused on the elite programs like Teach For America. “This looks at a bunch of regular, state-run programs,” he notes.    At the Quick and The Ed, Chad Alderman notes there’s nothing here that will challenge anyone’s preconceived notions or biases about alternative vs. traditional.  That’s probably true, although it’s possible that ed schools may have a little more ’splainin to do about why their graduates aren’t more capable of hitting the ground running than alt cert people.

The more interesting question is beyond the scope of this study: are there long term differences in performance of each group?  Regardless of how you came to the classroom, first year teaching is about the journey from unconscious incompetence (not knowing what you don’t know) to conscious incompetence (knowing what you don’t know).  It’s what you do with that, I think, that makes the difference in effective and ineffective teachers.

Full disclosure:  I came to teaching  through the alt-cert route, via the NYC Teaching Fellows in 2002.