Implications of Academic Pathway to Teaching in Utah: Does Alternative Certification Alleviate Teacher Shortages?

• Main Author: Wilde, Laura Michelle
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2019
• Subjects: teacher turnover; teacher shortages; alternative certification
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8111; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9111&context=etd

The Academic Pathway to Teaching (APT) licensure was introduced in 2016 to expand the supply of teachers in Utah. Since then, there has been no formal evaluation of the licensure or the teachers teaching with an APT license. The goals of this study were to explore the effects of the APT licensure on teacher turnover in Utah and to analyze how mentoring experience and teacher self-efficacy were related to the attrition of this population of teachers. This mixed-methods study used data from the Utah State Board of Education to calculate rates of teacher turnover of APT candidates (N=456) for each cohort and school year from 2016-17 to 2017-18. In addition, a survey was sent to current and previous APT candidates with questions on mentoring, self- efficacy, and opinions of the licensure. By their second year of teaching, 41% of the 2016-17 cohort had left teaching in Utah or moved schools. The 2017-18 cohort had a teacher turnover rate of 16%. Although analyses of variance of survey items found no relationship between self- efficacy and attrition, they did find that APT candidates who were still teaching had significantly more frequent and impactful mentoring experiences. Furthermore, data from the open-ended survey responses supported these findings and identified another variable related to the success of APT candidates: previous teaching experience. Although this study is limited by a small survey respondent group of APT candidates who had left teaching (N=13), the implications of this research can shape inform policy decisions regarding alternative certification in Utah.