Recruitment, Preparation, Placement, and Retention of Alternate Route and College-Prepared Teachers: An Early Study of a New Jersey Initiative

Abstract

This article reviews survey findings about the recruitment, preparation, placement and retention of 315 elementary, secondary English, and math teachers prepared to enter New Jersey public schools in fall 1987, either having just completed New Jersey college-based education programs (CB) or entering through the New Jersey alternate route (AR) program. Teachers were surveyed through their sixth year of teaching. The AR program increased the number of teachers for urban and rural schools and diversified the teaching pool. AR teachers held more traditional views than those prepared in CB programs, but neither program recruited teachers with a consistently higher quality profile. Programmatic aspects (i.e., fusing of AR recruitment, preparation, and placement phases) correlated with some differing attitudes of teachers toward teaching and their programs, and qualitatively different experiences in preparing to teach. During the first two years, AR teachers were more likely to teach in urban schools, but differences diminished over the next four years. Three-year retention rates were highest for elementary and CB math teachers and lowest for AR math teachers. Six-year retention rates were highest for CB math teachers and lowest for AR math and English teachers. AR retention rates were higher for males, while CB retention rates were higher for minorities. Attitudes related to retention indicate program, subject matter, and elementary/secondary differences.

Learnings from a Longitudinal Study of New Jersey Alternate Route and College-Prepared Elementary, Secondary English, and Secondary Math Teachers

“…Initial teaching placements followed these patterns, but later teaching experiences diverged in unexpected ways (see Zumwalt et al, 2017, Tables 2 and 3). Despite the favorable job market for math teachers, there was a shift in where these differently prepared teachers ended up teaching.…”

Exploring Options: From Preparation to Placements

“…An offer of employment as a condition of acceptance in the AR program may have led to hasty decisions about where to start a teaching career. A greater proportion of alternate route teachers initially worked in low-wealth districts (Zumwalt et al, 2017). Among the exemplars, five (Penny, Larry, Risa, Kathy, and Gwen) of the 12 alternate route teachers initially accepted positions in urban or suburban low-wealth districts.…”

“…Unfortunately, once they leave teacher education programs and regional training sessions behind, most teachers, regardless of their prior teacher preparation experiences, are left on their own to negotiate the transition from student to teacher, often complicated by the nuances of particular school cultures. Although supervision was a requirement, AR teachers reported little supervision (see Zumwalt, Natriello, Randi, Rutter, & Sawyer, 2017). Thus, the second part of the article focuses on workplace settings and the widely differing opportunities for experiential learning afforded by various school cultures.…”

Identity-Blind Intervention: Examining Teachers’ Attention to Social Identity in the Context of Response to Intervention

“…Unequal access to high-quality, culturally competent teachers has been shown to have a considerable effect on the disparate academic outcomes of students from historically marginalized groups (Irizarry, 2015). Shortages in some districts have led to the recruitment of teachers with limited pedagogical training and instructional experience to serve some of the most disadvantaged schools (Zumwalt, Natriello, Randi, Rutter, & Sawyer, 2017). For instance, teachers in urban schools are oftentimes expected to implement narrowed, scripted curriculum in lieu of receiving appropriate professional development that would allow them to implement more effective ways of responding to their students’ unique learning needs (Milner, 2013).…”