how beneficial the alternative teacher training programs are to the school systems? Wouldn't the four or five years of the regular teacher training program be more beneficial?

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Q. I am currently a student in the education program at UW-Madison and I am curious to know how beneficial the alternative teacher training programs are to the school systems? Wouldn't the four or five years of the regular teacher training program be more beneficial?

A. -If you already have a Bachelor's, the regular teaching training is redundant, because it incorporates a bachelor's degree. At that point, the choice is to just get certification, which the alternative programs are for, as fast and furious as possible, or to go through a Graduate program. Graduate programs in education, while they count for certification, are mostly intended for people who are already teachers and usually have pretty extensive research components, so they're not for everyone. There are also few to no assistanceships available to people going through such programs, so you're on your own for funding. If an alternative certification program encompasses working in the classroom (like the one University of Memphis has, where the students work and are paid as teaching assistants while taking classes for certification), it can be very valuable in preparing teachers. If an alternative certification program is a summer-long prep course for the teaching exam, followed by a pat on the back and "here's your classroom", it leaves the would-be teacher on their own entirely (one of my friends with a Masters in Math went that route, and was non-renewed from her first teaching position after the first year, because she could NOT handle high school students. After taking a traditional program, she was able to teach successfully). And, from the school system's standpoint, alternative certification programs get people to teach in high-demand areas, and often people who have better content knowledge and real-world experience than people right out of college with a still-wet teaching certificate. You usually cannot certify via an alternative route in an area like English or Social Studies, where there is a glut of teachers-only in areas like mathematics, high school science, or special education. -Which is why GOOD alternative certification programs include a practicum component, where the teacher works with students under the supervision of a trained teacher. Any certification program which does not include such a component is tantamount to certifying someone as a medical doctor without going through internship. I really feel that more education programs should be structured the way music education programs are-in most music education programs, the candidate effectively gets a music degree, and is usually teaching students in the university's prep program (private and small group lessons) after about the 2nd semester. After four years of classwork in the field and experience with small group teaching, the student teacher does their student teaching, and after student teaching is certified to teach. Music is the most important part of the degree-there are almost no classes in a music education program not taken by music majors, but teaching is also woven in throughout. At least part of this is because it is expected that almost all music majors will eventually teach private lessons, which is the norm for performing musicians, and because conducting classes are group management classes in essense.

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