The US is facing a national teacher shortage of crisis proportions. The aging of the current teaching force, the nationwide initiatives to reduce class sizes, the (until a few months ago) tight labor market, and the historically low salaries for teachers when compared with other college-graduate professionals have all contributed to this problem.
Many states are responding with alternative teacher certification programs which are designed to make it easier for qualified college graduates without formal training in education to become certified as teachers.
One program in Florida’s Citrus School District is offering a 15 credit-hour certification for teachers with the content available online. The district is expecting the entire course to cost each participant US$1,450 with the district picking up the remaining US$1,300.
The program is a blended learning model, incorporating the online courses, a support team of experienced teachers and administrators, and a monthly learning community meeting. The online courses are offered through “Time to Teach”, Florida’s teacher certification site. The courses themselves are hosted at Florida’s Alternative Certification Program‘s installation of WebCT.
Projects such as this, which allow a provisionally certified teacher to gain experience in the classroom while working towards full certification may help alleviate the difficulties involved in finding 2 million teachers over the next decade.