Vol. 19, No. 20

Feb. 17, 2000

Cooperative program addresses state teacher shortage

As schools face continuing teacher shortages, they are seeking new ways to help persons make the transition to a second career in the classroom. In Delaware, one of those ways is the Alternative Routes to Certification (ARTC) program, which helps fill positions in subjects where there is a shortage of certified teachers in Delaware’s junior and senior high schools. Through the program, individuals with degrees in secondary subject areas can work toward certification by taking education courses while they teach. The program is a joint project of the Delaware Department of Education, the University of Delaware and Delaware State University. Linda Hughes, Delaware Center for Teacher Education, is the program coordinator and works with New Castle County teachers. Rayton Sianjina is the associate coordinator at Delaware State University and works with teachers from Kent and Sussex counties. To qualify for the program, individuals must have a degree in the subject they are teaching and must already be hired by school districts. They undergo intensive training for a year, which is more difficult than the traditional path to certification because it is so concentrated, Sianjina pointed out. Ideally, these teachers can start training at the program’s Summer Institute, but this is not always possible since the school districts do their hiring at different times, he said. Summer Institute classes, which begin at 9 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. with outside homework, emphasize instruction, assessment and classroom management. During the year, there are monthly Saturday seminars on issues in secondary teaching and other courses on content-area teaching methods, reading in content areas, special education and multicultural issues, Sianjina said. These sessions are led by successful and proven teachers. The other part of the program involves how the teachers perform in the classroom. A 30-week, supervised internship replaces student teaching in traditional programs, during which teachers enrolled in the ARTC program are intensely observed and mentored by school personnel. To qualify for certification, teachers must not only complete their ARTC courses, but also be recommended by their school districts based on their actual classroom performance, Hughes said. The need for teachers is particularly high in the areas of math, science and Spanish, as well as technology education, formerly industrial arts, where an engineering background is needed. Sianjina said other fields that need teachers include agriculture, business and computer science. The teachers enrolled in the programs are adult learners, usually with families, and time is important to them. “They are focused, their needs are immediate and they want to learn effective strategies to teach students in the classroom,” Hughes said. The ARTC program began in the summer of 1997 and has expanded and doubled its capacity, Hughes said. Currently, 18 teachers are enrolled at UD and 17 at Delaware State, with a waiting list of 10 to begin in the summer of 2000. Approximately 70 teachers have completed or are enrolled in the program at the current time. More than three-fourths of the school districts and half the secondary schools in the state have teachers who are in or have completed the program, she said. For further information, visit the ARTC web site at <www.udel. edu/artc> or call Hughes at 831-4598 or Sianjina at 857- 6744. –Sue Moncure