Exploring Options: From Preparation to Placements

Abstract

This article describes and compares the preparation experiences of the 25 exemplar elementary, secondary English, and math teachers entering teaching through college-based (CB) programs or the New Jersey Teacher Education Project, one of the nation's first alternative routes (AR) to certification. The article then follows these teachers into their first experience “on the other side of the desk.” For CB candidates, their initial foray into teaching occurred in a classroom “borrowed” from a mentor teacher, who worked side by side with the novice. For AR candidates immediately assigned to a classroom of their own, the initial placement extended throughout the school year, and mentors were at times difficult to find. The article continues to follow these novice teachers through their first six years and presents data on those who remained in their initial placement setting and those who chose to leave teaching or move on to a new school. The article highlights the challenges novice teachers face when teachers’ preparation and expectations are mismatched with school culture and work assignments.

Portraying secondary science teacher retention with the person‐position framework: An analysis of a state cohort of first‐year science teachers

“…There does not appear to be any broad agreement in the literature as to the duration of time required to be considered retained, and in large part, this variable seems to have been an artifact of the available data and measures, rather than as a theoretically informed demarcation of a certain employment interval. As noted above, some studies define retention as first‐year teachers becoming second‐year teachers (Ronfeldt & McQueen, 2017; Smith & Ingersoll, 2004; Wood et al, 2012), while many other studies frame teacher retention as extending beyond the second year (Bang et al, 2007; Randi, 2017; Zumwalt et al, 2017). Zhang and Zeller (2016), noting a gap in the research about long‐term teacher retention, suggest that studies should direct their attention to retention of over 8–20 years or even longer.…”

Final Choices: Surveying Career Options

“…What may be more significant is the career pattern of each group of teachers and how their career paths led them to seek and maintain rewarding teaching positions. School culture, a theme noted in Randi (2017), seems to make a difference in teachers' decisions to stay in a particular school or move on during teachers' early career years. The impact of school culture on teachers' career decisions has been recognized (Simon & Johnson, 2015).…”

“…During this time period, the number of AR teachers in classroom teaching positions increased to six at one point and then dropped back to five after Anita left. As in the first six years (see Randi, 2017), the AR teachers continued to move in and out of classroom teaching more often than the CB teachers, and so the number of AR exemplars in classroom teaching positions fluctuates from year to year (for a summary of retention data, see Zumwalt, Natriello, Randi, Rutter, & Sawyer, 2017).…”

First 11 Years: 25 Exemplar Alternate Route and College-Prepared K–12 Teachers

“…In this article, we have summarized the findings of the sample of 25 teachers, viewed as the most promising exemplars of their respective teacher preparation programs. Five other articles (Randi, 2017a(Randi, , 2017bRandi & Zumwalt, 2017;Rutter, 2017;Sawyer, 2017) tell the story of their first 11 years as teachers, focusing on recruitment, preparation, placement, retention, teaching practice, and professional development.…”

“…This article summarizes findings about their recruitment, preparation, placement, and retention. Five additional articles (Randi, 2017a(Randi, , 2017bRandi & Zumwalt, 2017;Rutter, 2017;Sawyer, 2017) take a more in-depth look at the multiple choices made by these 25 teachers as their careers unfolded.…”