THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATION

On October 9, 2003, Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced that the U.S. Department of Education had awarded a grant of $2.25 million to the National Center for Education Information (NCEI), in Washington, D.C., to establish the National Center for Alternative Certification – the nation’s first comprehensive, trusted, independent source of information about alternative routes to teacher certification.

“Effective teachers are essential to improving student achievement,” said Paige. “But too many would-be great teachers are deterred from taking their experience to the classroom.” Paige said that the grant to NCEI “will enhance our current efforts to open classroom doors to talented individuals who have the knowledge and skills to be excellent teachers.”

“We’ve been tracking this issue since the early 1980s and are pleased that the U.S. Department of Education has chosen us to establish this new, national clearinghouse,” said Emily Feistritzer, President of NCEI and Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for Alternative Certification.

Following are the goals of the three-year project and plans for achieving them:

1. The National Center for Alternative Certification will serve as a “one-stop,” comprehensive, national clearinghouse for alternative routes to certification by providing the following:

• A comprehensive, interactive Web site, continuously updated, designed to provide any and all information pertaining to alternative routes to certification. The Web site address is www.teach-now.org.
• A toll-free number call center to answer questions about alternative certification and help guide callers through each stage of the process of becoming a teacher through alternative routes in the states in which they wish to teach. The call center also answers queries by e-mail. The toll-free telephone number is 1-866-778-2784. The e-mail address is
  info@teach-now.org.
• The NCEI 446-page publication Alternative Teacher Certification: A State-by-State Analysis, is now available on the Web site, free of charge, as an easy-to-use, searchable database. Individuals seeking to become teachers, as well as legislators, policymakers, researchers, and all interested parties have ready access to this information. It is continuously updated and linked to each state’s teacher certification Web site.
• The Web site will also have user-friendly descriptions of each alternative route site in each state. The site will have a searchable database tailored specifically for individuals seeking to become teachers.
• The new Web site also provides links to other organizations that provide information about or are implementing programs that involve alternative certification – such as Recruiting New Teachers, Teach for America, the New Teacher Project, and Troops to Teachers.
• Information about the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act – as well as all other federal legislation pertaining to alternative routes – is available.
• Research, meeting results, and other discussions related to alternative certification will be reported.

2. Starting in fall 2004, the National Center plans to provide technical assistance and outreach to states, localities, and other entities wanting to create high-quality alternative certification programs or to upgrade existing programs, to Transition to Teaching grant recipients, and to policymakers developing plans for alternative certification initiatives.

• Technical assistance teams will be formed, comprised of individuals with experience and expertise in effective, research-based implementation of alternative routes. With coordination and staff support from the National Center, these teams will develop implementation models drawn from the nation’s most successful alternative certification programs, and will use these models as guides in responding to requests for technical advice, support, and assistance. The National Center will create a national referral system for connecting appropriate Technical assistance team members with constituents needing advice, support, and assistance.
• Key constituents, including Transition to Teaching grant recipients and prospective recipients, will be identified and organized into a self-sustaining communications network. Major issues related to the challenge of using alternative certification as a vehicle for producing highly qualified teachers will be articulated, and promising practices will be identified.
• Conferences and workshops will be organized to provide the network with information concerning qualitative issues and promising practices, as well as an opportunity to discuss their implications for using alternative certification as a strategy for staffing schools with highly qualified teachers.

The grant was made to NCEI by the Fund for the Improvement of Education, under the Office of Innovation and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education.