Emily C. Feistritzer, National Center for Education Information
July 2005
This handy report contains the findings of the first-ever demographic profile of alternative route teachers, based on a 2,600-person survey. Some of the findings confirm what we already knew or make intuitive sense: alternate route teachers tend to be older; half of them would not have entered teaching if not for the alternate route program; and the older the teachers the more likely they are to say they wouldn't have entered the profession without a way of bypassing ed school. But there are some surprising results as well. Alternate route teachers are far more likely to be male than the general teaching population (37 vs. 25 percent) and more likely to be minorities (32 vs. 11 percent). Considering that alternate route programs are now producing 35,000 teachers a year, it's time that we understood a bit more about this cadre. This report is a great baseline for needed further research, including the $64,000 question: Just how good are these alternative route programs, after all? Check it out here.