Wednesday, June 17, 2009

A Teacher Certification Alternative in Michigan (but is it necessary?)

Continuing this week's spate of shout outs to states trying to increase their alternative certification offerings, I'd like to shine some light on Michigan's Non-Traditional Route to Teacher Certification.

The good news is that it seeks to bring people with non-education bachelor's degrees into the areas of education that most need them. The bad news is that there are apparently some good reasons to be skeptical of the plan. In brief: there's no demonstrated need for more such programs in the state, it's potentially redundant, and it doesn't set a very high standard for accrediting new programs.

For you Michiganders out there, it's time to weigh the pros and cons and make your voices heard!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the comment on my blog and the shout-out on yours! One additional piece of information that I didn't mention in my original blog post is that in June 2005, the Michigan State Board of Education approved a moratorium on granting preliminary approval to new teacher preparation institutions (TPI) on the argument that the state's TPIs were overproducing certified teachers relative to the need of our state's schools. We had become an exporter of certified teachers, employing only about 30% of Michigan graduates in Michigan schools. This moratorium expired in 2008, and it was subsequently renewed through 2011 on virtually the same argument (see http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/Item_Y_243387_7.pdf). Thus, the question of why the newly proposed MNRTC is needed is made more pressing. Now that I've added this comment here, I suppose I'll copy it into my blog now :)

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  2. Sean, thanks for the update. As one who thinks we need to get more people into the profession faster, I"m inclined to think Michigan has a good kind of problem on its hands.

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