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NCEI RECEIVES $2.25 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT
TO LAUNCH NEW NATIONAL CENTER FOR
ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATION
Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced on Oct.
9 that the U.S. Department of Education has 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 on alternative
certification," said Emily Feistritzer, President of NCEI
and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Center for Alternative
Certification.
Following are the goals of the three-year project
and plans for achieving them:
- The National Center for Alternative Certification will
serve as a "one-stop," comprehensive, national
clearinghouse for alternative routes to certification:
- A comprehensive, interactive Web site will be created
and continuously updated, designed to provide any and
all information pertaining to alternative routes to certification.
This new Web site is currently in development and will
become available for use by the public later this year.
- A toll-free number call center will be established
to answer questions about alternative certification and
help guide callers through each stage of the process
of becoming a teacher through alternate routes in the
states in they wish to teach. The call center will also
answer queries by e-mail.
- NCEI will make its 446-page publication, Alternative
Teacher Certification: A State-by-State Analysis, 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 will have ready access to this information.
It will be continuously updated and linked to each state's
teacher certification Web site.
- The new Web site will also provide 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 -- will be made available.
- Research, meeting results, and other discussions related
to alternative certification will be reported.
- A newsletter, called "Alternative Certification
Reports" will be published on the Web
site and distributed through e-mail. This newsletter
will report breaking
news on actions regarding alternative certification
at the federal, state, and local levels.
- In future years, 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 alternate 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 (FIE), under the Office of Innovation
and Improvement (OII) in the U.S. Department of Education.
For additional information, contact: The National
Center for Education Information, 1901 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.,
Suite 201, Washington, DC 20006, telephone (202) 822-8280.
The new Web site is currently under development and will be
announced at a later date.
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