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MID-CAREER CHANGERS: AN INVESTIGATION IN NON-
TRADITIONAL ENTRANTS INTO TEACHING

presented by

PATRICK HALLADAY

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5I08 K'IProlecc&PresIClRC/DateDueaindd

MID-CAREER CHANGERS: AN INVESTIGATION OF NON-TRADITIONAL
ENTRANTS INTO TEACHING

By

Patrick Halladay

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
K-12 Education Administration

Department of Education Administration

2008

ABSTRACT

MID-CAREER CHANGERS: AN INVESTIGATION OF N ON-TRADITIONAL
ENTRANTS INTO TEACHING

By

Patrick Halladay

This study considers candidates entering the classroom after extensive experience
in fields outside of education—career changers. Increasingly, attracting career changers
is considered a prudent policy option to meet a series of classroom demands, including
quality, equity, exigency, and fit. While there is wide speculation about the value career
changers will bring to the classroom, little is known about their actual characteristics.
This study examines three programs dedicated to preparing career changers for teaching,
examining the design of the programs, the candidates they prepared, and the context that
shaped the programs and candidates. The findings of this study suggest not only is there
great diversity in program design, but that career changers themselves enter teaching with
different sets of knowledge, skills, and experience, making classification of them as a
uniform group impractical. Additionally, the local context has a strong influence on both
a program’s appearance and the candidates who choose to enroll. The policy aims of
quality, equity, exigency, and fit appear to be, in part, in conflict with each other. If
simultaneously meeting multiple policy goals proves untenable, it is incumbent upon
policy makers to prioritize their aims by understanding how the local historical,

economic, and demographic context structures local schools and teacher labor markets.

iii

For my mother and father, my first teachers

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I take full responsibility for this work. Though warts remain, they would be more
pronounced and abundant without the invaluable input and support of numerous people.
What follows is only a partial register. There are many more I have likely omitted,
unintentionally for certain, as well as others who have intervened in my stead without my
knowledge.

First, I must recognize the three programs that welcomed me. The directors were
generous and patient in explaining the history, philosophy, and design of their programs.
I am also thankful for their help in navigating the institutional bureaucracy and for
encouraging candidates to participate in this study. And to the candidates whose selfless
sharing of their personal backgrounds and motivations for teaching made this study a
reality. Without their help, there truly would have been no study. I also would like to
thank the many program directors and coordinators from across the country who found
time to register their insights through the on-line survey.

Second to none, Gary Sykes guided this project to coherence. From my first
meeting with Gary as a prospective graduate student, his respect for the work that
teachers do made an impression on me, as did his dedication to the belief that rigorous
research helps teachers improve their craft. As I came to know Gary as a teacher,
mentor, and friend, I was provided a window to observe a how serious-minded scholar
refrains from professing, but provides others with tools to understand the complexities in
entangled in educational issues. While at times I thought I needed someone simply to tell
me what to do, I came to realize that Gary was imbuing in me the traits I would need to

challenge orthodoxies—both in the policy world and in my own mind.

iv

Suzanne Wilson, likewise, helped me understand the value of critiquing what you
value, as opposed to blind acceptance. She also allowed me to space to examine what I
valued and space to begin to put my convictions into practice. Suzanne has always
shown confidence in my abilities, even while I doubted them, and was one of the few
people I have encountered in my life who that insisted I can do better. She also showed
me the reward in digging your own potatoes. I cannot thank her enough for her
generosity.

Steve Weiland was instrumental in helping me find and then encouraging me to
use my voice. He shared his deep knowledge of research, both formal and less so, to
provide models for my own work and encouraged me to push against conventions. After
an hour spent talking with Steve, I always left feeling smarter than when I entered.

Peter Youngs’s intellectual generosity is a gift I treasure. Whether finding time to
provide copious responses to ideas, encouraging the development of a presentation, or
teaching the ropes of academic life, Peter is quick open his thinking to help others follow
in his path of scholarship.

I would additionally like to thank Maenette Benham and David Plank, earlier
members of my committee. Maenette provided me countless opportunities to develop my
research skills through our long work together on a research project. David continually
expressed confidence in my ability to become a scholar.

Let me also thank Philip Cusick. A brief stop to by his office always has me
leaving smiling, with new perspectives on old thoughts and a profound honesty not often
seen.

Dan Humphrey, though he doubtfully even remembers our conversation, shared

encouraging words about my research at a time that I most needed it.

Many of my fellow graduate school friends have been invaluable to this effort.
John Oliver’s friendship and integrity have worked their way into this study. Matt
Militello’s informal mentoring helped me find my feet during my first couple of years.
Betty Murakami-Ramalho andJoyce Piert continued Matt’s work, as well as made sure
our office never became too studious. With Marisa Cannata I finished several cups of
coffee feeling better that someone else shared an interest in my questions. Rong Liu
showed great patience in walking me through complicated, to me, statistical work,
helping me unlock core data. My softball team, composed mostly of fellow graduate
students, was a physical release I longed for weekly and the camaraderie a welcome
emotional release, especially during the past year when I was largely holed up writing.

LisaJilk, Marcy Wood, and Ann Lawrence comprised a writing group that forced
me to produce even when I did not want to and then challenged my thinking as only
demanding friends can. Our mutual suffering allowed me to moan to those who shared
my exhaustion. This work is a significantly better project than it would have been
without their insight and friendship.

I must also thank the staff at the local Starbuck’s coffee shop. They lent me space
at their counter free of charge and kept me well hydrated with Earl Grey tea—also often
free of charge——without complaint, while also inquiring continually as to progress.
During the heavy days of writing, they became my de facto office mates saving me from
cabin fever.

My parents, Kim andjeanie, and my brother Andrew have been pillars of
support. I have valued our time back in Michigan close to them. They have been liberal
with their help whether taking kids for a few days, showing deep interest in my work, or

just being the voice on the other end of the phone. As our work takes us from Michigan

vi

again, I leave delighted for the immutable relationships they have forged with their
grandkids.

I wish I could say that my three fantastic children—~Daniel, Anna, and
Vivian—were helpful in completing this work, but that would be a bit of a lie. Young
children and graduate school are an exhausting mix. What they did provide was a
perspective on what is important in my life, giving me balance and escape from my work.
Whether playing baseball in the backyard, cheering at soccer games, or giving me a well-
needed hug, they showed me what really matters, while simultaneously proving that
research into education is a priceless investment.

And finally to my amazing wife,Juliet. I dragged her away from family and home
to begin this endeavor and she followed without complaint. I only hope I would have
done the same for her. She has been the most honest critic of my work as well as my
biggest supporter. While I am indebted to many, her help and friendship are
indispensable. A calming presence for all, she played wife, mother, and researcher with

equal skill, leaving all who encountered her in awe.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ................................................................................. xi
List of Figures .................................................... i ............................. xiv
Introduction and Plan of the Study ....................................................... 1
Introduction ......................................................................... 1
Overview ......................................................................... 6
Chapter 1: Literature Review and Research Questions ........................... l 1
Career changers as a response to teacher quality ........................... 12
Knowledge ...................... . ......................................... 13
Skills ........................................................................ 16

Life Experiences ...................................................... 17

Motivations for Entry ...................................................... 19

Career changers as a response to labor market exigencies .................. 20
Subject Area ............................................................... 20

Regional ............................................................... 21

Local Misalignment ...................................................... 22

Career changers as a response to equity .................................... 23
Career changers as a response to fit .................. - ........................... 23
Incentive of Speed ............................................................... 25
Significance ........................................................................ 27
Research Questions ............................................................... 30
Chapter 2: Methods , ............................................................... 32
Methodological Rationale ...................................................... 32

Data Sources ........................................................................ 33
Overview of Design—Data Collection and Instrumentation .................. 36
Candidate Surveys ...................................................... 36

Candidate Interviews ...................................................... 38

Program Director and Coordinator Survey ........................... 38

Data Analysis ............................................................... 39

Validity and Reliability ............................................. 41

Chapter 3: Investigation of Programs ...................................................... 43
Director and Coordinator Survey ............................................. 43
TargetPrograms ..................... 52

Data Sources ............................................................... 52

Program Design ............................................................... 55
Alternative Route to Certification .................................... 55

Career Transitions Program ............................................. 60

Northern Plains Transition to Teaching ........................... 63

Aggregate Candidate Data ...................................................... 67

viii

Chapter 4: Investigation of Candidates ............................................. 71
Portrait Development ............................................................... 71
Portraits ........................................................................ 82

Portrait A—Socially Mobile ............................................. 83
Amana Collins ............................................. 89
Portrait B—Career Seekers ............... i .............................. 92
Nick Evans ...................................................... 97
Portrait C—Capstoners ............................................ 101
Simon Westbrook ............................................ 109
Portrait D—Classic Career Changers .......................... l 12
Tommy Lopes ..................................................... 118
A note on Portraits E and F ............................................ 123
Portrait E—Primary Caregivers ................................... 125
Jan Stillman ..................................................... 127
Tonya Richland ............................................ 130
Portrait F—Job Seekers ............................................ 134
Liz Mancino ..................................................... 136
William Mueller ............................................ 139

Chapter 5: Investigation of Context ..................................................... 143
Alternate Route to Certification ............................................ 143
Career Transitions Program ..................................................... 148
Northern Plains Transition to Teaching ................................... 155

Chapter 6: Discussion Across Programs, Candidates, and Contexts ................. 164

Chapter 7: Conclusions, Limitations, and Policy Recommendations 1 79
Quality ....................................................................... 180
Equity ................................................................................ 183
Fit ................................................................................ 185
Exigency ....................................................................... 187
Limitations ....................................................................... 190
Policy Recommendations ..................................................... 195
Future Considerations and Final Thoughts ................................... 201

What motivates career changers to enter teaching? ................. 202

How do programs look different in design and goals in various settings?
................. 204

How do career changers differ from traditionally prepared candidates?
................. 212

What knowledge and experience translates into good teaching? ..... 215

Appendix A: Program Cluster Analysis ............................................ 217

Appendix B: Distribution and Frequency of Majors andjob Relevance by Site..222

Appendix C: Portrait Development ..................................................... 224

ix

Appendix D: lAggregated Core Variables by Program .......................... 240

Appendix E: Additional Candidate Profiles ............................................ 243
Appendix F: Instruments ................................. . ............................. 264
References ................................................................................ 287

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

. 4.10

4.11

4.12

4.13

4.14

4.15

4.16

5.1

LIST OF TABLES
Programs according to administering agency ......................................... 48
Four-group cluster analysis of program traits ................................... 49
Cluster assignment of administrative oversight categories ....................... 50
Candidates’ core variable means by programs ................................ 68
Distribution of candidates according to race and gender, by percent .. ...70
F our-group cluster analysis and analogous portraits ................................ 76
Means of proxy variables from cluster analysis ........ ' ........................ 7 8
Four-group cluster analysis and portrait assignment by program .............. 80
Primary caregiver and job seeker assignment by program ....................... 81
Age, race and gender of Socially Mobile candidates ................................ 84
Means of core variables for Socially Mobile candidates ....................... 84
Age, race and gender of Career Seeker candidates ................................ 93
Means of core variables for Career Seeker candidates ...................... 94
Age, race and gender of Capstoner candidates .............................. 103
Means of core variables for Capstoner candidates .............................. 103
Age, race and gender of Classic Career Changer candidates ..................... 1 14
Means of core variables for Classic Career Changer candidates ............ l 14
Age, race and gender of Primary Caregiver candidates ..................... 126
Means of core variables for Primary Caregivers candidates ..................... 126
Age, race and gender of Job Seeker candidates .............................. I36
Means of core variables forjob Seeker candidates .............................. 136

Racial distribution of teachers, students, and overall population of Connecticut, in

percent ........................................................................... 147

xi

5.2

5.3

6.1

Al

A2

A3

A4

B.l

B2

B3

B4

3.5

B6

C.l

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6

C7

D.l

D.2

Racial distribution of teachers, students, and overall population of Saint Louis, in
percent ............................................................................ 151

Racial distribution of teachers, students, and overall population of NPI I states,
inpercent .................................. 158

Race and gender of Socially Mobile candidates and Cluster 1 candidates by site

...................... 173
Two-group cluster analysis of program traits ........................................ 217
Three-group cluster analysis of program traits ............................... 218
F our-group cluster analysis of program traits ........................................ 219
Cluster assignment of administrative oversight categories ...................... 220
Distribution and frequency of ARC majors ........................................ 222
Distribution and frequency of CTP majors ........................................ 222
Distribution and frequency of NPTT majors ........................................ 222
Distribution and frequency of ARC Job Relevance ............................... 223
Distribution and frequency of CTPJob Relevance ............................... 223
Distribution and frequency of NPTTJob Relevance ............................... 223
Means of proxy variables for two-group cluster analysis ...................... 229
Four-group cluster analysis and analogous portraits ............................... 230
Means of proxy variables for four-group cluster analysis ...................... 232
Two-group cluster analysis and portrait aggregation by program ............. 233
Four-group cluster analysis and portrait assignment by program ............. 236
Primary caregiver andjob Seeker assignment by program ...................... 237
Distribution of proxy variables for job seeker assignment ...................... 238
Means of proxy variables by portrait ................................................. 240
Distribution of candidates according to age, race, and gender, by percent ....241

xii

D.3 Experience with children according to portrait, by percent ...................... 241

D4 Distribution of portraits by program ................................................. 242

xiii

3.1

7.1

7.2

CI

LIST OF FIGURES

National distribution of surveyed programs ....................................... 45
Interaction of Ideology, Interests, Information, and Institution ........... 205
The centrality of information in programs preparing career changers ..212

Sample for determining candidates for interview based on survey results ..225

xiv

Introduction and Plan of the Study
Introduction

Many critics of traditional teacher preparation and certification have sought to
create alternate pathways and recruit alternative pools of candidates to address a
perceived deficit in the quality, equity, and quantity of the teaching force. For at least the
past twenty years the lively and occasionally mean-spirited debate over the virtues of
traditional versus alternative certification has largely defined the battle lines over how
teachers should be prepared for the classroom. On one side, proponents of traditional
certification argue the most effective teachers are prepared in a four or five year
university-based program with a healthy mixture of foundations, content, methods, an
extensive student teaching practicum, and ongoing mentoring over the first years as a
practicing teacher. On the other, alternative certification advocates largely discount the
value of formal instruction in methods and foundations, favoring candidates with a
demonstrated knowledge base of and practical experience in a discrete subject area,
academic aptitude, and a small amount of coursework, followed by rapid m6vement into
the classroom. Or, to distill further, traditional certification supporters view teaching as a
profession defined by a series of skills to be learned through study and monitored practice,
while those supporting alternative certification seek disciplinary masters believing that
teaching itself is a largely intuitive skill informed by and refined through experience.

Despite the relative ease with which the troops and generals in each camp can be
named, the dichotomy between traditional and alternative certification is anything but
dichotomous. Increasingly traditional certification more closely resembles alternative
routes and vice versa. There are several viable explanations. An alternative route that

includes grounding in different pedagogical approaches may earn legitimacy as it more

closely resembles popular notions of what teacher education looks like. Conversely,
traditional approaches recognize that they may have to concede on portions of their
program if they are to attract post-baccalaureate candidates who cannot allot the
financial and time resources to dedicate two years to preparation. And advocates on all
sides of the debate are noticing the drift. While some see this evolution as necessitating a
return to their respective core values of professional (National Commission on Teaching
and America's Future, 2003) or content-driven preparation (Haberman, 2006; Walsh &

- Jacobs, 2007), for others it demands a deeper inspection of the nuances of this
convergence. For example, Humphrey and Wechlser suggest that

[a] Iternative certification participants and programs should not be characterized

as all good or all bad. We know enough to move the debate over teacher

preparation beyond sweeping generalizations and overstatements to the crafting of

policies and programs that put effective teachers in every classroom. (2007, p. 30)
Categorizing individual programs along a traditional-alternative continuum according to
orthodoxy alone is insufficient in describing both the content of the preparation and the
candidates who fill its ranks; instead, deep study of the programs demands an
appreciation of “the importance of variations—both across and within programs—in
participant backgrounds, school placements, and program characteristics” (Humphrey &
Wechsler, 2007, p. 30).

Certainly the alternative certification movement and its accompanying debate is
one vital strand in the conversation on how to recruit and retain competent teachers. So,
too, are teachers who arrive in the classroom after established careers in other fields—an
increasingly popular solution in public deliberations on teacher quality. While alternative

certification programs and career changers undeniably intersect, my interest lies in

exploring the range of routes open to career changers, whether called traditional,
alternate, or hybrid, distinctions that are increasingly less important. It is in the spirit of
Humphrey and Wechsler’s work that I have embarked on this work. They caution
researchers that as opposed to the programmatic level, a “better unit of analysis would be
a subgroup of individuals from different programs with similar backgrounds and
experience who work in the same or similar school settings” (2007, p. 30). While the
program design and location may remain significant in shaping which subgroups seek
particular sites, this study attempts to better understand career changers as a subgroup of
interest across programs.

Public intellectuals and education researchers alike have assumeda collection of
assets embodied by career changers—including intelligence, education, life experience,
maturity, subject-area knowledge, discipline, race, gender, and factors motivating the
change—to justify aggressive recruitment (F inn & Madigan, 2001; Hess, 2006;-Johnson,
Birkeland, Peske, & Munger, 2005; Kristof, 2006; Paige, 2003; Will, 2006). Although
each proponent favors different combinations of characteristics, supporters are unified in
their belief that career changers are a way to attract not just more, but more attractive
candidates. However, as attractive as these candidates seem, it is unclear whether the
career changers who actually seek certification embody the characteristics they are
assumed to have. Despite many passionate calls for attracting career changers, to date
research has been limited and anecdotal. (D. Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, &
Wyckoff, 2006; Goodnough, 2004;Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005). Therefore, those
engaged in the debate surrounding the qualifications of career changers—both supporters

and opponents—lack the data that describe the reality of the phenomenon.

To take one representative example, despite a lack of systematic study into what
motivates them to choose the classroom over their current jobs, marketing to potential
career changers often falls almost exclusively into the toughest-job-you’ll-ever-love
tradition, playing on unfulfilled desires to act; to do good; to make a difference (Hawley,
1990;Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005;]orissen, 2003; Lutz & Hutton, 1989; Tell, 2001;
Wadsworth, 2001). In contrast, those less convinced of career changers’ efficacy claim
that local economic or political conditions draw them to the classroom and that such
candidates are likely to return to their higher paying jobs as soon the economy rebounds
(Stevens & Dial, 1993).

Supporters assume career changers to be more male, minority, and professional
than traditional entrants, representing a potential untapped supply to fill voids in rural
and urban schools and within particular subject areas. Still, research has neither
examined whether there are predictive characteristics that might help target career
changers more likely to meet these staffing needs (e.g., work experience, age, test scores)
nor whether such staffing needs differ from program to program based on local contexts.
In short, this study is an appraisal of the extent to which the broad basket of career
changers’ assumed characteristics matches those presented by a sample of actual
candidates and the extent to which local programs and contexts influence the
characteristics of those seeking certification. This, then, is a descriptive study exploring
the correspondence between the espoused values of career changers and programs that
prepare them and the actualities of such candidates and programs.

The study explores a diverse cross-section of programs engaged in preparing
career changers for the classroom, the candidates enrolled in them, and, ultimately, how

the candidates and programs are inextricably bound up with their local contexts. While

4

there has been speculation about the benefits that career changers offer to students,
schools, and districts, there has been no work attempting to understand how career
changers resemble and diverge from their portrayals. Still, this study is more exploratory
than conclusive. I have attempted to describe the characteristics of candidates and
programs in order to provide more accurate images than those we currently have.

Career changers as a group are a growing phenomenon (Liu, 2004), but what is
known about them is largely assumptive. And encouraging preparation programs
targeting career changers is one (though an important one) policy lever in addressing
multiple concerns with the teacher labor market. Humphrey and Wechsler’s call for
further research allows me to investigate the characteristics of career changers, seeing
how and to what extent candidates in practice reflect and differ from what is assumed
about them. This study allows me to explore whether career changers constitute “a
subgroup of individuals from different programs with similar backgrounds and
experience.” Similarly, I can investigate Humphrey and Wechsler’s assertion that the
program is the wrong unit of analysis. Programs are engaged in complex work trying to
negotiate the demands of candidates, school districts, foundations, and state governments
all while prone to local contextual factors (see Heinen & Scribner, 2007). General
assumptions about a class of programs that prepares career changers are likely to
overlook important differences. Even individual programs may be attempting to meet the
desires of multiple actors, suggesting that candidates within a program may not present a
monolithic set of experiences or motivations.

Assumptions about the efficacy of these policies fall into at least four loosely
bounded categories. First, supporters claim that career changers are a source of high

qualigr candidates, elevating their content knowledge, academic skills, life experience, and

motivations for entering teaching as distinguishing them as particularly attractive
candidates. Second, supporters make an urgency argument claiming that career changers
can help alleviate various teaching shortages: in specific subject areas, in the misalignment
of teachers between urban, rural, and suburban districts within local labor markets, and
in meeting regional market demands in high growth areas. Third, career changers are
often thought to address equip) concerns by bringing many of these quality professionals to
the most needy rural and urban schools. Finally, career changers may address endemic fit
issues between teachers and students. As the numbers of minority and male teachers
continue to decline, career changers are one policy mechanism commonly believed to
stem the trend. These programs hope, as well, to uncover candidates who not only share
demographic characteristics, but who possess the more intangible ability to transform
common outlooks and experiences in a rapport with students, parents, and colleagues
regardless of background. I have intended to trace programs, candidates, and context to
better understand how they influence each other, permitting a glimpse into the strengths
and limitations of policy as implemented. Pursuing the interaction of these factors allows
me to make targeted policy recommendations. Understanding the diverse skills of career
changers can enhance the efficacy of policy by more closely matching candidates to
discrete academic needs.
Overview

Chapter 1 provides a more in depth consideration of the logic motivating the
policy initiatives of quality, equity, exigency, and fit. This literature review traces the
basis for the various claims and the responses of those who counter them. This chapter
concludes with the presentation of the central research questions that attempt to

understand whether career changers differ within and between sites and how local

6

context structures the observed differences.

In Chapter 2, details the methods employed in conducting the research and
analyzing the data. In short, I survey three geographically diverse programs engaged in
preparing large numbers of career changers. Candidates at each site completed a survey
from which I selected a handful for follow-up interviews. Additionally, directors of about
thirty programs from across the country completed an on-line survey seeking to sketch the
range of program design and candidate characteristics. Finally, I collected public
economic and demographic data on each of my three target sites to allow me to present a
broader portrayal of the context in which each program operates.

In Chapters 3-5 will present the data I collected on programs, candidates, and
context, respectively. Chapter 3 begins with a statistical examination of the results of
program directors’ survey. I set out to collect a sample of the diversity of programs
preparing career changers through a survey of their directors and coordinators. These
programs were housed in universities and public and private agencies and ranged in size
from a half-dozen to several hundred candidates. I employed the statistical method of
cluster analysis to define rough categories of programs and describe the differences
between them. I then placed each of my target programs within a cluster. Next, I
provide detailed information on the design and philosophy of each of the target programs
including a brief programmatic history, discussion of the philosophy, outline of course
sequence, candidate selection criteria, and candidate placement. Later, in my
examination of local contextual factors in Chapter 5, I return to program design to link
certain traits of the design to context in which the program exists.

Chapter 4 considers the candidates. I entered this research to see how candidate

characteristics resembled and differed from the assumed “portrait” of career changers.

Through analysis of my interviews and survey data, I was able to identify six largely
distinct portraits of candidates—classic career changers, capstoners, socially mobile,
career seekers, primary caregivers, and job seekers. In this chapter I describe each, first
through statistical methods, and then through the presentation of cases. Even though
specific portraits were clearly associated with certain programs, no single portrait
accounted for a majority of candidates at any single program. Rather, each program had
several portraits represented in large numbers suggesting that individual programs were
not comprised of uniform candidate characteristics, but candidates from diverse
backgrounds composed the population of each. Still, while each program has a diverse
composition, each also had strong trends that distinguished it from the others. Certain
designs in certain regions seemed to favor certain sets of candidate characteristics.

In Chapter 5 I step back and look at the regional economic, political, and cultural
context that surrounds each site in an attempt to understand the factors that may
influence a program’s design and candidates’ motivations for enrolling. I present census
and other public records focusing on cultural and economic trends in the region,
including racial distribution, cost of living, starting teacher salary, unemployment rates,
and educational attainment. Additionally, as relevant, I have provided historical context
that has shaped the educational system or the teacher labor market of a particular region.

After presenting findings on programs, candidates, and context largely in
isolation, in Chapter 6 I then begin to suggest how they are interrelated. The aim is not
comparison by a set of common measures, but description in context. Site by site, I
consider how the context helps explain program design and candidate characteristics for
each of my target sites. While one region’s high teacher salaries and high level of

educational attainment help accounts for the prevalence of candidates from strong

8

academic and high income background, the challenges of high needs schools in an poor
urban district coupled with historic conflict between these urban and suburban
communities help to explain the comparatively low academic and income status of many
candidates in another, and the vast distances of the rural west suggest a rationale for the
on-line design of the third. At the end of this chapter, I return to my research questions
to discuss the central findings suggested by the data: the diversity of the career changer
population, the primacy of local context, and the proclivity of certain portraits to Specific
programs.

In Chapter 7 I return to the four policy aims of quality, equity, exigency, and fit
laid out in Chapter 2. . Now I muster my findings to consider the strengths and limitations
of career changers as a viable policy lever to meet these desired ends. The answers are
not simple. To varying degrees, career changers do help ameliorate the problems raised
by each policy goal. However, their effectiveness seems to be specific to the context in
which the program and candidates are situated. Some program designs are more
effective in attracting high quality candidates, while others are more successful in
addressing district or classroom staffing needs. A programs’ efficacy in addressing a
particular policy aim is largely constrained by the realities of its environment. After
enumerating limitations of the study, I conclude by arguing that teacher preparation
policies must be constructed in light of contextual variation and the relative emphasis
placed on the factors of effectiveness and efficiency; or, alternatively, quality, equity,
exigency, and fit.

Finally, I should clarify that this study is not an attempt to compare sites and
candidates to each other, but to fully account for programs and candidates within their

unique local contexts. While I do highlight differences between programs, it is my intent

9

to use these differences to better understand the diversity of options and describe their
individual distinctiveness. Ultimately, while some patterns surface across programs, this
study suggests the capacities of each program and talents of the candidates they attract

favor meeting a particular prioritization of policy goals.

10

Chapter 1

Literature Review and Research Questions
Debate over what traits constitute a good teaching candidate are far from new, in
_ the US dating at least to the first half of the 18005 when Vermont opened the nation’s
first teacher training school (Haberman, 2006). A few years later the Boston “masters”
attacked the credentials of the first graduates of the Massachusetts normal schools
(Herbst, 1989). Although a simplification, the masters considered their own intelligence,
subject-area knowledge, and maturity to make them superior teachers to the young,
female normal school graduates who lacked a full college education. In many ways, this
remains the same debate that today underlies the logic of advocates of career changers;
When compared to the stereotype of a traditionally prepared teacher—young, female,
and lacking deep subject-area preparation— career changers’ maturity, intelligence,
worldliness, and disciplinary mastery offer a potentially attractive alternative. In the
following discussion my goal is neither to quarrel with this logic nor to accept it blindly,
but to collect and present it.

There is a popular belief that attracting professionals from other occupations to
education improve the quality of teaching, increase equity, meet exigency demands, and
provide a better fit between candidate placement than offered. by candidates straight fout
of undergraduate programs alone. Advocates of “the most promising candidates—those
who have been successful in other careers” (Ruenzel, 2002, p. 48)—-believe when
compared to the, typical traditionally prepared teacher candidate CCs will bring

enhanced knowledge, skills, life experiences, and motivations to their instruction while

easing teaching shortages in the hardest to staff schools and subjects with more attractive
candidates.

This review will attempt to present the policy aims forwarded by supporters of
career changers. The study will then systematically test to what extent CCs meet these
policy goals.

Before I go further, it is worth noting that most of the citations in this review are
not from research articles. There has, in fact, been almost no research into the
characteristics or effectiveness of career changers. A lack of data has slowed neither
supporters nor opponents in registering their opinions of the relative merits of drawing
career changers into the classroom. And while many articles cited do come from
educational researchers, they are typically opinionated articles that draw largely on
anecdotal evidence or originate in the more popular press. Op-ed columnists, journalists,
philanthropists, and politicians have elevated or denigrated career changers depending on
their goals. Together, this universe of articles makes policy claims and are often intended
precisely to influence the construction of policy.

Career changers as a response to teacher qualigi

In their recent study of alterative routes to certification, the Project on the Next
Generation of Teachers laid out three perceived advantages in the quality of career
changers over traditional teacher candidates: their knowledge, skills, and life experiences
(Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005). I will add a fourth, motivation for becoming teachers,
as CCs are portrayed as entering the profession out of altruism. For this discussion, I will
adopt these labels as an organizational tool. However, there is significant crossover
between the categories. In which category a particular characteristic best fits is,

ultimately, insignificant. Additionally, I will return to this definition of quality throughout

l2

this study. There are many possible ways that quality could be defined, each with their
own merits and detractions. Here, I am adopting one used to highlight a particular set of
talents that proponents value and believe career changers embody. My use of this
definition is uncritical and should neither be read as endorsement of nor resistance to this
particular conception of quality. Rather, it is simply the one most readily forwarded in
support of career changers.

Knowledge

Knowledge, as used by Project on the Next Generation of Teachers, refers largely
to subject area expertise. Proficiency in a specific discipline is among the most common
rationales in support of drawing career changers into teaching. CCs, in contrast to many
traditional teacher candidates, have typically earned a disciplinary majowbiology or
chemistry, instead of science education—for their undergraduate degree. Additionally,
some CCs will have earned graduate degrees in their discipline or an associated field.
This academic knowledge is assumed to prepare them to teach their discipline in school,
or “that any intelligent person with subject-matter knowledge can teach with little or no
pedagogical training” (Liu,johnson, & Peske, 2004, p. 226).

One example typical of arguments made by advocates of CCs tells of a
disillusioned doctoral student whose extensive study of history is insufficient to qualify him
to teach the subject in a public high school (Ruenzel, 2002). Likewise, Finn and Madigan
(2001) tell of a retired engineer who becomes a talented middle school math teacher.
Kristof (2006) wishes public schools would hire doctors to teach anatomy or businessmen
with experience working in Asia to teachjapanese. And others cite the promise of

chemists teaching science, CPAs teaching math, or journalists teaching writing (Gimbert,

13

Cristol, Wallace, & Sene, 2005; Goodnough, 2004; Hawley, 1990;Johnson, Birkeland et
al., 2005; Kristof, 2006; Peske, Liu,Johnson, Kauffman, & Kardos, 2001; Shen, 1997).

To many critics of traditional routes and traditional candidates, subject-area
knowledge is the primary determinant of a candidate’s qualifications to teach. Programs
designed to expedite certification of teacher candidates who already hold at least a
bachelor’s degree promote candidates’ subject area knowledge as both attractive and
requisite for entry. Newjersey’s statewide alternative preparation program demands a
degree in an academic subject and passage of a subject area test (Klagholz, 2001a). The
American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, an on-line alternative
certification initiative designed with candidates like CCs in mind, requires passage of a
comprehensive test of disciplinary knowledge as one component in securing licensure
(American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, Undated). Connecticut’s
Alternative Route to Certification (ARC) boasts that 40% of its candidates have earned a
master’s degree or higher in a disciplinary subject (Connecticut Board of Governors for
Higher Education, 2006). The New York City Teaching Fellows (NY CTF) looks for
professionals who hold at least a subject areabachelor’s degree and a college GPA above
3.0 to teach in the city’s hardest-to-staff schools (Goodnough, 2000c). Similarly, the
former Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program sought high achieving candidates to teach
their subject area in the state’s public schools (Liu et al., 2004).

In addition to subject area expertise, I expected to find supporters of CCs citing
the organizational knowledge gained in their previous professional settings as justification
for seeking mid-career applicants. Knowledge of work environments would seem to be a
significant way in which career changers differ from a recent undergraduate with a

degree in a disciplinary field. I assumed proponents would argue that CCs knowledge of,

14

in particular, corporate workplaces might position them as well-situated to reform public
school bureaucracies. However, with the exception of discussions around the Troop-to-
Teachers program (T TT), I have not encountered any literature explicitly making this
argument. TIT suggests that personal discipline and order learned in the military would
prove useful to teachers working in hard to staff schools (DANTES-TTT, 2005).

Skeptics of career changers’ immediate aptitude for the classroom might challenge
knowledge as defined by advocates as simplistic. Knowledge is equated with subject area
alone. Proponents do not distinguish among fields within a disciple. For example,
accountants may be cited as attractive candidates to meet math exigencies, but there is
little consideration of the fit between their skill set and actual math courses taught in high
schools. Is an accountant equally adept at teaching statistics, accounting, geometry, and
calculus? Is an accountant capable of teaching in each of those fields? Skeptics suggest
that teaching demands a high degree of specificity within a disciplinary subject (Hill,
Rowan, & Ball, 2005). ‘

Related to this is the concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).
Shulman’s seminal article outlining the concept of PCK suggests that beyond subject
area mastery pedagogical technique is a “dimension of subject matter knowledge for
teaching... . [where there is a] particular form of content knowledge that embodies the
aspects of content most germane to teachability” (1986, author's emphasis). Shulman
would argue that simple faith in content area knowledge is insufficient in preparing
candidates for the classroom, as is a focus on “content-free skill” considering only the
teaching process. In the two decades subsequent to Shulman’s framing, PCK has gained

wide theoretical favor, even if developing a definitive understanding of appropriate

15

teacher knowledge in all disciplines has remained more abstruse (Grossman, 1989; Hill &
Lubienski, 2007).
Skills

Supporters of career changers have claimed that the quality of the teaching
profession will be enhanced in part because CCs are more intelligent than traditionally
prepared teachers. Critiques of teaching as a low skill profession populated by
practitioners of low academic ability date to well before those levied by the Boston
masters and have reverberated through the discourse in the past century and a half
(Ballou & Podgursky, 1995; Bestor, 1953; Herbst, 1989; Kaestle, 1983; Koemer, 1963,
and others). Taken as a whole, standardized test scores (SAT/ ACT) for teachers
completing bachelor’s degrees in education have consistently been among the lowest for
college graduates, generally on par with college bound high school seniors (Gitomer,
Latham, & Ziomek, 1999). When partnered with research suggesting that teacher verbal
ability as measured by standardized test scores is indicative of student achievement
(Ferguson, 1991), finding academically superior teachers becomes a priority (Levine,
2006). Long a perceived benefit of alternative certification generally (Liu et al., 2004),
supporters of CCs likewise argue that recruiting successful professionals from other fields
to enter teaching will result in smarter teachers who improve the intelligence of the
teaching force and, in turn, student performance (Mathews, 2006; Ruenzel, 2002; Stein,
2002; The Teaching Commission, 2006).

One proxy for the weight lent to intelligence is evident in the pride with which
programs aimed at attracting CCs tout their selectivity. Former New York City school
chancellor Harold Levy presented the NYCTF as “smart people. . .[who] given enough

time, .. .will produce smart results” (Levy, quoted in Goodnough, 2000a, p. B1). The

16

Connecticut ARC program boasts of it stingy acceptance rate, as did the Massachusetts
Signing Bonus Program (MSBP), which, in the words of the president of the state senate,
sought “to attract the best and brightest to the teachingcorps.. . .We want this to be elitist
and unapologetically so” (Birmingham, quoted in Liu et al., 2004, p. 226). Similarly,
though not geared toward CCs, Teach for America leverages its selectivity to draw
candidates with high academic qualifications. The New Teachers Project (T NT P), an
outgrowth of TFA, claims a similar focus. Career changers, assumed to be largely from a
professional class (Kristof, 2006; Mathews, 2006), would have previously demonstrated
their intellectual abilities and would now be called upon to employ them in the classroom.
Ly; Experiences

Although life experiences share some overlap with knowledge, advocates cite the
intangible value that candidates’ experiences bring to their teaching. Primary among
these are the hard-to-quantify values of maturity and worldliness. In contrast to
traditional preparation where graduates either do not enter the profession or leave after a
few years since they were “[l]orced to commit in their teens in order to take the required
undergraduate courses” (Klagholz, 2001a, p. 12), proponents assume career changers
have developed their interest in teaching over time and after exposure to multiple
professional options. CCs’ successes and frustrations in other careers lead them to
teaching as a carefully examined life choice, allowing them time to determine their “true
calling” (Haberman, 1996; Hawley, l990;johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005). Moreover,
their experiences in the world will serve as a guide to focus the curriculum to topics of
real, and real-world, importance. Like traditionally prepared teachers, CCs, too, would
privilege issues they perceive as relevant. However, compared to CCs, traditional

candidates’ narrower experiences constrain their ability to determine what is truly

l7

significant (American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, 2005b; Ballou &
Podgursky, 1998;Jorissen, 2003; Ruenzel, 2002; Shen, 1997; Zumwalt, 1996). As such,
the experiences of CCs deserve to be rewarded more richly than a “22-year old just out of
school” (Ruenzel, 2002, p. 47).

In addition to having their experience inform their instruction, CCs are also
portrayed as serving with greater dedication. Johnson et a1 (2005) found that among
alternatively prepared candidates, first-career teachers had a lesser long-term
commitment to teaching and expressed less confidence and enthusiasm in the decision to
enter the profession than did CCs. Liu’s (2004) study of the Massachusetts Signing Bonus
Program found first-career entrants more inclined to begin the program intending to
teach for only a limited number of years.

Parenting and other work with children is a specific advantageous experience
commonly lauded by proponents. Especially when compared to the above 22-year old, it
seems reasonable that older CCs are more likely to have children of their own. Likewise,
there is some empirical evidence suggesting that older candidates entering alternative
preparation programs are more likely than younger peers to have worked with youth in
community or other volunteer capacities (Haberman, 1996;Johnson, Birkeland et al.,
2005; Liu et al., 2004; Lutz & Hutton, 1989). Supporters present these experiences as
positively informing the practice of CCs.

I was surprised to encounter limited justification for career changers on the
grounds of greater classroom control. I expected advocates to link CCs’ maturity and
their assumed desire to teach in the hard-to-staff schools to suggest they are better

prepared to bring order to chaotic classes. Again, in my research only the military’s

18

Troops-to-Teachers program raised classroom discipline as a significant benefit from
recruiting CCs to the classroom (DANTES-TTT, 2005).

Alternative certification generally and preparation of CCs in particular is based
upon “the fundamental logic. . .that one learns to teach by teaching” (Hawley, 1990, p.
29), that experience, both in the classroom and in broader life, is worth more than a
lengthy teacher preparation class. Although some value is given to preparation,
advocates for CCs assume that by placing smart, experienced people in the classroom,
eventually they will figure it out. Experience, then, is the best teacher and “the
cornerstone of all alternative programs” (Ruenzel, 2002, p. 47).
Motivations for Entpr

Anecdotal evidence argues that career changers’ rationale for entry is more
altruistic— motivated by a desire to “do good”——than first-career entrants, who are
determined to simply find a job (Haberman, 1996; Klagholz, 2001b; Ruenzel, 2002).
Evidence of this altruism exists in the targeting of career changers in urban preparation
programs, such as The New Teacher Project. Nearly all proponents who mention why
CCs would choose to enter teaching list iterations of “heed [ing] the call for social
responsibility” (Levy, quoted in Goodnough, 2001) as the primary motivator (American
Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, Undated;Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005;
Lutz & Hutton, 1989; Ruenzel, 2002).l Occasionally, a second theme emerges from the
literature, focusing on professionals’ dissatisfaction with the long hours, intense work, and

unrewarding benefits of their previous job (Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005; Lutz &

 

’ For the purposes of this discussion I am grouping various altruistic themes together
including “making the world a better place,” giving back to the community,” and
“spiritually satisfying work.” Although there are distinctions betweens these motivations,
they share an altruistic orientation.

19

Hutton, 1989; Stein, 2002; Wadsworth, 2001); instead, career changers are supposed to
be willing to exchange such frustrations with the spiritual fulfillment that accompanies
teaching. On only three occasions did any proponents of CCs raise more personal
motivations for entering education. Two centered on teaching as compatible with family
life (Stein, 2002; Wadsworth, 2001) and the third came from Abby Goodnough’s book
length study of a first year NYCTF teacher who stated that her life had become “too safe”
(2004).

Certainly altruistic motivations explain in part why all teachers are willing to enter
low status, low pay work (F arkas,Johnson, Foleno, Duffett, & Foley, 2000; Wadsworth,
2001). However, teaching has also long been attractive in part due to its ease of entry and
exit, compatibility with family life, and sense of autonomy behind a closed classroom door
(Johnson & Birkeland, 2003; Lortie, 1969, 1975). The absence of these factors from
discussions on career changers’ motivations suggests that CCs are assumed to be distinct
from traditional candidates.

Career changers as a response to labor market exigencies

A second, more pragmatic, argument in favor of attracting mid-career changers to
teaching is based on longstanding tensions in teacher labor markets. These exigency
demands fall into three categories, subject specific, regional, and local misalignments.
SubjectArea

There are discrepancies between subject areas in labor markets across the country.
In general there are far more applicants for humanities, social sciences, and elementary
school openings than math, science, English as a Second Language, and special education
positions (Gimbert et al., 2005; Gordon, Kane, & Staiger, 2006; The Teaching

Commission, 2006). In support of expanding ABCTE certification to Missouri, the

20

Missouri Education Commissioner claimed that, “in Missouri last year, just one person
graduating from college had majored in teaching physics” (The Associated Press, 2008), a ’
situation hoped to be addressed by attracting more career changers to the classroom.
Linked with the quality aim above, career changers are believed to come largely from
professional ranks, and will include engineers, doctors, accountants, and research
scientists (American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, 2005a; Kristof, 2006), _
among the subject areas in high demand. There is little mention of special education or
ESL needs being met by career changers. Many programs preparing career changers do
not offer certification in either of these subjects. This is consistent with the belief that
career changers have particular subject-area knowledge, whereas special education and
ESL do not translate directly to a single discipline.
Regional

Research suggests that teaching suffers from misalignment of supply and demand
(American Association for Employment in Education Supply/ Demand Research
Committee, 2002; Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 2003; Ingersoll, 2001) . Although there
may be sufficient numbers of candidates graduating from colleges of education to fill the
voids created by those leaving teaching, there are surpluses in some regions of the country
and shortfalls in others. Due to multiple economic and quality of life factors, teaching
jobs are more prevalent in some areas of the country than in others. Regions enjoying
large population expansions, both through internal population migration and
immigration from abroad, need teachers to assuage the rapid growth of students. For
example, for more than a decade Clark County School District (Las Vegas) has recruited
nationally and aggressively to meet their staffing needs. Other regions that have seen

large population growth including the Carolinas, Texas, and California, have had

21

accompanying shortages of teachers. Teacher salaries and increasing rates of retiring
baby boomers have also lead to regional exigencies (Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 2003).
Local Misalignment

Within a region, it is common to see tighter labor markets in wealthier suburban
districts when compared to higher needs urban and rural schools (Darling-Hammond &
Sykes, 2003; Ingersoll, 2001;Johnson, Berg, & Donaldson, 2005). The lower need
schools tend to have a surplus of applicants for positions while urban or rural districts can
be left to fill their openings with long-term substitutes or teachers with emergency
certification. For those concerned with the imbalance in teacher labor markets, career
changers are an untapped supply of potential teachers more likely to teach in hard-to-staff
schools and subjects (Gimbert et al., 2005; Goodnough, 2000c; Gordon et al., 2006;
Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2004). Career changers are one potential
policy mechanism to draw more teachers into high needs school, helping to reduce the
labor market discrepancies. The belief that career changers enter teaching in part out of
altruistic motivations, would suggest that these candidates are more willing to seeking
placements in high needs settings. The popular representation of programs further
supports this. NYCTF promotes the quality of its candidates recruited to teach in high
needs schools (Goodnough, 2004). Likewise, ABCTE sees it’s candidates as relieving
“overcrowded classrooms” (American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence,
2005a). Some have linked quality and local exigency as concurrent goals, claiming that
divorcing quality and quantity is tricky and unsatisfying. Although many programs
designed to attract CCs aim first to improve teacher quality, quantity grows concurrently.
This is particularly so with programs aimed at recruiting teachers for hard-to-staff schools

(Klagholz, 2001b). Drawing CCs into the classroom is believed to improve the quality of

22

teachers as they often replace long-term substitutes or teachers working under emergency
certification (Goodnough, 2000c; Gordon et al., 2006;Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005).
Career changers as a response to equip

Closely related to local misalignments between rural and urban and suburban
districts is access to quality teachers for all students, regardless of race, color, or class.
Poor students and students of color consistently endure inordinate numbers of
uncredentialed or undercredentialed teachers across the country. This is exacerbated by
the particular challenges of retention in hard-to-staff schools. Attracting candidates with
a strong service ethic is necessary to provide a more equitable distribution of teachers to
all students. Career changers, motivated by their assumed desire for social justice, are a
potentially untapped source (Goodnough, 2001; Lutz & Hutton, 1989; Ruenzel, 2002).
Many preparation programs for career changers have been designed with training
candidates for the challenges of urban and rural schools in mind (Ingersoll, 2001). For
example, ABCTE, although not expressly directed at inequitable distribution of teachers,
claims, in the very beginning of its candidate handbook, to “evaluate our success based
on. . .policies that ensure that all students have the advantages of a quality teacher
regardless of income, race, parental involvement, school size or any other ‘real-life’
socioeconomic factors” (2005a, p. 2). Additionally, there are career changer programs in
more rural states that work closely with districts to help meet discrete staffing needs to
ensure students receive instruction from qualified teachers.

Career changers as a response tofit

Women’s role in front of the classroom has been recorded and remembered. For

several generations, schools benefited from the limited career options available to women

who filled the teacher ranks and at a low cost. This “gender subsidy” began to erode in

23

the 19605 and 19705 as professional options other than teaching became increasingly
available. Less readily remembered is the history of minority teachers in minority
schools. As with women, minority teachers—mainly African-American-suffered similar
limited professional options (Anderson, 1988; Church & Sedlak, 1976; DuBois, 1996;
Rury, 1989). However, while women continue to comprise a large, and once again
growing, percentage of the teaching force, as other career opportunities became more
readily available to minority teachers, the proportion who remain in the classroom has
declined (National Education Association, 2003). Today, as desks are filled by higher
percentages of black and brown students, the teachers in front of the class are increasingly
white (Guarino, Santibanez, & Daley, 2006; Hussar, 1999; Leukens, Lyter, Fox, &
Chandler, 2004). Career changers are considered a potential policy mechanism for
reversing this trend, making teaching a more attractive option for minority professionals
who have enjoyed financial success and are now looking to “do good” work in their
communities. ’

Nationally, about fifteen percent of teachers leave the classroom or move to a new
school annually (Johnson, Berg et al., 2005), many because of a unrealistic expectations of
working conditions and the mores of the school community. Finding candidates who fit
in the schools in which they will teach—have realistic expectations of the realities of the
classrooms and understand the cultural norms of students and parents—are indicators of
higher rates of teacher. retention (Johnson, Berg et al., 2005). And while race is one
consideration in meeting fit desires, finding teachers who understand rural mores and
regional cultural diversity can make transitions more fluid for teachers and learning more
effective for students. Additionally, attracting men, especially to high-needs schools,

remains a goal in order to serve, in part, as a role model for boys. As with the meeting

24

equity demands several preparation programs for career changers have been designed to
train teachers for hard-to-staff schools and subjects, and to attract men and
underrepresented minorities to the classroom (Gimbertet al., 2005; Hawley, 1990;
Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005;Jorissen, 2003; Lutz & Hutton, 1989; Shen, 1997; Tell,
2001). Some evidence suggests that these programs succeed in attracting these desired
candidates when compared to traditional teacher training (Johnson, Birkeland et al.,
2005; Ruenzel, 2002; Shen, 1997).

Fit, though, has an additional connotation. More challenging to measure than
race and gender, there is a hope that attracting career changers will reveal individuals
who have perspectives in common with a particular building. Akin to shared cultural
capital (Bourdieu, 197 3), fit, in this sense, is not strictly limited by race or income.
Rather, through study or experience, a portion of career changers are hoped to be able to
forge relationships with students, parents, administrators, and their fellow teachers that
build from joint values (DANTES-TI’T, 2005; Finn & Madigan, 2001).

Incentive of Speed

Although more a policy mechanism than aim, that many career changer
programs are also quick alternative routes does have implications in attracting candidates
to the classroom. Many advocates of CCs who grant them competence based upon their
quality see fast track preparation as a pragmatic tool to earn certification and “remove
the barriers that are keeping thousands of talented people out of the classroom” (Paige,
2003). Assumed in this argument is that smart candidates can master curriculum and
pedagogy either intuitively, experientially or a in some combination of the two (Hawley,
1990; Mathews, 2006). In their study of the Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program, Liu

et al (2004) found that the $20,000 was ultimately an insignificant enticement to draw

25

potential professionals from other fields into teaching; instead, the speed of the
program—certification over the course of a summer-was a much more potent, lure.
Although teachers were certainly willing to accept the signing bonus, the larger
opportunity cost was entering teaching through a traditional program—a year or more of
full-time classes and the accompanying lost salary. ABCTE operates on a similar
principle, going so far to praise much of the work done in colleges of education.
According to ABCTE, they enter the preparation arena only to offer certification to those
already prepared to teach (American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence,
Undated). And many fast track alternative certification programs geared toward CCs do
value colleges of education (Johnson, Birkeland et al., 2005). NYCTF and the
Connecticut ARC program both require candidates to work toward their masters degree
in education concurrently with the first few years in the classroom (Connecticut Board of
Governors for Higher Education, 2006; Goodnough, 2000c). And many so-called
alternative certification programs are housed in traditional university-based teacher
education departments or staffed by faculty from these departments. Ultimately it is the
order, not the content, of the preparation that is altered in these programs.

In summary, there are four policy aims motivating the attempts to attract career
changers—quality, exigency, equity, and fit.. The quality logic is organized around four
factors: knowledge—CCS’ subject-area expertise; skills—-CCs’ intelligence; life
experiences—CCS’ maturity and worldliness; and motivations—CCS’ altruism in entering
teaching. The exigency aim attempts to draw candidates to relieve labor market
misalignments in particular subjects, regions, and within local markets and that CCs are
an untapped market to meet regional and disciplinary labor market shortages. The

equity goal borrows from the exigency claim to suggest that career changers can

26

ameliorate the overcrowded classrooms taught by underqualified teachers in high needs

schools. Attracting career changers is also one way to attract more underrepresented

minority and male teachers to classrooms. Finally, as ajmechanism to attract career

changers, many supporters point to the efficacy of cheaper, faster streamlined programs.
Signy‘icance

This study has several implications for better understanding the phenomenon of
career changers and evaluating the programs’ success in recruiting and preparing
teachers for the classroom. Again, I will not be testing whether these traits assumed to
make career changers more attractive candidates actually improve their instruction and
student learning. Although an essential question, it is outside the scope of this project.

0 Career changers might be entering classrooms in considerable
numbers.

There has been no systematic study as to how many career changers are in the
classroom. If the assumed logic is followed to its conclusion, the number could be in
excess of ten percent of all entering teachers. Much of the logic calls on alternative
certification programs as the preferred way to prepared career changers. Although
estimates differ, some data suggests that as much as 30 percent of first-year teachers in
2004 were prepared in what were considered alternative certification programs
(Feistritzer, 2005). If alternative certification programs exist in large part to qualify CCs
for the classroom, it seems plausible that a large number of these alternative certification
entrants may be career changers. And these numbers do not include career changers
prepared in traditional education programs, a number that some observers believe could

be higher than those prepared by alternate routes (Liu, 2004).

27

If career changers potentially constitute such a large number of practicing
teachers, it seems essential that we affirm whether their assumed assets and motivations
are consistent with the characteristics in practice.

0 Develop a clearer picture of what career changers look like in reality.

The coupling of substantial speculation on the qualities of CCs with limited
research basis yields only conjecture regarding their actual characteristics. This study
should provide a clearer picture of these characteristics, allowing for a clarification of the
actual policy questions at issue. If CCs appear, in fact, to be the knowledgeable, skilled,
experienced, motivated candidates they are assumed to be, this frames preparation of
career changers as a way to increase the quality of the teaching force. The policy
implication then falls to developing ways to recruit more candidates like them.

If CCs appear not to resemble the picture sketched of them, and more closely
resemble the novice teaching population on the whole, this frames preparation of career
changers as a way to increase the quantity of teachers and fit and equity of the teaching
force. This is not to say that CCs who look like the teaching force we have is bad. While
the assertion that CCs are a way to improve the overall quality of the force is diminished,
that many folks are interested in leaving their current work to seek jobs in teaching
suggests that career changers are in fact a population that can be further tapped to meet
local, regional, and disciplinary market needs. Additionally, such a finding would suggest
a one-size-fits-all teacher preparation model—24 credits of teacher preparation and a
semester of student teaching—does not fit the real life needs of all candidates; instead, the
diversity of routes is necessary to attract career changers to the classroom. If CCs appear

to be no better, but no worse than the existing teacher pool, there still may be an

28

important place for these programs in preparing non-traditional candidates for the
classroom
0 Career changers might be more likely to seek employment in certain
settings than traditional candidates.
The findings from this study will demonstrate whether there are characteristics that tend
to cluster around candidates who eventually findjobs, teach in high need areas and
disciplines, and plan to stay in the classroom for an extended period of time. As the logic
supporting CCs suggests they will alleviate certain staffing needs, this study might help
programs to efficiently screen potential candidates to maximize a programs’ impact in
their target environment. Part of the logic of career changers rests on assurances that the
pool of candidates will attract more men, underrepresented minorities, math / science,
special education, and English as a Second Language teachers to the classroom than
traditional preparation programs, meeting demands in both urban and rural settings and
across needy disciplinary subjects. Investigating the accuracy of these claims would have
implications both for recruitment and for understanding whether individual programs are
be better situated to meet certain policy aims than others. Although predictions from this
study will not have a high level of confidence, they can be suggestive of trends worthy of
additional study.
0 _ There may be great difi'erences between candidates based on local
factors.
In attempting to evaluate the logic of career changers, this study will be able to assess

whether candidates with certain characteristics are drawn to teaching based on local

factors——economic in particular. In other words, this study could potentially determine

29

which characteristics are most prevalent in a particular candidate pool or whether
candidate traits are largely homogeneous across sites.
0 Certain program features may be more reflective at attracting certain
types of candidates than other.
Program design and location along with the eventual teaching placements of candidates
might be a factor in determining who applies for a particular program. If there are
differences in candidate characteristics between programs that prepare candidates for a
specific district versus programs where candidates find employment in any district they
can, this study will help to expose them. Additionally, this study will help identify
whether programs targeting rural schools have candidates with characteristics distinct
from those in programs targeting suburban school and those targeting urban schools.
Such a finding would have implications for recruitment and for understanding whether
individual programs are be better situated to meet certain policy aims than others.
Research questions
The literature, policy aims, and potential significance of this study has guided me

to the following research questions to guide my data collection and analysis.

° Do career changers in practice share the knowledge, skills, life experiences, and

motivations their advocates assume they do?

° Are there characteristics that career changers share within sites?
° Are there characteristics that career changers share across sites?
° Do characteristics of career changers within sites differ from each other?
° Do characteristics of career changers across sites differ from each other?

30

Do local historical, economic, and cultural contexts influence the characteristics of

candidates seeking certification?

31

Chapter 2
Methods
This study is largely an attempt to understand the efficacy of a policy idea by

evaluating whether the assumed characteristics of career changers and the programs that
prepare them match the actual characteristics of this population. This study examines _
the extent to which career changers resemble what they are assumed to look like, the
programs that prepare them, and the context in which they are prepared. To answer
these questions, I gathered three distinct sets of data—programs, candidates, and place.
Briefly, three programs that prepare large percentages of career changers agreed to
participate in the study. Candidates in each program completed a survey inquiring into
demographic characteristics, career patterns, and academic qualifications. Based on the
results of the survey I selected a handful of candidates for follow-up interviews.
Additionally, I conducted an on-line survey of program directors and coordinators from
across the country. I collected contextual background on my three target sites from
public data including the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and state
departments of education.

Methodological Rationale In many ways this study can be understood as an evaluation. The
picture assumed of career changers is the basis of policy interventions intending to 1
improve the quality and fit of candidates while meeting school equity and exigency
demands. These assumptions collectively create an espoused theory. My purpose, then,
is to test the theory in action. By enumerating the traits of the espoused theory, I can
compare those to the traits found in my sample of actual career changers. Such

comparisons will be sophisticated enough to control for various characteristics (e.g., age,

32

program, motivation, and education) to compare the sample as a whole to the espoused
theory as well as to examine how subgroups compare to each other.

Adopting an evaluative stance, in place of a pure research stance is consistent with
literature supporting evaluation as a method “to speed up the learning process by
communicating what might otherwise be overlooked or wrongly perceived” (Cronbach,
1982, p. 8). In this study, I am attempting to learn whether there are central elements of
the stated, theory supporting career changers that have been generalized or overlooked in
practice. This study will allow me to “reduce uncertainties... [and] challenge simplistic
views” (Cronbach, 1982, p. 10). Cronbach further supports initiating evaluation with a
qualitative investigation of “a wide variety of informants” (1982, p. 210) before creating
questions that can be answered with more quantitative data. I have followed this model
by first scanning both the literature advocating for career changers and seeking input
from directors/ coordinators of preparation programs on the rationales, designs, and
challenges they face. Such initial data inform my research questions and my instrument
design. 1

Data Sources

Each of the three sets of data—candidates, programs, and context—presented
unique considerations in determining appropriate sources.

' There are many non-traditional candidates who enter the teaching field. Some
have had other professional careers, others have worked as paraprofessionals in
schools or other work settings, some have been engaged in raising children and
been out of the workforce for several years, and there are many other
permutations. It is largely uncovering the scope of this diversity that motivated

this study. Since CCs are often portrayed as elite professionals looking to move to

33

teaching, I chose to sample programs across the country hoping to explore the
potential diversity of candidates. For the purposes of this study, I defined CCs as
broadly as possible. Instead of limiting my sample to, say, professionals with at
minimum a bachelor’s degree—and potentially a graduate degree—in a specific
subject-area discipline, I am interested in considering all potential career
changers, so long as they have experience working as other than a teacher of
record. Through advertising or implication career changers are commonly
assumed to have had more or less continuous employment in a traditional
profession (Etzoini, 1969; Larson, 1977; Wilensky, 1964, and others) for several
years before deciding to leave in favor of teaching. As imagined in this literature,
CCs will be doctors, lawyers, engineers, and business people who are looking to
give back in some manner (Goodnough, 2000c). A broad definition of career
changer allows me to include retired military personnel, tradesmen, stay-at-home
parents returning to the workforce, paraprofessionals, and various other careers
tracks that may be ignored by limiting my sample to professionals. Additionally,
this provides a richer understanding of which non-traditional candidates are
actually attempting to enter the classroom. As previous career and life
experiences are central to my study, I did not consider students newly minted
from undergraduate studies where candidates teach in their major, but lack
significant work experience—such as TFA or Alliance for Catholic Education.
Additionally, I did not consider candidates who are currently working in a school
as a teacher of record. Although some candidates might be teaching in private or
parochial school without certification or in public schools under an emergency

certificate, I am not considering them career changers. However, I did include

34

candidates who have worked as substitute teachers and are now choosing to teach
as a career.

Selecting programs also required careful consideration. There are likely career
changers present in nearly all programs that prepare teachers—-traditional,
alternative, and everything in between. In selecting my target programs, I
attempted to represent geographical diversity, as well as diversity of program
designs. Before inviting programs to participate, I conducted informal interviews
with program directors and coordinators sketching the roughest map of programs
that prepare career changers. From these discussions I created categories based
on the type of host organization that housed a program—public or private
university, private organizations, state departments of education, and school
districts. I attempted to find target programs that would satisfy as much of this
diversity as possible, ultimately selecting one program administered by a state
department of higher education (Connecticut’s Alternative Route to
Certification—ARC), an on-line program operated by public university (Montana
State University’s Northern Plains Transition to Teaching—NPTT), and a third
jointly operated by a school district and a public university (University of
Missouri—Saint Louis’s Career Transition Program-—CTP). These programs
represented urban, suburban, and rural localities and were spread across the
country. These programs are explored in much greater detail in the Chapter 3. I
invited two additional programs to participate. One, a partnership between a
private university and a school district, initially planned to participate before
ultimately declining due to low enrollment and time concerns. The other, a post-

baccalaureate program also operated by the University of Missouri—Saint Louis,

35

agreed to participate, but were ultimately not included in my analysis due to low
candidate response.

In selecting program directors and coordinators to participate in the on-
line survey, I was less discriminating. I cast a wide net, inviting several dozen
programs that prepare candidates to participate. I included directors from all
program designs and was careful to ensure geographic diversity. I located
programs through several means, including a list of alternative certification
programs from teach-now.org—the National Center for Alternative Certification
website (2008)—ones I had encountered in the literature, referrals from
colleagues, and word of mouth.

The data sources I sought to provide contextual background on the communities
in which thetarget sites operate were exclusively from public sources. I did not
intend to gather or present exhaustive data, but rather to locate core information
on economic, employment, and educational trends in each region. Chief sources
included the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Census Bureau, state departments of
education, and local school districts.

Overview of Design—Data Collection and Instrumentation

Essentially there were three stages to this study: candidate surveys, semi-

structured candidate interview, and program director and coordinator survey. I gathered

contextual data throughout the research process.

Candidate Surveys

After roughly mapping the terrain of options, I selected programs that reflected

the range of designs to find candidates to survey and interview. However, while these

sites may not reflect the proportions of designs across the country, my goal was not to

36

have a statistically representative sample of programs, but to explore the universe of
programs in existence. In this way my sampling of programs is purposive. I selected sites
in an attempt to test the tenets of the theory espoused by proponents of career changers
(Miles & Huberman, 1994). Therefore, I sought to determine whether career changers’
characteristics vary based on their program, the program design or selectivity,
geographical location, local economic, cultural, and political factors, or urbanicity.
Abbott argues using multiple cases to avoid one-step rational-action narratives where
“everything dovetails to produce one result; there are no real accidents or contingencies.
Nor do any of these narratives really involve actors with substantial complexity” (1992). I
used multiple-case sampling hoping to encounter complexity that would add to the
robustness of my findings.

I traveled to each site to survey and interview the cohort of candidates preparing
to teach. For two sites, I administered the surveys in person. As the third was an on-line
program in which candidateswere spread out across three large western states, travel was
not practical. Therefore, these candidates completed the survey on-line. Surveys were
administered in the summer and fall of 2007.

The survey items were divided into four groups: reasons for leaving previous
work, reasons for choosing teaching, expectations of teaching practice, and general
information. The full candidate survey is included in Appendix F. Together, these
questions attempted to map the rationale of career changers’ move from their previous
work into teaching while sketching a picture of CCs, and tracking whether motivations
for entering teaching differ according to demographic, educational, and career
characteristics. These questions were intended to test the logic surrounding career

changers. If CCs are assumed, for example, to come from highly selective colleges and

37

have high ACT/ SAT scores, I was curious to see if the teachers in this study reflect these
assumptions.
Candidate Interviews

The interview protocol largely mirrored the survey instrument, now allowing
candidates to expand upon their survey responses and allowing me to gather potentially
illuminating cases of the trends revealed in the surveys. At each site, upon completion of
the surveys, I scanned them to tally background characteristics of the candidates. I
selected candidates in numbers roughly commensurate to their prevalence at the site to
invite for interviews. Additionally, I selected a couple outliers from each site to present
fertile counterexamples to prevailing trends at each site (Miles & Huberman, 1994). In
total I interviewed ten candidates from the Connecticut ARC program, five from the
Career Transitions Program, and seven from NPTTQ. I transcribed all interviews and
coded them according to the variables identified in my research questions—knowledge,
skills, experience, and motivations. At each site I also had an opportunity to speak with
the program director. Interviews were conducted in the summer and fall of 2007 and the
early winter of 2008. The interview protocol is included in Appendix F.
Program Director and Coordinator Survg)

I augmented my close investigation of my target programs with an on-line survey
completed by program directors and coordinators from programs that prepare large
proportions of career changers across the country. I sought a broad representation of

program design and geographic diversity. This survey was intended to provide big

 

2 I interviewed a disproportionate number of candidates from NP'IT, my final site
chronologically, to learn more about an emerging trend I saw reflected in my interviews
of candidates across sites. These additional interviews were post-hoc and did not skew my
interpretation of the overall trends I witnessed. This will be discussed in more detail

Chapter 4.

38

picture context to the narrower study on the focus sites, generating an approximation of
the Options available to mid-career professionals considering becoming teachers.
Although this model could not ensure the depiction of all program models, it was
intended to approach the diversity of programs in existence.

The survey was divided into several sections inquiring into program design and
history, local and regional context, and candidate characteristics, recruitment, and
placement. The full director and coordinator survey in included in Appendix F. Many
items were structured to allow directors to give their impressions of candidates, rather
than precise responses. While this limits the accuracy, this survey was conceived to point
to trends rather than provide precise data on candidates. Moreover, for many of these
items, programs did not systematically collect the data requested and were only able to
share impressions.

Together these data were intended to generate a rough map of the options
available to candidates and tell the story around the circumstances leading to the
development of these programs. I supplemented these surveys with program literature
publicly available through the Internet, course catalogs, and other program publications.
The survey was conducted on-line in the fall of 2007.

Data Analysis3

My analysis of survey data fell into two main iterations and demanded dialogue
with the findings from my interviews. Candidates being expansive in interviews revealed
several possible subgroups within the career changer category. Using these subgroups,

now called portraits, I returned to the surveys looking briefly at each candidate’s

 

_ 3 The discussion in this section intends to outline how I made sense of my data. It is
expanded upon in Chapter 4, using actual data and employs more precise terminology.

39

responses and placing the candidate in either one of four portraits or, for time being, in
an “other” pile. Using core variables I identified as proxies for knowledge, skill, and
experience, I conducted a statistical procedure known'as cluster analysis. Cluster analysis
begins by pairing the most similar cases, continuing to add each additional case to the
cluster that it most closely represents according to identified variables (Riddle Buly &
Walencia, 2002; Romesburg, 1984). I conducted two separate analyses, the first diving .
the candidates into two clusters and the second into four. I then compared the cluster
results to the portraits I had sketched as a check for their continued descriptive accuracy.

Once I had developed descriptive clusters and portraits, I was able to examine
differences in the composition of candidates in each site and further compare the
candidates’ traits between portraits for “educationally irrelevant” (Green, 1983) traits
such as race and gender.

Additionally, I coded interview transcripts along these same constructs, using
candidate responses to support and supplement the data gleanedfrom the-survey. I
created an informal case report for each interview subject to surface emergent themes,
with particular attention to motivations for entering teaching and the role local factors
play in attracting career changers to the classroom. These interview responses were used
to augment and provide depth to the portraits. I then returned to the candidates not
originally placed in a portrait to see if any common themes were prevalent that described
additional groups.

The analysis of the program directors and coordinators surveys was less complex.
Again I conducted multiple cluster analyses to help corroborate or complicate the

categories that arose from my informal interviews with directors. And again, I identified

40

core variables serving as proxies for program design 4. This allowed me to trace general
trends in program design nationally as well as place my target programs in the context of
others of similar design.

Validity and Reliabiliy

In general, I was less concerned with my respondents’ subjectivity than my own.
Many of the characteristics I am investigating are the subjective responses of the
candidates—motivations and perceptions of both their previous work and teaching.
Therefore, I assumed and hoped they will provide their opinions. I did not provide my
respondents with interview transcripts for their review and correction.

There were some self-report data that are of concern. Questions that ask
candidates to supply their own standardized test scores and college grade point averages
were of questionable validity. I had hoped to corroborate these data with similar data
supplied through program applications, although access to that data proved not to be
viable.

Although systematic, my initial sampling of programs and subsequent survey of
directors and coordinators is not statistically representative. It is possible, likely even, that
I have undersampled certain program designs and oversampled others. The survey
attempted to map the terrain of options available, but may not be exhaustive of program
designs. I can make no claims that the sites which participated in the survey represent a
full range of potential options. In fact, there may be so many nuances in program design
that any sampling method would provide an incomplete representation. As such, I have
attempted to reflect the broad range of programs available to career changers with

respect to programmatic features and geographical considerations.

 

4 This discussion is expanded in Chapter 3.

41

My own objectivity is a trickier proposition. I imagine that out of the hours of
interview transcripts I have collected I would be able to provide support to many different
and divergent stories of career changers. This is one motivation for engaging in a mixed
methods study. If limited to the interviews, I could more easily sculpt the story I want to
tell. However, the iterative nature of the analysis helped temper any potential spin I
placed on the interviews. The constant dialogue between the interviews, my scanning of
the surveys and the statistical analysis of the surveys helped to corroborate my findings
from the various data sources and mitigate my own biases. An inability to reconcile the
multiple data sources would suggest a significant shortcoming in either the survey design

or my own objectivity.

42

Chapter 3
Investigation of Programs

My study was motivated by two central research questions. The first involves the
characteristics of the career candidates. The second inquires into how the local context
influences candidates and their decisions. In my attempt to understand the role of
context I will examine each of the three principal programs in detail. A deep examination
of these programs is neither intended to forge comparisons between them nor to make
value judgments about the effectiveness of each program relative to the others, as those
answers are outside the scope of this study. Rather, I am attempting to report out the
design of each program on its own terms. Later, in my examination of local contextual
factors, I will return to the program design to link certain traits to the local historical,
economic, and cultural context in which the program exists to help understand the factors
that might influence both the program design and the candidates who enrolled in them.

This chapter intends to accomplish two objectives. First, I will share findings from
the directors and coordinators survey and explain how those surveys helped to expose the
diversity of the programs serving career changers. Second, I will engage in a more
detailed examination of the three target sites in this study, explaining the program history
and design and considering the data sources at each site.

Director and Coordinator Survg)

There are not only all manner of teacher preparation programs, or even
alternative certification programs, but within programs conceived cognizant of career
changers there are multiple designs. Programs can be housed in private or public
colleges. Programs are also run by local school districts, regional education authorities,

state departments of education, and private for profit and non-for-profit entities.

43

Additionally, many programs include multiple agencies in their design. I set out to collect
a sample of these programs through interviews, but mostly through an on-line survey of
directors and coordinators of a mixture of programs across the country. I attempted to
find programs that housed in a full spectrum of potential designs, as well as large and
small and established and newer ones. In the end, I invited about 75 programs to take
the survey, with twenty-nine completing it. The full survey is included in Appendix F.
The respondents represent a sample diverse, yet likely incomplete, in size and design.
Additionally, I attempted to represent geographic diversity, with programs distributed
both across the country and in rural, suburban, and urban settings (See Figure 3.1). I alSo
aimed to sample from programs administered by a wide range of agencies. Considering
the caution expressed by Humphrey and Wechsler (2007), I was curious to see how
programs housed in similarly positioned agencies would resemble and differ from each
other, and whether the program proved helpful in exposing the tendencies of its
candidates. Despite my efforts, slightly more than half of the programs responding to my
survey were from public universities with the remained split more or less evenly among
several other oversight agencies (See Table 3.1).

From the survey data from the twenty-nine programs I identified nine core
variables that best defined the programs in terms of size, design, candidates, and students
the candidates will eventually teach. While many of the survey items could be answered
with discrete responses, several called for program directors or coordinators to provide
their best impressions of specific conditions or approximations of candidates’
qualifications and placement. As such, the results for these items can only be considered

suggestive. Yet the data do provide rough picture of candidates and hint at the esteem in

44

which program directors’ hold candidates. These core variables are described in more
detail below.
Figure 3.1

National distribution if survgzed programs

 

' Number of Candidater—The number of candidates differentiates programs by
size helping to discriminate between large and small programs.

' Time to Teacher of Record—This variable highlights design decisions
determining the length of time it would take to get candidates into the classroom
as the teacher of record. This variable is on a scale of 1-5, with 1 representing
placement in a classroom in the least amount of time. This variable has
implications in understanding policies’ exigency aims.

' Time to Full Certification—In contrast to the Time to Teacher of Record
variable, measuring the time it takes a teacher to reach full certification highlights

the how long at candidate will be teaching under a provisional certificate. This

45

variable, too, is scaled l-5 with 1 representing full certification in the least amount
of time. This variable has implications in understanding policies’ quality aims.
Level of Certification upon Entry—The certification upon entry variable is in
some ways an amalgam of the previous two variables. Certification on entry
suggests how a program orders preparation and practice. For a candidate
entering on a provisional certification—a l on this scale-—the program typically,
but not always, demanded additional coursework. A candidate entering with full
certification where all course work has been completed before becoming the
teacher of record received a ranking of 2. This variable has implications in
understanding policies’ quality and exigency aims.

On-line options—The on-line variable measures the increasingly common design
consideration of a program’s on-line availability. This variable is measured on a
1-4 scale with 1 representing programs with no on-line options and 4 programs
that a fully on-line. This variable has implications in understanding policies’
exigency aims.

Stipend—Many programs, including NYCTF and Saint Louis’s CTP offer the
prospect of a free master’s degree or, in the case of the former Massachusetts
Signing Bonus Program, remuneration upon completion of the program. This is
typically considered a recruitment strategy for hard to serve schools. Scaled 1-5, a
lower ranking represents greater access to a stipend, while a ranking of 5 suggests
no opportunity for stipend regardless of placement, merit, or need. This variable
has implications in understanding policies’ equity, fit, and exigency aims.
Selectivity—This variable attempts to address the overall selectivity of

undergraduate programs attended by candidates in a program. Teachers’ verbal

46

abilities have been touted as indicative of their instructional effectiveness
(Ferguson, 1991). Undergraduate college selectivity serves as a proxy variable for
academic ability. The selectivity variable is only suggestive. On the survey,
program directors were asked to approximate percentages of candidates who

33 ‘C

attended “not very, moderately,” and “highly” selective undergraduate
institutions. This leaves great room for both individual interpretation and
exaggeration of candidates’ background. Selectivity has been transformed from
three variables on the actual survey and scaled 1-5, with a 1 representing a
candidate pool arising from the least selective colleges and 5 from the most
selective. This variable has implications in understanding policies’ quality aims.
Highest degree attained—As with selectivity, the highest degree attained variable
attempts to approximate the academic achievement of a program’s cohort.
Degree obtained is scaled from l-5, with a 1 representing candidates on average
entering with no more than an associate’s degree and 5 reflecting a candidate pool
comprised mostly of terminal degrees. Again, as with the selectivity variable,

_ highest degree obtained is an approximation by the program director and liable to
the same subjectivity discussed above. This variable has implications in
understanding policies’ quality aims.

Placement in High Needs Schools—-As many programs and proponents of career
changers cite the movement as one tool in filling low performing schools with
quality teachers, this final variable attempts to assess the likelihood of a program’s
candidates seeking initial placement in high need schools, regardless of location.

Scaled 1-4, a 1 represents 75% or more of candidates placed in high need schools

and a 4 represents less than 25% in such a placement. As with the selectivity and

47

attainment variables above, this variable is also based on program directors’ best
estimate of candidate placements. This variable has implications in
understanding policies’ equity and exigency aims.

Table 3.1

Program according to administering agency

 

 

Number of
Agency programs
Private Organization 2
Private University 4
Public University 16

Local School District 2
Regional School District 3
State 2

 

Total 29

 

Using these representative variables, I conducted a cluster analysis. The ensuing
cluster analysis derived from these variables was completed in several iterations. Here I
will provide a brief synopsis of my findings and the results of one of the analyses. For a
more thorough discussion, please see Appendix A. In total twenty-three programs were
placed in a group. Six programs were excluded due to missing data for at least one
variable. Cluster analysis will only place cases for which all data is present.

The clusters formed several patterns of interest. First, the clusters divided the
programs by size, with the largest ones placed in Cluster 1 and the smallest in Cluster 4.
With Clusters 2-4 heavy with university-based programs, this suggests that university
programs account for a smaller percentage of candidates than their frequency initially
seem to indicate. Second, in general, smaller programs and university-based programs
take longer to move from entry to teacher of record and full certification are less likely to

ofler candidates a stipend and candidates are less likely to seek placements in high needs

48

schools. There was no noticeable difference by cluster in the certification level at which
candidates entered the classroom, with only candidates in Cluster 4 entering the
classroom with full certification. Third, ample on-line options seem to be common only
in Cluster 2. Similarly, Cluster 4 candidates appear to have attended more selective
universities than candidates in other groups and Cluster 2 candidates have attained
higher degrees on average than peers in other clusters.

Table 3.2

Four-group cluster analysis if program traits

 

 

 

a .— i-o
:53" ‘<° o E g”?
a a $1- 0 E. “3- ? 0
D Z 8 '9 ‘5 a ’5' m C” a B
9’ s: 9—; :1 ”D a ('D a 55” Q- a
'7’ 3 rd =15 '-1 ° -~§ o m "‘ > m a

Q B- o— ?E g 5 ~- = a .6 a. a a U n
s: g— o n n g 8 g g», g, *0 c. B. n g- :3
21 ..~ are: ~a°° s s- at? os-
Q 2 a. 9., o. 9; :1 c Q :3 a c. Q a. a .7 :r
1 6 170 2.5 3.5 1.5 l 3.3 2 2.7 1.7
2 4 114 2 4.5 1 3 3.3 2.8 3.5 2.8
3 9 64 3 3 4.6 l 4 1 8 4.8 2.8 2.2 3.4
4 4 26 3 4.2 2 2 4.2 4 2.2 2.2
Tot. 23 94 2.8 4 2 1.5 1 8 4 2.9 2.6 2.7

 

Looking across variables, there are two additional trends I would like to briefly
highlight. First, programs whose candidates had higher levels of attainment also entered
the classroom the more quickly and candidates with lower levels of attainment entered
the classroom more slowly. This was a consistent trend in each analysis. Second, with
the exception of the four programs comprising Cluster 4, higher levels of selectivity
correspond with lower levels of placement in high needs schools. Conversely, lower levels
of selectivity correspond with higher rates of placement in high needs schools. I will

develop the implications of these findings more thoroughly in Chapters 6 and 7.

49

Considered as a whole, the picture these data paint, somewhat like an
impressionist canvas, surfaces broad tendencies, but close inspection reveals the details
lack precision. The preponderance of university-based programs in Clusters 2-4 and
their corresponding absence in Cluster 1 suggests there are real differences among
programs and those differences are in part consistent with the agency housing the
program. However, the diversity of design exposed by looking across Clusters 2-4 points
to the oversight agency as being only suggestive of program design. Even within the large
number of university-based programs, the variety of program and candidate
characteristics indicates that stating a program is run by a university ultimately implies
very little. Although they are addressing individual programs as well as aggregated ones,
the diversity of designs is consistent with Humphrey and Wechsler’s (2007; 2008)
contention that the program level is the wrong unit of analysis for fully understanding the
content of preparation and the characteristics of candidates. Yet, neither is it totally
irrelevant. Rather, fully exposing the nuances of candidates’ qualifications demands deep
study of individual programs and the candidates who fill their ranks.

Table 3.3

Cluster assignment of administrative oversight categories

 

 

54’
a 5 g
g: :3 B- 9“ 7°
C) re 2' "U 2' re Q m 9%
E‘ :1. n :i. n c a n a, . U)
H w u—I- ” b-h h... :3. O 3- :3 a:
93 8 Q 8 2‘ EB" $3 .9. 9 E n:
1 1 - l l 2 l
2 - — 3 - -
3 - 3 4 - 1
4 - - 4 - - —

 

50

In the next section of this chapter I will begin this work by detailing the design of
each of my three. target programs as well as the specifics on the data sources for each site.
The following two chapters will take up the question of candidate characteristics, and
Chapter 5 will address the local context of each site. However, before I start to engage
more substantially with site-specific data, let me briefly share the relevant results of my
three target sites with regards to the program directors’ survey.

At each of target sites, the program director took the time to complete the
on-line program survey. Before looking at their responses, I placed each site in an
administrative oversight category, with the ARC program—with the Connecticut
Department of Higher Education—placed in the state agency group and both CTP and
NPTT placed in the public university category. As might be expected, the ARC
program—an extra-university program—-was placed in Cluster 1 and CTP and NPTT
were placed in Cluster 2. Cluster lwas marked by larger, less selective programs in which
candidates took quicker paths to the classroom as teacher of record and were more
inclined to teach in high need schools. Cluster 2 was distinguished by the quickness of
entrance into the classroom as a teacher of record, access to on-line instruction, and high
educational attainment relative to the other clusters.

The substantial commonalities between the CTP and NPTT program that I hope
will become apparent in later in this chapter as well as in subsequent ones will help to
reinforce the argument that the administrative location of a program can provide
essential trends in its design. It will also expose some of the dangers of aggregation, as
each program, while sharing traits with those placed in their cluster diverge from the peer
group in many ways. These important differences will also help corroborate that

oversight, alone, is an incomplete metric; the local context is necessary to gain a full

51

appreciation of the candidates in a program. Let me begin by taking a closer look at
these programs.
Target Programs ,

As I examine each program more closely, I will first briefly discuss the data
sources at each site. Next, I will highlight the program design. Finally, I will present
aggregate candidate data for each program.

Data Sources

With the exception of NPTT, I traveled to each program to administer surveys.
My visit to ARC inJune 2007 coincided with the fourth and fifth days of the candidates’
preparation, instruction that had to date focused largely on formal aspects of the
program, including program design, an overview of Connecticut teaching and curricular
standards, and an introduction to pedagogical issues. I mailed surveys to the program
director in advance of my visit and he made them available for candidates to take home
to complete the day before my arrival. I then collected the surveys the morning of my
first day at the site. A handful of candidates willing to complete the survey failed to
receive one before my arrival and completed one after I was on site.

The 2007 ARC I cohort had a total of 122 candidates admitted. Of those five
deferred admission and an additional three failed to attend despite sending in a deposit to
hold their spot. In total, then, there were 114 candidates in the cohort. Of that number I
received seventy-four surveys back from candidates for a response rate of sixty-five
percent of the potential number of candidates.

I traveled to Saint Louis to collect data for two days in July 2007. I received data
from two separate CTP cohorts. The first was about to begin their first year teaching in

the Saint Louis Public Schools. They had been engaged in coursework for two weeks

52

upon my arrival and were to receive their teaching placements the day after my visit.
Coursework to date had been largely full group instruction and focused on programmatic
issues, district and state teaching and curricular standards, and general introduction to
basic teaching concerns. The second cohort was composed of candidates who had
already completed their first year of teaching through CTP and were enrolled in a
summer course considering differentiation of instruction. The program coordinator
allowed me twenty minutes at the beginning of each class session to distribute the surveys
for candidates to complete. I remained in the room while candidates completed the
survey to try to clarify any potential confusion associate with any survey items and
collected the surveys as candidates completed them. As the program coordinator had
carved time from classroom instruction for me to administer the surveys, there was not an
opportunity to conduct interviews at that time.

The 2007 CTP cohort—those about to enter their first year in the
classroom—had a total of forty-seven candidates. Of that forty-seven, I forty-one surveys
were returned for a response rate of eighty-seven percent. The 2006 cohort—those who
had just completed their first year in the classroom—had a total of eighteen candidates.
Of that eighteen, I seventeen were returned, for a response rate of ninety-four percent.

As NPTT is fully on-line and covers three large western states, it is not practical to
travel to actual sites to administer surveys or conduct interviews. Therefore, NPTT
candidates completed an on-line version of the survey and I conducted subsequent
interviews over the phone. Through coordination with the program director, I provided
him with a student invitation and consent form and he forwarded the form to candidates
in the winter 2006-2007 NPTT cohort with his own additional introduction about the

role of this research. These candidates completed their three-course sequence in the fall

53

and winter of 2006-2007 and were now, with one exception, in their first year as teachers
of record in their respective classrooms. All were currently enrolled in a class considering
equity, special needs, and diversity required as part of their continuing coursework in the
program. Candidates were initially invited to complete the survey in October 2007.
However, due to low initial response, the program director sent out a second invitation
two months later.

This cohort initially had twenty-one students enrolled. I received twenty-three
separate responses, although six were duplicate responses. Four candidates who
completed the survey after the initial invitation, began the survey again after the second
invitation before realizing that it was the same survey. One candidate began the survey
three separate times, completing one full survey. In total, I received completed surveys
from seventeen unique candidates, resulting in an overall response rate of eighty-one
percent. At all programs some candidates did not respond to a handful of individual
items causing the response rate varies slightly based on the particular item in question.

As outlined in Chapter 2, at each site, after collecting the surveys, I scanned
through them tracing general trends in responses to items assessing candidate knowledge,
skills, experience, and motivation. I then selected individuals whose responses reflected
general trends in the data to invite for interviews. Additionally, I selected a few outliers
from the group who present the potential for fertile counterexamples. I also ensured an
approximately proportional representation of candidates based on age, ethnicity, and
gender. In total, I invited ten candidates to sit down for interviews at ARC and all ten
agreed. The interviews were conducted in a standard classroom provided to me by the
program director located a few doors down from the lecture hall were the full group of

candidates was meeting.

54

As candidates course schedule did not allow for sufficient time to conduct
interviews on-site for CTP, I invited candidates to be interviewed through an email
message. In total, I conducted five interviews with CTP candidates. I attempted to
record all the interviews, although for two interviews, I experienced some technical
problems, later rectified, and was unable to hear the responses of the interviewees. For
these, I relied on the detailed notes I took during the interview as well as further notes I
took immediately upon realizing the data had been lost. Likewise, I invited NPTT
candidates to be interviewed through email messages. In total, I invited eight candidates
to participate in interviews. Of those seven accepted, with one never responding to my
email query.

Overall, interviews lasted from fifteen to forty minutes and followed the approved
protocol, with additional occasional questions for clarification or to explore other relevant
issues raised in the interviews. All interviews were recorded and, with a handful of
exceptions, ultimately coded to reveal trends in knowledge, skills, experience, and
motivations. There were three NPTT interviews that I listened to several times, I did not
transcribe5.

Program Design
Alternative Route to Certification—-Connecticut State Department of Higher Education

Now in its twentieth-second year, Connecticut’s Alternate Route to Certification
(ARC) has prepared nearly 4,000 candidates. ARC was conceived to serve dual

purposes. Primarily the program was created “by the Connecticut state legislature to

 

5 My sampling selection for interviews was slightly different for NPTT than for other sites.
I began to see an emerging trend in candidates who were stay-at-home parents now
returning to the classroom. I also noticed that the background of these parents appeared
diverse. I added three additional interviews of primary caregivers from the NPTT
candidate population to increase my own understanding of the candidates’ diversity.

55

encourage mid-career adults with strong subject area backgrounds to become”
(Connecticut Board of Governors for Higher Education, 2008) middle school and high
school teachers. Additionally, a division of the Connecticut Department of Higher
Education, ARC was designed to pilot preparation programs to help the state’s public
universities devise their own models for preparing mid career entrants. Currently it runs
two distinct programs. The standard ARC program demands a full-time commitment for
nine weeks over the summer leading to provisional certification in any Connecticut public
school. The summer program includes a series of seminars acclimating candidates to the
culture of public schools, familiarizing them with the policies and regulations, introducing
them to special education instruction, providing subject-area pedagogy, and enlisting
them in a four-week student teaching experience in a summer school. The seminars are
held in a central location on the campus of a small community college; about 125
candidates are prepared annually through the summer session. ARC II has nearly
identical requirements. However, this program is run during the school year on Friday
nights and weekends, in an attempt to accommodate candidates whose job and family
commitments make them unable to afford nine weeks of full-time coursework. ARC II
prepares a similar number of candidates as the standard program.

ARC prides itself on its rigor and selectivity. ARC’s own literature claims that
“admission to the ARC program is highly competitive; on average, the admission rate is
20-30°/o of applicants” (Connecticut Board of Governors for Higher Education, 2006).
Minimum application standards include a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or
university and passing the PRAXIS I test—although waivers forithis exam are available.
Additionally, candidates must meet the state certification demands for their respective

subject areas as defined by the Connecticut Department of Education. These

56

requirements are largely a list of bachelor’s level courses to be successfully completed in
the disciplinary area. For many candidates their academic major or minor covers all of
these classes or calls for them to take one or two additional classes to meet the
requirements. However, it is possible for a candidate to take courses in a related—or
even in a disparate—subject area so long that the state guidelines are fulfilled. A major or
minor in a bachelor’s degree is not required. Finally, each candidate must pass the
PRAXIS II subject area test in their chosen discipline. The perceived difficulty of the
Praxis in certain subjects along with perceptions of the labor market precipitated a
handful of candidates to seek their certification in a subject other than their major.
Finally, candidates must have demonstrated a commitment to working with youth. In
fact, as the student handbook reads,
[i]f you do not have relevant experience working with youth in an on-going,
organized activity (e.g., substitute teaching, tutoring, coaching, leadership of a
youth activity such as scouts, etc.), you must submit a request for a waiver of this
requirement in which you describe your commitment to teaching and why you
believe that you would be a good role model for youth. (Connecticut Board of
Governors for Higher Education, 2008)
ARC seeks candidates with “strong academic and content backgrounds as well as
a wide array of life and professional experiences” (Connecticut Board of Governors for
Higher Education, 2008), believing that they will translate into superior teachers. They
note that several graduates have gone on to win building and district level teaching
awards, and that the 2007 Connecticut Teacher of the Year is an ARC graduate. And
their belief is evident in the tone of the training and in conversations with ARC personnel

who cite high success rates of their graduates, especially when compared to other

57

alternative routes provided by other Connecticut colleges and universities. They adopt a
stance suggesting that they are comfortable pitting their candidates against those from
any preparation program, seemingly confident in the effectiveness of their graduates.
The ARC interview questions and application rating protocol provide additional hints as
to what is valued by the program. The core interview questions ask prospective
candidates to reflect on how schools have changed since their days as a students and how
they will meet the needs of diverse students, suggesting the program values candidates
with a caring disposition (Alternate Route to Certification, 2007a). In contrast, the initial
application was assessed largely according to the traits assumed by proponents of career
changers. Of the thirty-six total points available on the ARC application scoring guide,
twenty-five are lent to a candidate’s subject area knowledge, academic skills, and work
experience. The remaining were shared among various dispositions for teaching, promise
for success, and other life experiences (Alternate Route to Certification, 2007b).

What remains conspicuous in absence is the lack of explicitly naming pedagogical
content knowledge as a goal in the preparation. Although PCK was not mentioned in
name by any site, this is of particular note in Connecticut as the state’s multiple step
certification program explicitly demands demonstration of acquisition and application of
PCK in their teaching practice. Therefore, if ARC is failing to provide candidates with
this theoretical perspective, or even the language to engage in this work, they would
likewise be hindering their progress toward full state certification and hoisting the
responsibility of candidates professional growth solely on the school that employs them.

One possible explanation for the PCK absence lies in the location of the program.
ARC lives in the Connecticut Department of Higher Education (CDHE), whereas the

Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) developed the BEST portfolio

58

assessment. If in fact PCK is fully absent from the ARC curriculum this might suggest a
lack of coordination between governmental branches. While it might be incumbent upon.
the CDHE to remain abreast of CSDE requirements, multiple explanations—ranging
from philosophical differences and turf wars to the more benign reasons of poor
communication or institutional drift—could account for the lack of coordination.

I must couch this criticism with a caveat. I visited ARC early in their nine-week
program and before candidates moved into subject-area groups. It is possible that in
those groups—even though they lasted only a week of half-days—PCK was a central
focus, especially as these groups were led by practicing teachers who presumably would
be familiar with the BEST standards. However, the language of PCK was neither used in
ARC literature nor in my conversations with those administering the programs. This
caveat applies to my other focal programs, as well. At no program was PCK explicitly
named. Still, without access to all course syllabi or even being present in classroom
discussions could I definitively conclude that programs discounted PCK. However, its
lack of prevalence points to a dog that didn’t bark. If it is raised, it is done so either with
different language, at the discretion of an instructor, or less vociferously than disciplinary
knowledge alone.

Both ARC I and ARC II follow a four-stage design. Upon initial acceptance,
candidates must complete a pre-program classroom observation, as well as background
readings based in education foundations. The program activities include several large
group seminars focused on state regulations, special education, and other state mandated
information. Candidates then move into smaller groups organized around their subject
area, led by master teachers. These focused methods classes include planning instruction,

pedagogy, assessment, and classroom management. Following their initial coursework,

59

candidates complete a four-week internship in their subject area under the guidance of a
cooperating teacher and an ARC supervisor. Over the summer program, several of the
student teaching days are mornings only as they are limited to the school schedules
provided by summer school programs. In the afternoons the students return to their
methods classes for lesson reflection. Upon passing the PRAXIS II, completion of the
preparation program, and receiving an initial placement, candidates are eligible to
receive a “Temporary 90-Day Certificate” for the Connecticut State Department of
Education. During their first three months, candidates receive transitional support in
addition to district mentoring through the Beginning Educator Support and Training
(BEST) program. After ninety days candidates are eligible for an Initial Educator
Certificate upon recommendation from thedistrict superintendent.

ARC provides no formal placement to candidates searching for placements,
although it does host a job fair each May for candidates. Upon acceptance into the
program, candidates may begin to apply for openings. In fact several candidates had
already accepted positions before the summer ARC training began and several others
were excused from seminars to attend job interviews. Despite the lack of formal
assistance, many candidates cited ARC’s reputation and track record as easing their
concerns in finding a placement.

Career Transitions Program— Universiy of Missouri—Saint Louis

In operation for a decade now, the Career Transitions Program (CTP) is
dedicated to attracting candidates to the classroom interested in teaching in teaching in
urban settings. A partnership between the University of Missouri-Saint Louis (U MSL),
Saint Louis Public Schools (SLPS), the Missouri State Department of Elementary and

Secondary Education, and the Parsons Blewett Memorial Fund, CTP is designed to

60

relieve critical teacher shortages in math, sciences, technology, arts, and special education
in the Saint Louis Public Schools. To be eligible for CTP, candidates must have
completed a bachelor’s degree in a subject area in need in SLPS. For special education
acceptable undergraduate majors include psychology, criminology, social work, and other
human service fields. All other subjects require a degree in the field in which they will
teach or in a related area (e.g., a math teacher with an engineering degree). Additionally,
candidates must surpass a minimum undergraduate grade point and—before receiving
full certification—must pass the appropriate PRAXIS II subject area exam. These
prerequisites are consistent with those of the other programs I studied, although it is
interesting to note that CTP considers human service fields as the most appropriate
preparation for special education instruction.

CTP expects their candidates to have experience both working with children and
working in their disciplinary field. As well, the program has a strong commitment to
urban education and actively seeks candidates who share such a dedication. The
program screens applications looking for candidates “who possess qualities known to be
important to success in teaching in urban classrooms” (University of Missouri-Saint
Louis, 2008). Consistent with their attentiveness to urban education, CTP is transparent
about its social justice mission and expects to attract candidates who view teaching in the
Saint Louis Public Schools as a political act. Additionally, a large portion of the
coursework considers teaching from a social justice perspective with particular attention
lent to issues of race and class and how they are complicated by school settings.

In effect, admission to the program also means employment by the Saint Louis
Public Schools. Therefore, the university and SLPS jointly admit candidates. Likewise,

applications are jointly reviewed and principals and university faculty conduct candidate

6]

interviews together. This differs from the other programs in my study. Unlike NPTT
and ARC where the program might assist candidates in finding teaching positions,
acceptance into CTP and successful completion of the initial summer seminar assures a
candidate of a job come fall, and that job will be in a high needs urban school.

The initial four-week summer preparation largely provides candidates with an
introduction to issues of classroom management, pedagogy, and curriculum, as well as an
overview on special education law and instruction. For this preparation session, most all
coursework is completed as a large group, although candidates do divide into subject area
groups for some activities. Upon completion of the initial four-week summer preparation,
candidates receive their initial placement, entering as the teacher of record with a
provisional license. During the first and second school years candidates continue their
coursework, typically with classes meeting two nights a week, with an additional weekly
subject area specific seminar. Over the second and third summers, candidates are also
enrolled in coursework. This coursework includes classes examining foundations,
methods, literacy, action research, and differentiated instruction. At the end of the third
summer, and with passing the appropriate PRAXIS II exam and completion of a
certification portfolio, candidates earn full Missouri certification allowing them to
continue in their current placement or portable to any school district in the state.
Although CTP has the shortest initial preparation period of the programs in my study,
upon completion candidates have completed about thirty-five hours of coursework
commensurate with a typical undergraduate teacher preparation sequence, and within
approximately fifteen credits of a master’s degree.

The school context for CTP candidates is essential to consider. As I mentioned

above, these candidates are the only ones from my study whose teaching context has been

62

determined upon entry. Candidates from ARC and NPT T are free to accept any job
offered to them in their region, while CTP candidates will be teaching in SLPS. An
urban district facing the challenges of multi-generational poverty, racism, and low
achievement, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has
recently assumed administration of the district, creating and additional layer of turmoil.
These contextual factors will be developed more fully in Chapter 5.

This combination of struggles in student achievement and administrative
confusion has led to real struggles in filling teaching vacancies. The Parsons Blewett
Memorial Fund was created to encourage prospective teachers to teach in the Saint Louis
district. Named in honor of a tum-of—the-century SLPS superintendent, the fund, in
conjunction with a grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education, pays full tuition costs for all CTP candidates. In exchange, upon completion
of their preparation after two years, candidates must commit to teach in SLPS for three
additional years. Technically, candidates are making a commitment of five full years to
the district. Upon acceptance into CTP they do not have the Option of forgoing the
scholarship with the intention of leaving after earning a full and portable certificate after
two years. However, upon completion of the program, or anytime before completion,
candidates could choose simply to quit. In those cases, candidates who fail to maintain
this initial obligation must repay UMSL at a prorated cost of tuition based on the length
that they did teach in SLPS. However, for the majority of candidates, CTP is a free path
to certification.

Northern Plains Transition to Teaching (NPm—Montana State University

For the most of the decade North Plains Transition to Teaching (NPTT) has been

preparing candidates for teaching across Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and,

63

occasionally, neighboring states. Founded largely to increase the talent pool for teachers
entering rural classroom across the High Plains, NPTT prepares approximately sixty
teachers annually, divided into three cohorts. Although the program is staffed and
administered by Montana State University NPTT is a fully on-line certification program.

NPTT envisions as its mission the “recruit[ment of] highly qualified professional
adults holding baccalaureate degrees appropriate to the content area at the secondary
level they wish to teach” (Montana State University, 2007). As such, NPTT claims to
actively pursue candidates with both extensive subject area knowledge and professional
experience in their chosen discipline. Typically an undergraduate major, and often a
minor, is sufficient to qualify for eventually certification. However, candidates are still
required to meet state standards demanding a certain distribution of courses in a desired
discipline. Additionally, passing the PRAXIS II subject area exam is also requisite for
acceptance into the program.

In contrast to Montana State’s standard, on-campus teacher education program,
upon acceptance into NPTT candidates are required to enroll in and complete three
basic preparation courses—education psychology, diversity and special needs, and
curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment—in their first semester. These classes can be
completed in the fall, winter, or spring before candidates enter the classroom, depending '
on their cohort. Upon completion of the initial three-course, nine-credit sequence,
candidates earn a provisional license (the precise designation depends on the state) in
their approved subject area and are free to apply for teaching positions within the three-
state region. Candidates can also apply in another state if Montana State and their
employer successfully petition the state’s department of education for provisional

certification. During their first year teaching, candidates take an additional three classes,

64

staggered so that candidates are enrolled in only one course at a time. During the
summer following their first year teaching, candidates complete two final courses, for a
program total of twenty-four credits. Upon successful completion of the internship
year—where candidates are the teacher of record in their classrooms—candidates must
submit a professional portfolio in order to earn full certification. Although NPTT is a
non-degree program, upon completion, candidates are only six credits shy of a master’s
degree.

Although NPTT has extensive contacts with districts, including “several school
districts such that they call us first (when they have new positions available) to get more of
the kind of candidate they hired from our previous pools” (Montana State University,
2006), candidates are, ultimately, on their own in securing a teaching position. The
NPTT literature is explicit that completion of the program is dependent upon finding a
position, and finding a job may well require relocating to another town. The nature of
rural schools is often that positions in typically lower demand subjects such as English of
history are available and, even, in need. However, predicting where those jobs, along
with the more common high need subjects, open is hard and finding one in the
community near which a candidate is particularly challenging. In fact, several candidates
are living apart from their spouses for at least a year, and another has deferred her intern
year to avoid having to do so. During candidates' intern year, they are compensated
commensurate to any first-year teacher in their district. In fact, the school district’s only
additional obligation is aid in identifying a master teacher in the district willing to assume
mentorship responsibilities for the candidate. The mentor program is relatively
unstructured, requiring the mentor to observe the candidate several times over the year

making recommendations on honing practice. The mentor, however, has no official role

65

in recommending a candidate for certification. The mentor receives a stipend from the
program.

Within the three-state region, tuition is equivalent for all candidates regardless of
the state in which they reside. Candidates do have the opportunity to earn'a full tuition
voucher in exchange for a commitment to teach in an identified “high needs” school
district for at least three years. However, this waiver is dependent upon employment, and
no jobs are guaranteed in these districts. The US Department of Education has redefined
what constitutes a high needs district. Under the new definition there are only sixteen
qualifying districts in the three states, meaning that very few teachers are actually able to
find employment in high needs schools. This tuition waiver is being discontinued for the
2008-2009 school year.

Despite the limited opportunities to teach in the most challenging settings, the
program still views its mission as one of service, and its candidates motivated by the
' societal benefit teaching provides. In my discussions with the coordinator of NPT T, he
spoke passionately about their desire to populate the program with “citizens” drawing a
sharp distinction between the knowledge, skills, experience, and motivations of NPTT
candidates and those in the standard teacher education program. “These are
experienced professionals engaged in graduate level work. We are not sitting around with
eighteen-year olds” (Personal Interview, 5 March 2007). He continued that the
candidates’ characteristics differ from those of traditional entrants in that NPTT
candidates have assumed real responsibility in their families or been otherwise engaged
with youth, traveled the world enjoying a richer perspective on diversity of cultures, and
are scientists, engineers, and retired military personnel. In short, NPTT is “looking for

fully mature citizens completely into the game of adulthood” (Personal Interview, 5

66

March 2007).

Aggregate Candidate Data

I will now look at data across programs to highlight the uniqueness of their

respective candidates. In table 3.4, I call upon several variables from the candidate

survey to provide a glimpse of candidate traits for each site. Below I briefly define the

variables. In Chapter 4 I will return to these variables to conduct a cluster analysis of

candidates. At that point I will discuss the rationale for selecting these variables in greater

depth.

Academic Major attempts to scale undergraduate majors according to their
disciplinary correspondence. I assigned a 2 to majors that had a direct
disciplinary match, a 1 to applied majors, and a 0 to non-disciplinary majors. In
the presentation of site-specific data below, I share the most common majors and
their distribution.

College Ranking borrows from Barron’s College Admissions Selector, a 1-6 scale
with a 1 representing the most selective institutions.

Job Relevance attempts to scale (0-2) previous work according to the applicability of
their skills to applied use of school subjects. A 2 represents work that demanded
the greatest use of disciplinary knowledge. As with the academic major variable, I
share the distribution of jobs and examples in the site-specific presentation.
Previous salapr presents the last salary earned by candidates before entering
teaching.

Highest Degree Attained is scaled from 1-7, with a 1 representing a bachelor’s degree

and a 7 a terminal degree.

67

° High Needs Placement presents candidates’ relative interest in seeking placement in a
high needs school district. 1 represents a very high commitment; 5 displays an
unwillingness to teach in a high needs district.

Table 3.4

Candidates’ core variables means by program

 

Highest High
Academic College Job Previous Degree Needs
N Major Ranking Relevance Salary Attained Placement

 

ARC 74 1.58 2.76 1.15 40,000 2.59 3.03
CTP 58 0.81 3.62 0.67 ' 32,250 2.76 1.66
NPTT 17 1.59 3.09 1.06 24,000 2.82 2.88

 

Note: Previous Salapt data uses median income rather than mean. With its small sample
size, a single candidate with a mid-six figure salary strongly skewed NPTT results. The
mean for the Previous Salary are as follows: ARC—341,806; CTP—$33,762;
NPTT—$53, 308.

The data above suggest each program is comprised of a unique set of candidates.
ARC candidates, in aggregate, are distinguished by attending more selective
undergraduate institutions, coming from higher payingjobs, and having less interest in
teaching in high needs schools. When compared to candidates in other programs, those
in CTP have higher rates of non-academic majors, lower rates of previous job relevance,
attended less selective colleges, and are most dedicated to teaching in high needs schools.
NPTT candidates share high rates of academic majors with ARC candidates, lower
interest in teaching in high needs schools, and the lowest previous salaries. Looking
across variables, it is worth noting that higher rates of academic majors and previous job
relevance appear to correspond with lower interest in teaching in high needs schools.

ARC and NPTT candidates’ majors were both strongly clustered to toward more

traditionally academic disciplines (a ranking of 2 on my scale), with high numbers of

English and biology majors. Among the applied majors (a ranking of 1), there were

68

several engineers and computer scientists. CTP candidates followed more of a bimodal
pattern. A slight majority of candidates had the least academic majors, with social work,
human relations, and various business and organizational studies represented. While
there were few applied degrees, academic majors comprised nearly forty percent of all
candidates, with psychology and biology the most common. Across CTP majors there
was a high prevalence of social service majors, though this is likely because, out of my
target programs, CTP was the only one preparing special education teachers. Candidates
with social services majors could not have been accepted to the other programs, as they
would not have had a degree that was directly transferable to a secondary discipline area.
For a more complete accounting of majors by program, please see Tables B. 1-B.3 in
Appendix B.

As with undergraduate majors, ARC and NPTT candidates tended to have
previous work experience that had more direct bearing on the discipline they were to
teach, although even at these sites the most relevant work experience (a ranking of 2) was
never the mode. There were no CTP candidates with a highly relevant ranking. While
there were several research scientists and engineers at ARC and NPTT, applied
experience such as law, disability case managers, and computer specialists were more
frequent. This applied ranking (1 on my scale) was the largest at all three sites. The least
relevant category (a ranking of 0) was proportionally the largest at CTP. However,
candidates with previous work experience as wait staff, receptionists, and in retail sales
were common across sites. Finally, candidates with some teaching experience—including
paraprofessionals, long-term substitutes, and childcare workers—were widespread in all

programs. For a more complete accounting of job relevance by program, please see

Tables B.4-B.6 in Appendix B.

69

Table 3.5

Distribution (j candidates according to race and gender, by percent

 

 

:9 5’ 5 .7 -==. a 5 ..,

O a: 2 CD a S“ a? a .8 .8 :i (b

03 :1. e :l. :1. :3 n 5 2 (l B Z

9’ 8 ’3' B 8 9" Si 5 g g o a, a:

3 N :3 a :3 :3 Q n \ ’5' 8' i? a '5"
ARC 74 o 5 o 8 86 50 50
CTP 58 0 46 4 2 48 59 41
NPI I 17 0 0 0 0 100 65 35

 

.Note: Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

CTP is also distinct in its racial composition. It is the only program without a
majority of white candidates, with nearly even numbers of African-Americans and whites.
In contrast, ARC and NPTT are predominately white, although ARC does have
Hispanic enrollment roughly consistent with the overall Hispanic population of the state.
ARC is an exact even split between female and male candidates. CTP has a slight
majority of female candidates. However, among African-American candidates, the
proportion of females than their overall proportion in the programs and, correspondingly,
among white candidates the proportion of male is larger than their overall proportion in
the program. NPTT has the largest percentage of women, at nearly two-thirds of all
candidates.

Based on aggregated candidate characteristics, CTP appears to be quite distinct
from NPTT and ARC, in part demonstrating the diversity that exists within the clusters
developed at the beginning of this chapter. However, looking at means alone can obscure
more nuanced diversity within a group. In Chapter 4, I will look more deeply at the

candidates themselves, attempting to explore these nuances.

70

Chapter 4
Investigation of Candidates

In the previous chapter I examined programs that prepared career changers.
Now I will turn my attention to the candidates themselves. In this chapter I will begin by
tracing the iterative development of the portraits using qualitative and quantitative
analysis. After establishing the portraits, I provide a more developed look at each
including demographic characteristics. I then return to the interviews to create “mini-
cases” of representative candidates from each portrait.

Portrait Development6

Upon collecting surveys from candidates at each site, I divided the data according
to demographic and educational items to determine candidates to invite for interviews,
attempting to approximate the diversity of each program. I quickly began to see the
emergence of several divergent patterns among the candidates. I will briefly highlight
each.

' Socially Mobile—F or these candidates, teaching represented initial entry into the
professional middle class. Often coming from more meager backgrounds,
completing undergraduate degrees in a non-traditional manner, and having non-
professional work experience, for this portrait, teaching represented both
increased social status and salary.

° Capstoners—The smallest of the four main categories, these candidates were
entering teaching after retiring from long careers in various other fields.

Generally, this portrait was punctuated by candidates with strong academic

 

6 For a more thorough explanation of the portrait development, please see Appendix C.

71

credentials and profitable careers. They planned on teaching for only a handful

of years and were only tangentially motivated by salary and benefits.

' Classic Career Changers—These candidates tended to reflect the assumptions of
proponent of career changers and were distinguished by their subject area
knowledge and academic achievement. They were often drawn to teaching after
finding their previous work financially, but not personally, rewarding. In many
ways they reflected the capstoners, but tended to be a decade or more younger.

' Career Seekers—This portrait was primarily comprised of candidates under the
age of 30 who either had yet to settle on a career of had quickly determined that
their chosen career path was unrewarding. In general, this group had limited
applicable work experience, but relatively strong academic achievement and
undergraduate degrees in a disciplinary subject.

Upon observing the portraits, I briefly reexamined all of the surveys and placed most
candidates in one of the four groups based on a non-rigorous analysis of their responses to
key items. Several candidates were not classified, as they did not seem to fit clearly into a
particular portrait.

I then used the more meticulous and objective cluster analysis to assess the
accuracy of my placement of candidates. I identified key variables—many of which I
previewed in the previous chapter—assessing knowledge, skills, and experience. The
rationale for these variables and how they were scored are presented below.

' Knowledge—Proponents of career changers cite their greater subject area

knowledge as a justification for drawing them into the classroom. I selected
two proxy variables to measure candidate subject area knowledge:

undergraduate major and educational attainment.

72

o Major-This variable attempted to measure the nature of undergraduate
majors. I rescaled majors on a 0-2 scale. Disciplinary majors that had a
direct classroom match such as history, math, biology, or foreign language
received a 2. Applied majors such as accounting or engineering received a
l. Non-disciplinary majors including social work, fine arts, and marketing
received a 07.

0 Highest Degree Attained—This variable attempted to measure the depth
of knowledge candidates gained in their fields. The variable was scored on
a 1-7 scale with 1 representing a bachelor’s degree and 7 a terminal
degree.

0 Skills—Proponents, likewise, name greater intelligence as desired trait in
teachers and a trait addressed by attracting career changers. Initially I
intended to assess candidates’ skills through three proxy variables: selectivity,
grade point average, and standardized test scores. However, I was limited to
self-report data for GPA, leading me to question their reliability. Additionally,
potential differences in grades across schools and grade inflation across time
raised concerns. The combination of inconsistent and inaccurate reporting of
SAT and ACT scores led to similar concerns for test score reliability. As I had
no confidence in their accuracy, I chose to drop these variables.

0 Selectivity—I measured the selectivity of a candidate’s undergraduate

institution as measured by the Barron’s College Admissions Selector

 

7 This process is fraught with potential bias—for instance, how do you classify an
education degree (I chose to give it a I)? When conflicted I returned to the prevailing
assumptions guiding supporters of career changers who tend to favor academic subject
area knowledge over pedagogical or pedagogical content knowledge.

73

(College Division of Barron's Educational Series, 2006). This is a 1-6 scale
with 1 representing the most selective institutions and 6 representing the
least selective.

' Experience—I assessed candidate experience through previous job relevance

and the salary earned in that work.

0 Job Relevance—This variable attempted to assess the applicability of a
candidate’s responsibilities in their previous work to the subject area they
would be teaching. The variable was reclassified on a 0-2 scale.
Admittedly subjective, jobs that built on subject area knowledge such as a
research scientist scored higher than jobs that had no direct correlation to
academic disciplines, such as childcare or waiting tables.

0 Salary—This variable intended to measure whether entering teaching was
a lateral financial move or resulted in a pay cut or raise. Previous job
salary was placed on 0-2 scale with previous salary above $50,000 earning
a 2 and salary under $30,000 earning a 0. This was based on a rationale
that for candidates rating a 2, teaching would represent a salary reduction.
For candidates rating a 0, teaching would signal a salary increase.

' Age at Bachelor’s Degree—From the interviews and surveys, it appeared that
candidates from the socially mobile portrait tended to have non-traditional
undergraduate matriculation. I developed a variable to measure the accuracy
of my observation as a defining characteristic of the portrait. Again, I created

a 0-2 scale with 0 representing candidates who received their bachelor’s

degrees by the age of 24 —the most traditional candidates, 1 representing

74

candidates who received their degrees between the ages of 24-30, and 2—-the
least traditional—for those graduating after the age of 30.

' Date of Birth—Capstoners appeared to be distinguished from classic career
changers in large part by age, with capstoners apparently sharing many
similar characteristics, only twenty or more years older. Therefore, I included
a variable for date of birth to more precisely define the clusters.

Only candidates for whom I have data on all the variables of interest can be
placed in a cluster. In total, 84 out of 149 candidates were placed by the cluster analysis.
Those who were not placed fell into a handful of categories. A few did not respond to
several items on the survey, making their placement impossible. Many of these chose not
to provide previous employment or salary. In several cases candidates explained that
they had been out of the workforce for many years, typically in these cases as the primary
caregiver for their children. A handful of other candidates were freshly out of college and
did not have any career experience. I also chose not to include an additional set of
candidates who were already practicing educators. Some of these practitioners were
working in independent or religious school without a license. Others were teaching under
an emergency certification. For them the programs presented an opportunity to gain
quick certification, and, even if they were changing jobs, they were not changing careers.

After running the cluster analysis, the resulting clusters were close approximations
of my initial portrait placement (Pearson Correlation=.7 l 7, significant at 0.01 level)
suggesting both that the clusters are reflected in the characteristics of the candidates and
that my initial skimming of survey responses were accurate. Cluster 1 proved to be a
close approximation to the socially mobile portrait. Cluster 2 reflected the career seeker

portrait. Cluster 3 was the least defined. Although the majority of the cases included in

75

the cluster were classic career changers, seven of the eight capstoners in my total sample
were also placed in this cluster. Cluster 4 was composed strictly of classic career
changers. Table 4.1 displays the clusters with their analogous portrait.

Table 4.1

Four-group cluster analysis and analogous portraits

 

 

Cluster ' Analgggus Portrait
1 Socially Mobile
2 Career Seekers
3 Capstoners & Classic
Career Changers
4 Classic Career
Changers

Table 4.2 displays the means of the variables assessing knowledge, skills, and
experience for the four groups defined in the cluster analysis. Cluster 1 is characterized
by academic majors that moderately reflect school subjects, registering the second highest
measure of disciplinary match, again, a key assumption of supporters of career changers.
However, for all other measures, Cluster 1 looks the least like the assumed picture. They
attended the least competitive colleges, had jobs demanding the least discrete subject area
knowledge, had low—although not quite the lowest—previous salaries, had the lowest
levels of educational attainment, and earned bachelor’s degrees at the oldest age. In
terms of age upon entering teaching they do not differ markedly from the full sample.

Cluster 2, analogous to the career seekers, is composed largely of comparatively
younger entrants into teaching. As a group they have the weakest academic majors of all
candidates. The selectivity of their undergraduate institutions is in the middle of the full
sample and similar to those in Cluster 3. Their relevance of their previousjob to teaching

is, again, in the middle. This might be expected as the career seekers in my interview

76

sample have often bounced around between seasonal work and jobs that require limited
experience. Their previous salary is comparatively low, although this could well be a
combination of age and the types of jobs in which they have been employed. As a group,
they have relatively low educational attainment, again, potentially linked to age. Cluster
2 candidates appear to have overwhelmingly followed traditional undergraduate paths,
with the vast majority completing their bachelor’s degree by the age of 24.

Cluster 3 candidates begin to more closely approximate the characteristics
assumed by career change proponents. In most all measures they have higher academic
achievement and job experience than Clusters 1 and 2. The most distinguishing
characteristic of these candidates is their age and income. This is consistent with the
large percent of capstoners who were placed in this cluster. Additionally, their age
suggests that Cluster 3 candidates have been in the workforce for longer, rising to more
responsible and higher paying jobs. There were more candidates placed in this cluster
than any other.

In terms of measured characteristics, Cluster 4 candidates appear to reflect the
assumed portrait of career changers most closely. They attended the most competitive
colleges, majoring in academic disciplines. Their previous jobs seem to have demanded
the discrete subject area expertise desired from career changers. They have the highest
proportion of advanced degrees and were all traditional undergraduate students. While
their pay lags behind that of Cluster 3 candidates, this might be explained by the
difference in age between the two groups. Finally, it is essential to notice that although
this group looks the most like the assumed career changer, they represent the smallest of
the four clusters. Although these candidates do exist in practice, they appear not to be as

prevalent as some might hope them to be.

77

Table 4.2

Means of prey variables from cluster analysis

 

, Highest ' Age at Date
Academic College Job Previous Degree Bachelor’s of
Cluster JV Major Ranking Relevance Salary Attained Degree Birth

 

l 19 1.37 3.65 0.37 0.79 1.95 1.53 1970
2 24 0.96 2.92 0.79 0.71 2.17 0.08 1976
3 27 1.15 . 2.96 1.19 1.81 3.07 0.37 1962
4 14 1.93 1.79 1.36 1.43 4.43 0.00 1977

 

An essential element of this study is to understand how candidates differ according
to program as there has been little consideration of this question. By disaggregating the
clusters by site, this begins to show that each of my three target programs tends to attract
a distinct blend of cluster types. However, it is also important to recognize that despite
trends in each program, with one exception, all programs attract some candidates from
each cluster and from each portrait. That exception exists in the smaller NPTT program
where there were no candidates placed in Cluster 1 or the corresponding socially mobile
portrait.8.

Table 4.3 displays the cluster placements and portrait assignments by program.
These data suggest that there are important distinctions between the characteristics of the
candidates disaggregated by program. In the ARC program, Cluster 3 is by far the single .
largest group. In terms of both numbers and percentage there are more Cluster 3 and
Cluster 4 and capstoner and classic career changer candidates in the ARC program than
either CTP or NPTT. In contrast, although present, ARC has fewer candidates defined

by Clusters l and 2 and the socially mobile and career seeker portraits. Across ARC,

 

8 The NPTT program had only seventeen respondents (out of twenty-one enrolled) from the cohort.
However, a large percentage of the candidates (seven) had been stay-at-home parents for several years and
were just now reentering the workforce. Because they could provide no salary or employment data they
were not included in the analysis. This will, however, be examined in greater depth later in the chapter.

78

there is very close correspondence between the cluster assignments and my earlier
portrait placements.

CTP is noteworthy for its higher representation of candidates from Clusters l and
2 and the corresponding socially mobile and career seeker portraits, and lower
representation of candidates from Clusters 3 and 4 and, in particular, classic career
changer portrait. Again, there is relatively good correspondence between the cluster and
portrait assignments. The one notable exception seems to be the discrepancy between
candidates assigned to Cluster 1 and the number I placed in the socially mobile portrait,
with nine more candidates placed in my initial assignment. A closer look at my data
helps to explain a large part of this apparent inconsistency. There are seven more
candidates assigned to portraits than to clusters from CTP. Due to instances of missing
data, they were not included in the less forgiving cluster analysis, while I chose to
approximate their portrait based on the available data. Of this difference, six of the seven
candidates were ones that I had placed in the social mobile portrait. Again, despite the
preponderance of candidates from Clusters l and 2, there are still several candidates who
share characteristics that are more consistent with the classic career changers and
capstoners.

NPTT is less relevant to this discussion. Although there is a distribution of
candidates across the portraits and clusters with the one exception noted above, the
sample of assigned candidates is too small to be very suggestive. Still, the comparatively
large number of career seekers and Cluster 2 candidates were consistent with two NPTT
candidates I interviewed who mentioned their attraction to the Mountain West after
finishing their undergraduate education and their oscillation between jobs according to

the seasons.

79

Table 4.3

Four-group cluster analysis and portrait assignment by program

 

 

Cluster ARC CTP NPTT Total

Cluster 1 9 10 i 0 19

% 21 29 0 23

Socially Mobile 7 19 0 26

% 15 43 0 26

Cluster 2 7 13 4 24

% 17 37 57 29

Career Seeker 8 l2 4 24

% 17 27 50 24

Cluster 3 l7 8 2 27

% 40 23 29 32

Capstoner 4 3 1 8

% 9 7 13 8

Cluster 4 9 4 l 14

% 21 11 14 17

Classrc Career 27 10 3 40
Changer

% 57 23 38 40

 

The cluster analysis placed most of the candidates into groups, but left many
unconsidered. As I mentioned above there are many reasons for their omission, ranging
from missing data to candidates I withheld from consideration who were too young to
have had a previous career to candidates already working in classrooms as the teacher of
record. After analyzing the clusters, I looked more closely at the outliers, examining both
interview transcripts and survey responses. There was one substantial pattern that
emerged and a second that the data suggested.

First, many of the outliers had interrupted their careers to be primary caregivers
to their children—stay-at home parentsfimaybe working occasional part-time jobs. In
interviews, candidates at all sites fit this profile. Although there was no single question on
the survey asking if a candidate had been a stay-at-home parent, combining items

inquiring about employment history, parenting, and the occasional additional comments

80

affixed to the survey hinted that many candidates reflected this portrait. A second set of
the outliers gathered around candidates who for family or personal reasons needed a job
immediately and chose teaching out of sincere interest in the profession, yes, but also due
to a belief that teaching provided quick entry to good work in a generally attractively
setting. Although these sentiments were raised with regularity in interviews, they were
difficult to determine with certainty by sieving the survey data alone. Therefore, this
profile appears likely to be underrepresented in my analysis.

Table 4.4

Primap: caregiver and job seeker assignment by program

 

 

 

Unplaced
Total Candidates
Unplaced as % of total Primary Job

Program Candidates candidates Caregiver % Seeker % Other %
ARC 2 7 36 1 1 41 4 1 5 1 2 44
CTP 13 22 3 23 3 23 8 62
NPTT 9 53 7 78 0 0 2 22
Total 49 33 21 43 7 14 22 45

 

Note. % represents the percent of candidates not placed in the initial portrait assignment.

Table 4.4 shows the distribution of primary caregivers and job seekers by site. For
a small number of the candidates, I assigned them to a portrait based on their interviews,
but most were based on my reading of their survey responses. Therefore, these are
suggestive numbers lacking precision. Even making allowances for the fuzzy results, there
seems to be a substantial number of primary caregivers at each site. However, this is
most obvious in the NPTT program. At‘that site, primary caregivers comprise the single
largest portrait. Primary caregivers are the second largest portrait at the ARC program
and are comparatively smaller at CTP. Thejob seeker portrait is small at the ARC and

CTP sites and apparently nonexistent among candidates at the NPI I program.

81

However, let me caution again that this portrait is particularly challenging to ascertain
from survey data alone. Unless candidates explicitly stated their immediate need of ajob
in an interview or as an additional comment on the survey, 1 was unable to place them in
this portrait.

What is particularly notable about these two portraits is that outside of the
common experience of raising children among primary caregivers and being motivated
by a pressing need for employment among the job seekers, the candidates within each
group have diverse characteristics. This diversity will be explored in detail later in the
chapter.

Portraits

I now will expand upon each portrait providing a richer description of their
characteristics. Each of the six sections will begin with a presentation of demographic
attributes of the portrait and continue with and exploration of their knowledge, skills,
experience, and motivation. I will conclude each portrait with an illuminating mini-case.
I have included additional tables presenting portraits collectively in Appendix D to
facilitate cross-portrait comparisons. Due to the diversity and the nature of the
development of the primary caregiver and job seeker portraits, I have structured these
sections slightly differently. For clarification, in this section I am presenting portrait,
rather than cluster, data. The cluster analysis served to corroborate my observation that
there are distinctions within the groups. For the first four portraits, there is close
correlation between cluster and portrait data. There is no cluster data for the final two
portraits as they were developed through cases not considered by the analysis. Additional

mini-cases for each portrait are included in Appendix E.

Portrait A—Socially Mobile

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Teaching as path to move from the working class to lower middle class is hardly a
new phenomenon. The young women in New England’s early teacher training schools
were from a decidedly different class than the “masters” populating the academies
(Herbst, 1989). For these women, teaching served as an alternative to life in the mills and
a respectability associated with responsibility. And so, too, through many generations.
As East Coast schools filled up with the children of recent immigrants, soon the classes
were increasingly led by the children of immigrants (Rury, 1989), moving, literally and
figuratively, from the slums Hell’s Kitchen to a toehold in mainstream middle class
America. Historically, this is a path to the middle class that is particularly common
among women and underrepresented minorities. When professional options were
limited, teaching provided one of the few conduits out of working class. Lortie explores
teaching as a path to achieve upward mobility in greater depth than is demanded here
(1975). That'many career changers fit this pattern finds many historical antecedents.
Demographics

Although the roughly even split between this portrait does not reflect the historic
feminization of upward mobility, the racial diversity of the portrait does. Socially mobile
candidates are the most diverse of all portraits and the only portrait for which white
candidates do not comprise the majority. This is to be expected for several reasons. First,
simple earnings and employment patterns would predict a higher percentage of African-
Americans in the working class (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008a, 2008b). This is also
consistent with general trends in the African-American community, where “traditional”
four-year college attendance is less common than in the broader community and
graduation rates are lower (Carey, 2008). This also reflects historic trends where teaching

was one of the very few paths of entry to higher status employment in many minority

83

communities (Rury, 2002). Although many more opportunities for upward mobility have
emerged for all marginalized populations in the past decades, that teaching continues to
be a salient route to the middle class for candidates who have been unable to benefit from
these expanded opportunities is revealing. For those who were not fortunate enough to
embark on a career track upon graduation from high school (or. arguably, earlier). these
progrzuns appear to offer a delayed opportunity to earn profession-ml status.

Table 4.5

Age, race, and gender o/Wocially .1 I o bile candidates

 

 

Date \Vhite
of Native Afri can - Asian / Paci h c Non
Birth American American Islander Hispanic Hispanic licmalc Male

(Year) (0 o) C) 0) (0 in) (0 h) (070) (0 o) (0 o)
1969 (l 50 0 l l 39 54 46

1 ‘al )le. 4.6

11 [ea 11s 0 ‘core variables/or Socially .Ilobilc candidates

 

Age at

 

Previous Bachelor’s

Salary llighcst Degree High
Academic, College Job (Mean/ Degree (Mcan/ Needs
Major Ranking Relevance Median) Attained Median) Placement
1.14 4.00 0.63 30,000/ 2.07 28.86/ 1.93

30.525 27.00

 

Socially mobile candidates are particularly strongly represented in (311’, the only
program with a specific dedication to urban education. It is not surprising. then. that
socially mobiles also have the greatest intention of teaching in high needs settings. Here
the design and location ofthe program prmides a powerful potential explanation. I’irst.
CTP candidates are preprued exclusively to teach in the Saint Louis Public Schools
(SLPS). SLPS has both high percentages of African-.'\mcric'.m students and students

84

receiving Free or Reduced Lunch. Mirroring research on initial teacher placement,
teachers, regardless of race, tend to teach in schools that have populations that reflect
their ethnicity and experience (Cannata, 2007). Therefore it may not be any more
surprising that minority teachers from working class backgrounds populate a program
where the students are predominately African-American and poor than if upper-middle
class white candidates populated a program designed at preparing teachers for higher
rent suburbs. ARC and N PTT are not designed to prepare teachers for specific districts.
At both sites teachers are responsible for finding jobs and can choose to apply in any
district in the state (or in a three state region for NPTT), therefore permitting greater
chances for selecting placements that reflect their cultural experience. Socially mobiles
are also the only portrait not represented in all programs, with no candidates in NPTT.
Knowledge

Socially mobile—or, altematively, Cluster l—candidates’ varied educational and
- employment experiences impact the knowledge they bring to the classroom. As I discuss
in more detail below, candidates fitting this profile tend to have been non-traditional
students as undergraduates, often earning a bachelor’s degree in their thirties or later. As
such, much of their previous work experience has not been focused on a discrete area of
knowledge. This is particularly true of work relating directly to traditional school
subjects. Work history tends to be most prevalent in service fields, and childcare in
particular. Let me be clear. I am not insinuating that candidates in this profile lack
knowledge broadly writ. Rather their work more typically demands a different type of
knowledge than that demanded by school subjects. Employing the disciplinary
knowledge developed in their undergraduate studies has seldom been demanded in their

previous work. In terms of subject area knowledge, this could be considered analogous to

85

a traditionally prepared teacher entering the classroom straight out of an undergraduate
preparation program. The one exception to this is a small, yet robust, number of
candidates with backgrounds in music performance and visual art prepared through
CTP. Many of these candidates had educational and employment backgrounds
consistent with Portrait A, but also had a rich history of producing or performing their
craft.

Moreover, only career seekers’ undergraduate majors have a lower correspond to
school subjects than social mobiles. Of the twenty-eight candidates, ten had non-
academic majors (a O on my scale). These majors included social work, human services,
and child and family development. There was also broad representation from academic
majors including biology, Spanish, psychology, and political science. Of all portraits,
socially mobiles has the lowest levels of educational attainment.

When socially mobile candidates enter the classroom, their subject area
preparation spanned a wide breadth of subjects and age levels. However, the strong
tendency to choose special education is notable. Candidates mentioned three motivations
for special education certification. First, previous work influenced candidates’ choices to
enter special education. Through working with child care, as paraprofessionals, and, in
one case, as a court liaison, several candidates had previously encountered students with
special needs. Second, Portrait A candidates mentioned the one-on-one or small group
settings common to special education as both attractive instructionally and less
intimidating as a first year teacher. Finally, although candidates’ did not expressly name
job security as a motivation to teach special education, several candidates did mention

that the demand for special education teachers would translate into easier placements.

86

This last motivation seems particularly salient for a population who has had a history of
inconsistent employment and is now seeking more stable work.
Skills

In general the socially mobile portrait wouldlbe a candidate who comes from a
working class background. Typically this candidate was a non-traditional student as an
undergraduate as well. Most Portrait A candidates did not go directly to college upon
high school graduation. The exceptions who did proceed straight to college typically did
not graduate in five years. Additionally, these candidates received their bachelor’s
degrees from the least selective colleges of any portrait, often graduating from a
commuter campus, a satellite campus of the public university system, or a local, small
religious college. This is as should be expected, as most candidates in this category have
not enjoyed the luxury of enrolling as full-time students, instead attending less expensive
schools that cater to non-traditional students. It is common for socially mobile candidates
to take a class or two each semester—often in the evenings—as finances and work and
family schedules permit.
Experience

As a group, only twenty-nine percent of socially mobile candidates have children,
the second lowest of all portraits. However, they have the second highest rate of direct
previous work with children, in part reflecting the large proportion who have worked in
child and foster care settings and as paraprofessionals in the schools. Overall, candidates’
job relevance mean is the lowest of any portrait, with only one Portrait A candidate
leaving a previous job that demanded direct use of a disciplinary knowledge. This may

be slightly misleading, however, as many socially mobiles are entering the special

87

education classrooms where their previous work experience may be more directly
applicable than a job demanding deep subject-area knowledge.

The employment history of the typical upwardly mobile candidate does not point
in a consistent direction. Employment is often part-time—again to accommodate family
responsibilitier—and short-term. Changing jobs is common, both within an employment
sector (e.g., from one retailjob to another) and across sectors (e.g., from retail to child-
care). job experience is limited almost exclusively to the service sector, with rare
manufacturing exceptions. Only career seekers—who on average are nine years their
junior-have lower previous salaries than socially mobiles, with a median income less
than $5,000 lower.

Motivations

Candidates from Portrait A share a longing for upward mobility and the status
and security accompanies it. This is undeniably a significant motivation, as one
candidate shared,

It just made practical sense for me to move (into the classroom), in terms of my

own professional growth, to become a faculty member, which leads to the second

reason is that, in education, in my own personal experience, paraprofessionals do

not receive the same recognition and support that a faculty member receives. I

think that’s internally and externally. Internally among certified teachers and

externally in terms of job security, in terms of retirement and things of that nature.

(Interview, Devin Stuart, 7june 2007)

For many socially mobile candidates teaching would become the first salaried job and
highest salary they have ever held. The relative economic security that accompanies

teaching was a very real attraction. However, Portrait A candidates were not solely

88

motivated by bottom-line considerations. Teaching was attractive in that it represented a
natural evolution of their previous work. Many felt that their previous work and life
experiences pointed directly at teaching. Candidates felt their familiarity with children
provided the baseline knowledge required of the classroom. Unlike candidates from some
other portraits, there was no fear associated with working with kids.

Amana Collins

“I’m doing great. I’m doing wonderful. I love my principal. I love my school. I
love my students. And I am eager and I am so anxious every day to get there and work
with the students.” (Personal Interview, 17 September 2007)

Amana Collins is a 43-year old African-American mother of two living in an
inner-ring suburb of Saint Louis. Via provisional certification through CTP, she is in her
first year as a special education resource teacher in a Saint Louis elementary school.
Although now just starting her classroom career, she has harbored a desire to teacher for
many years. She describes an epiphanal moment back in 1992 when she accompanied a
friend picking up her daughter from daycare.

[T]he director of the daycare needed to talk with her [friend]. It was almost at

the end of the day and she didn’t have a replacement for this one class that her

daughter was in. So the director asked me if I would sit in while she talked with

my friend about whatever they wanted to talk about. And I went to this class I

didn’t know what to do. I just grabbed a book. I gathered all the students around

on the carpet. As I read the book to them they began to get engaged and they
were answering questions about the story, predicting what was going to happen

next. And I fell in love right there. I was like, “This is where I wanted to be.”

89

And from that point on I have been trying to get into the classroom. (Amana

Collins, Personal Interview, 17 September 2007) '

As with many socially mobile candidates, Amana did not have a straight path to
teaching. For several years, Amana worked as a recorder and clerk of the Saint Louis
County Probate Court. Although her lack of influence on the proceedings in court led
largely to disinterested service, at some level the she was affected by the ethos of families
forced into anguished choices for their loved ones.

As she slowly progressed through her undergraduate coursework, she left her job
in the courts and began substitute teaching in a Saint Louis area school district. She
eventually secured a number of long-term substitute positions and was encouraged by
several principals to seek certification allowing them to hire her full-time. She eventually
did earn an undergraduate degree in 2004, majoring in psychology, but with some
education courses, although short of the requirements for certification.

Instead of seeking teaching positions, Amana was hired by the Children’s Division
of city of Saint Louis as a case manager in the foster care unit. She worked with children
who had been removed from their homes either helping to reunify families or to
recommend placement in residential facilities or adoption. Her job placed her in the
middle of working to reunify families 'where children had been removed or recommend
children be placed in residential facilities or be put up for adoption. After working with
the Children’s Division for several years, Amana decided to apply for CTP to realize the
goal she had set for herself more than a decade before.

Amana’s knowledge, skills, and experience closely mirrors that of Portrait A
candidates. She has long been dedicated to working with children and families, taking

employment that put her in the middle of painful decisions about the future structure of

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families. Although potentially invaluable experience to bring in tow to a special
education position punctuated by students from fractured families, Amana did not have
the knowledge generally assumed of career changers. Her work experience did not
provide applicable real-world insights into math or history. Her undergraduate major did
impart subject area knowledge likely applicable to special education instruction, but not
replicating a school subject taught in an elementary school. Additionally, her position as
a special education teacher demanded the skills of a generalist, not the assumed
disciplinary knowledge earned through academic and employment experience. Finally,
she earned her degree at a moderately selective university as a non-traditional student,
working toward her degree over several years as time, family, and finances permitted.

Amana enjoyed her work with families in the Children’s Department, but was
motivated to work more closely with students in the school setting. “It all went back to me
wanting to actually be in the classroom” (Personal Interview, 17 September 2007). CTP
provided an opportunity to get into the classroom quickly, before earning full
certification. Additionally, her three outstanding student loans from her undergraduate
degree did not allow the financial luxury to enroll in a more traditional program.
Receiving a full paycheck on day one was the only way Amana could financially afford
the move to the classroom. And the first paycheck she received as a teacher in SLPS was
the largest of her life.

Proponents of career changers often forward meeting teacher demand in hard to
staff schools as a justification for drawing career changers in the schools. Although she
never overtly articulated a desire to teach in a high needs schools, the design of CTP
necessarily brings candidates only into SLPS, an urban district with systemic teacher

shortages, that traditionally struggles to fill all vacancies, often relying on permanent

91

substitutes. Nonetheless, Amana was largely unfazed by the demands of students in her
building. When I last spoke with Amana she had only been teaching for a handful of
weeks, and was striving to learn “how to teach a student with bipolar or a student that has
ADHD or a student that is a slow learner” (Personal Interview, 17 September 2007), as
would be expected of any first year teacher. However, Amana expressed comfort
working with her colleagues, confidence in meeting the needs of the students, and general
calm in mastering the curricular demands of special education.

Amana did not deny the challenges of teaching in a high needs urban school. The
context of the school, though undeniably difficult, to Amana was neither unfamiliar nor
particularly an act of social justice. However, she did not choose either her profession or
her location strictly to “give back.” Rather, teaching was providing as generous a gift to
her——the fulfillment of a decade long dream coupled with the relative comforts of middle
class status—as she was by teaching a high needs subject in a hard to staff school.

Portrait B—Career Seekers

The candidates in this second portrait differentiate themselves from other career
changers by their age and limited career experience. They are all young—mostly under
thirty—and few have had a real career track; instead they have mostly bounced from one
mostly unsatisfying job to another, typically staying for a relatively short period of time.
Many have postponed career ambition, moving across a state or across county to follow a
significant other or experience life in a new environment upon earning their bachelor’s
degree. They differ, however, from the candidates in these programs whom I did not
consider who entered immediately, or nearly so, after finishing their undergraduate

studies and without any substantial work experience. All career seekers have had several

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years of work or travel lending them some critical distance from a candidate entering the
classroom straight from college.

Just as they have been investigating, but not committing to, different communities,
career seekers often have yet to decide upon teachin g as a long-term career. Peske, et al.
(2001) describe this as an exploring orientation to teaching. with candidates \iewing

é

teachin g ‘as a short-term exploration, which might lead them to a longer ccmnnitment or.
ifthey found teaching unsatisfactory. to a quick exit and shift to another line of work” (p.
306). To most of these candidates teaching is their first salaried job and a represents a
personal partition between more indulgent youth and a greater responsibility associated
with maturity. This portrait. along with the capstoners. represented the shortest expected
career in teaching and had been considering teaching for the briefest amount of time of
any group. liven those expecting lengthy careers in teaching. reserved the right to temper
their forecast based on their eventual classroom experience. much as Peske predicts.

Dem ogra/Ilzics

Table 4.7

Age, race, and gender of Career See/{er candida/es

 

 

Date “bite—
of Native African- Asian/ Pacific, Non
Birth American American Islander Hispanic Hispanic Fem al e Male
fYC‘ZU‘) C’s) (0’0) (0’0) (0’0) (0‘0) (0 '0) l” 0)
l 9 7 8 0 4 l 0 92 75 2:3

 

As a group, career seekers have. the largest proportion of white. candidates and the
second highest of women. The racial construction is partially explained by the
prevalence of career seekers from Nl’l'l', a program with all white ezmdidates. However.

this explanation provides only limited satisfaction. In its in terms of total number. there

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are more career seekers in CTP— the only program without a majority of white
candidates—than any of the programs. Career seekers also account for about ten percent
of ARC candidates. They are the youngest portrait by nearly a decade, in keeping with
their portrayal as candidates who after completing their undergraduate education in the

past five to ten years, are now exploring career options.

Table 4.8

Means of core variables for Career Seeker candidates

 

 

Age at
Previous Bachelor’s
Salary Highest Degree High
Academic College job (Mean/ Degree (Mean/ Needs
Major Ranking Relevance Median) Attained Median) Placement
26,340/
1.00 3.08 0.74 25,500 2.38 23.21/22.5 2.25

 

Knowledge

Nearly all career seekers attended college straight out of high school, graduating
in four or five years with a bachelor’s degree although they had the least academic majors
of any portrait. Among this group, there was a noticeable prevalence of art and music
majors, in part explaining their prevalence in CTP. There was also strong representation
of journalism and communications degrees. Among academic majors humanities are
most common—especially English language or literature—with a scattering of science
degrees. Their majors, possibly, did not prepare them for a specific career track, leading,
in part, to their itinerant employment. As such there were a number of candidates from
this portrait who had at least begun a master’s program and a couple who had completed
doctorates. In these cases, a lack of career clarity motivated graduate school. Previous

success and enjoyment in their discipline led these candidates to continue their studies

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irrespective of their career goals. Overall, however, their educational attainment was the
second lowest of any portrait. This might be expected in part as a function of their age.
Skills

Career seekers graduated largely from selective, but not the most selective,
institutions. Most candidates attended large public universities or regional campuses. A
few attended smaller private schools, often with a religious identity. Compared to other
portraits, their undergraduate selectivity fell in the middle and close to the average for my
full sample. Only candidates from Cluster elf—the most academically successful classic
career changers—attended substantially more selective colleges than career seekers.
Experience

As I indicated above, the Portrait B candidates entered their preparation program
with little formal experience in their disciplinary subject and the lowest ranking of any
portrait. It is the rare candidate who has found employment in a field that drew directly
on academic experience. A candidate with an engineering degree and another with a
chemistry degree turned to teaching after struggling to find work in their chosen field.
More commonly, candidates from this group have worked a series of unrelated jobs
ranging from construction to childcare to waiting tables to sales. A few have experience
in classrooms as a paraprofessional or long-term substitute teacher.

Additionally, only twenty-one percent of candidates in this group have children of
their own, the lowest rate of any portrait. Not surprising based on their age, but by itself
not fully revealing their experience with children. In what might appear counterintuitive,
career seekers had the highest percent of previous work experience directly with children,
both in childcare and school settings, but also from babysitting, serving as a camp

counselor, or other similar work when younger.

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The highest proportion of career seekers comes from NPTT, although the portrait
is represented in large numbers at each program. As with the socially mobile portrait, for
Portrait B candidates teaching typically represents the highest annual salary candidates
have earned and represents a graduation to higher status work. Unlike Portrait A, career
seekers are younger, less likely to have kids, and took more traditional paths through
college. While for socially mobile candidates teaching signifies entry into the middle class,
career seekers were largely raised in middle class households.

Motivations

Despite an exploratory orientation, these candidates rarely view teaching a simply
a good paying job. The candidates are excited by both the prospect of engaging in work
that has a social impact and draws on their subject area knowledge. Among all portraits,
only socially mobiles were more likely to seek placements in high needs schools. Many
candidates expressed frustration with their previous work, deeming it unrewarding or
unchallenging. In contrast, teaching’s relative autonomy enticed career seekers eager to
assume more responsible positions. This stands in stark contrast to candidates form
classic career changers who chose teaching, in part, to simplify their lifestyle, allowing
more time for family and community commitments. Again, for most Portrait B
candidates, teaching is the first salaried and the most lucrative job they have ever held.

There were a small number of candidates who were not particularly attracted to
teaching as a profession; instead akin to the job seeker portrait I will expand upon later,
candidates, they were simply looking for a job. The quick nature of certification
promised quick employment in a weak economy. As one candidate wrote in his survey,
“I tried to get a job in mechanical engineering, but couldn't find one, especially in a rural

area. A teaching job opened in my hometown, so I applied and got the job” (Isaiah

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Young, Survey Response, 14January 2008). They differed from job seekers, however, in
a couple of important ways. First, unlike many job seekers, the career seekers did not
have previous professional work experience. Portrait B candidates are younger and did
not typically have dependents. I

Finally, the relatively low level of commitment demanded by their programs was
an attractor. For a group of candidates identified in part by capriciousness, the target
programs in this study promised quick certification and entry into the classroom. This
made these programs particularly attractive to career seekers. Unsure of their long-term
allegiance to teaching, these programs facilitated their exploration.

Nick Evans

“Here I am it’s 7:00 on the West Coast. I’m still at school. . .. It’s not like my
friends who do real estate or banking, you know. They punch out a 5:00 and go home
and do whatever they want. I take my work home with me every night.” (Personal
Interview, 11 February 2008)

Nick is a twenty-eight year old white male living in Portland, Oregon is in his first
year teaching. As is common within this portrait, after receiving his bachelor’s degree
Nick spent several years working short-term jobs, exploring new careers and trying to
turn avocations into room and board across the West. After earning his bachelor’s degree
in English from a small liberal arts college in Colorado, he worked at various times as a
chef, a river guide, a travel agent, a substitute teacher, a waiter, a carpenter, and an
experiential educator. He never stayed long at any one job. He endured some more
tedious, if lucrative jobs in order to permit occasional lower paying, but more engaging

work. Although the swath of work was broad, Nick claimed that the most rewardingjobs

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were those that let him teach someone else a new skill, whether how to paddle through
white water or help a group learn to work better as a team.

Although an English major, Nick spoke little of his subject area background. In
contrast to capstoners for whom teaching presented a chance to return to their
disciplinary roots, the actual subject area seemed secondary to Nick. Whether this reflects
a difference in commitment to disciplinary knowledge or simply the relative proximities of
their respective undergraduate studies or various other explanations is uncertain. Ith is
clear is that Nick’s passion centered more on serving his students than revealing the
power of literature. Despite the diversity of his resume, Nick was dedicated to a career
centered on teaching and learning as his eventual destiny. “My main focus has always
been working in education in some respect, but wasn’t really my main job after I
graduated from college” (Personal Interview, 11 February 2008). Still, he managed to
find several jobs with educational components.

Nick’s diverse experiences served him in two distinct ways. First, the assortment
of jobs helped him develop a wide range of skills. His work led him to interact with
people of vastly different backgrounds and in vastly different contexts. As often as he was
serving a customer’s whims, as, say, a waiter, he was also an expert whose ability to
convey his knowledge was essential for the safety of people with whom he was working,
such as leading kayaking trips into Yellowstone National Park’s backcountry. Nick,
therefore, began to learn to understand both how to meet a client’s needs and how to
present information in a way that was easy for a client to understand, one of the
challenges he most enjoyed.

Secondly, Nick had explored a wide range of careers, witnessing many of the

advantages and constraints in several fields. This exposure helped him determine his

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priorities in an eventual career. He worked in jobs for which he had a passion only to
earn a paycheck and saw the ultimate dissatisfaction such work bred. Altemately, he
worked in jobs for which he only had passion discovering the limitations and
unpredictability of seasonal work. His experiences helped him understand that he sought
work that felt rewarding while still providing steady employment and pay. Additionally,
the scope of his previous work allowed him to consider which aspects of work he found
motivating and which he were intolerable, ultimately determining that service-to the
broader community must be at the core of his ultimate career.

Nick describes many of these jobs as leading to an evolution of his thinking about
the purpose of education. Initially he wanted to teach in order

to try and help people out, for lack of a better phrase, to try to improve their lives.

To give them skills that they might enjoy. Skills and knowledge that they may

might be able to use to make their life more enjoyable or more successful or just to

have a good experience. (Personal Interview, 11 February 2008)
Nick’s initial understanding of education as transaction found its way into much of his
work and life experiences. As a Boy Scout leader and swimming teacher as teenager he
felt there was particular knowledge to be imparted and it was his job to share his
knowledge. In his more recent work in outdoor education, he viewed himself as being
able to deliver particular experiences to his clients.

These people are going to come with me and I’m going to show them one of the

most beautiful places on Earth and I’m going to give them all this instruction and

information and just give them this overall experience that they wouldn’t

necessarily do for themselves. (Personal Interview, 1 1 February 2008)

In time, this market transaction approach began to evolve into a service ethic.

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Today, Nick’s dedication to education centers on “making a difference” (Personal
Interview, 1 1 February 2008). And this takes many forms. He wants to serve as a role
model for his students; he wants his students to want to become informed citizens; and he
wants his students themselves to become activists.

[Mjaybe it’s not hard skills. Maybe it’s just being really enthusiastic about the

subject matter or just being a positive role model for them and that’s going to help

affect positive change in their life and hopefully enable them to go out and do the
same no matter what they choose to do. But to sort of bring about positive '
experience and sort of, positive people into the world who are going to have the
skills and tools and experiences to really make a difference themselves in the

world. (Personal Interview, ll February 2008)

Therefore, he is engaged in designing lessons that go “beyond the concrete skills of
language arts” (Personal Interview, 1 1 February 2008) to help his students become critical
evaluators of texts and independent thinkers.

Nick’s service ethic appears to be reflected across the portrait. This is not
surprising when considered in the context of the candidates. Most have spent several
years in continual transition focused on—and I do not intend this as a pejorative—self
interests. Jobs, housing, friends, and cities change quickly. For Nick, who has lived
throughout the West over the past five years often following seasonal work, teaching
signals an end to a nomadic life concentrated on individual wellbeing in favor of a serious
and sustained commitment to the broader community.

As with candidates from many other portraits, NPTT provided Nick with a
relatively quick and inexpensive path to the claserom. However, unlike candidates from

others, for Nick and many other career seekers were as attracted by the relatively small

100

expense of the program as the short duration. And while Nick is adamant about the
importance of getting into the classroom quickly—“that was the motivating factor
(subject’s emphasis)” (Personal Interview, 11 February 2008)—his logic is twofold. First,
Nick associated a quick preparation with financial savings. Still emerging from student
loans taken on as an undergraduate student and debt incurred in the years after, Nick was
reluctant to enter a more standard preparation program due to the cost demanded by
three or four semesters of full-time coursework. That Nick could continue to work full-
time and take classes was essential. The relatively compact time commitment was an
attraction to NPTT, but the reduced cost that accompanied the limited commitment was
the ultimate trigger for Nick.

Second, Nick did feel like his life was becoming a bit aimless and was tiring of his
nomadism.

At the point when I was really serious about the program I didn’t want to wait

tables anymore. I didn’t want to bartend anymore. I. didn’t want to work

construction. I wanted to be teacher and I wanted to do that now. (Personal

Interview, 11 February 2008)
N PTT , then, allowed him to quickly move into a more deliberate existence, doing work
whose importance served as substantial reward.
Portrait C—Capstoners

The capstoner, a candidate entering teaching for a handful years after retiring
from a successful career outside of education, is one of the most enduring images of the
career changer in the popular press (For example, DANTES-TTT, 2005; Firm &
Madigan, 2001; Goodnough, 2000c; Shea, 2007). In these representations, candidates

have typically taken an early retirement from their career; retiring from the military after

101

twenty years or accepting a “golden parachute” from a Fortune 500 company are two
common plot lines. After taking a year or two to adjust to retired life, these candidates
quickly grow anxious believing that they can apply their skills to meet community needs,
and eventually decide to seek certification. These stories also typically voice candidates
surprise at the difficulty of earning certification, somewhat incredulous that their life’s
work did not count more toward their credential. What is surprising, then, was how close
this portrait matches the retired candidates I encountered. Where the portrayal departs
from the reality I witnessed is in the frequency in which I encountered capstoners.
However, demographic trends suggest that these numbers could potentially jump
precipitously in the next few years as the Baby Boomer generation begins to retire in large
numbers. In the earlier cluster analysis, Cluster three was the closest approximation to
capstoners, although that cluster also included many candidates from the classic career
changer portrait.
Demographics

Almost exclusively white and male, capstoners are also the smallest of my four
initial portraits, with only eight candidates across the three programs neatly fitting the
descriptions. As would be expected, capstoners are also, on average, the oldest portrait
by a full decade. The Baby Boomers now eligible for retirement represent the first
generation where women and minorities worked consistently outside of the home.
Despite the changes in the workplace, women were still much less likely to follow a linear
career track, typically sacrificing professional aspirations to assume primary care-giving
responsibilities for children earlier in their careers and care-giving for parents when
nearing retirement. Finally, those women who remained in career-trackjobs for the full

working lives were most commonly employed in the “semi-professions” of social work,

102

nursing, and education (Etzoini, 1069), and thus, less likely to enter the classroom upon
retirement.
Table 1.9

.-lge, race, and gender of (fa/)stoner candidates

 

 

Date “bite-
of Nat ive African- Asian / Pacific Non
Birth .»'\m(_*rican American Islander I Iispanic Ilispanie Female Male

 

(Y0 at) (” ’0) (0 '0) (0’0) (" '0) ("‘02 (0’0) (”"01

 

 

 

1955 0 l3 0 0 88 13 88
Table 41.10
A leans ofcore variables/or C(I/J.S‘l()II£’T candidates
Age at
Previous Bachelor’s
Salary Highest Degree High
Academic College I ob (Mean/ Degree (Mean/ Needs
Major Ranking Relevance Median) Attained Median) Placement
83, 3 l 2 /

l .50 2.75 l .38 «10,250 3.38 2288/2200 2.63

Additionally, the capstoners in my study came largely from business and military
backgrounds, czu‘eers that would have been much more rare for women to enter thirty

years ago then today. Likewise, despite recent narrowing in the gender gap, men made

 

up the vast majority of math and science majors~the norm among capstoners coming
out of universities forty yezus ago. Capstoners also have the second highest median and
highest average income of any portrait. This is, again, partially explained by their age.
Their longevity has allowed them to rise to positions of prominence in their fields and
they have been remunerated commensurate with their experience. These candidates
also represent an era when employees remained in a single cancer for the preponderalice

of their working lives. Although skewed by a couple of very large inccmies, the high

103

mean salaries also offer a glimpse into the financial success some candidates enjoyed in
their previous careers.
Knowledge

Unlike some other portraits, capstoners almost without exception followed a
traditional route to their undergraduate studies. All candidates but one candidate in this
group earned their bachelor’s degrees by the age of twenty-three. Portrait B candidates
brought solid subject area background with them to the classroom, registering, as
assumed by their champions, the highest rates of academic majors. Most all majored in
the discipline they were going to teach in the classroom or in a related applied field.
Additionally, it was very common for capstoners to have a masters degree or‘higher.
Their educational attainment rates were the highest of any portrait, slightly greater
classic career changers. In short, their knowledge set, at least on paper, is an attractive
match to school subjects. This is augmented by the strong tendency of capstoners from
my sample to teach high school math and science—the subject areas that suffer the
greatest shortage nationally.

Their experience and knowledge seem to translate into great confidence for the
success they will enjoy in the classroom. Capstoners consistently stressed their desire to
reveal the elegance of their chosen subject. Academic study combined with decades of
application has translated into deep knowledge of and intimacy with the candidates’
chosen subject. As such, these candidates regularly demonstrate a palpable excitement to
pass their knowledge on to students. Richard Cushman was attracted by the chance to
help students share his intrinsic appreciation of math. “I love math. It was my career,
but I’m realizing how diflicult it is to package it up in a way that makes kids interested in

it... .There’s a lot of foundational stuff that you have to learn to get to the good stuff...It’s

104

a language but they’re still learning the vocabulary-—see spot run sort of stufl—and they
haven’t gotten to the Shakespeare part of mathematics” (Personal Interview, 28january
2008)

Additionally, these candidates are regularly excited to return to a pure—as
opposed to an applied—form of their subject. Although their career has been dedicated
to using their knowledge to complete practical tasks, I found many of these candidates
fondly recalled their academic study of their subject, often now more than twenty-fives
ago. Teaching at the high school level provided the candidates, themselves, to reengage
in the theoretical aspects of their subject. Finally, more frequently than their career
changing peers, capstoners have begun to sketch out a preliminary pedagogical and
curricular plan to try to engage their students in the subject.

Skills

The capstoners in my study attended selective colleges, ranking second among the
portraits, just behind classic career changers. And there was Very little variation within
the group. Although all portraits had some representation from more selective
institutions, all but Portrait C demonstrated a wide range of college rankings. Among
capstoners elite private universities, service academies, and flagship public institutions
were the norm for undergraduate study. Academic success was not new to these
candidates, which may account for the subject area confidence they expressed. Assuming
an approximate link between the selectivity of undergraduate institution and the rigor of
education, it would seem that capstonershad gained a deep understanding of their
subjects.

Experience

105

Capstoners had the highest job relevance rankings of any portrait other thanjob
seekers. Their work had demanded mastery and application of disciplinary skills.
Attendant with their rise to management positionsover the course of their careers, they
also tended to come from positions of high responsibility that were accompanied by high
salaries. These candidates are used to giving orders and having supervisory
responsibilities that accompany corporate or military environments. Many candidates
were accustomed to focus on bottom-line considerations, whether they take the form of
quarterly profit sheets or safely landing a full airplane. Likewise, they were familiar with
high stress environments where success was defined largely by short-term performance
with quantifiable measures.

Commonly, capstoners mentioned that their previous careers presented them with
limited teaching or training experience, and that these experiences rated as among the
most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of their work, helping to guide them to the
classroom upon retirement. Although capstoners’ teaching settings differed from
standard classrooms, consistently they increased the pleasure they derived from
developing mentoring relationships with those they were training, as well as feeling that
they were imparting important information that had practical application to the work of
those being trained.

It is important to notice the difference in cultures between the capstoners previous
work and the what they are likely to encounter in the classroom. Over the course of their
careers, capstoners have risen to management level positions that project authority over
their subordinates. A student will not necessarily respond as readily to the authority of
position as a worker would to a boss. Likewise, in capstoners’ previous teaching

experiences, at the least, trainees’job status was dependent upon mastering and

106

implementing the lessons imparted or, in the extreme, life and death was on the line in
learning to pilot a fighter jet. These are different stakes than faced by a typical tenth
grader in geometry class. While these candidates may have previously enjoyed the rapt
attention of their trainees, the stakes were high for them as teachers, as well. A poorly
taught lesson that did not engage their charges or impart the requisite knowledge were
not acceptable options. Capstoners voiced an additional cultural consideration in moving
to the schools. Accustomed to leadership in their previous work, some Portrait C
candidates openly questioned how they might react to their new status as one of many
teachers of largely equal status. While some wondered aloud how much they should
share their knowledge of organizations among the faculty, others welcomed the change to
what they perceived as. leadership largely bounded by the classroom walls. And their
experience with children was limited. Only three of the eight capstoners had children of
their own, and few worked directly with children in their previous jobs.

Capstoners routinely gave their preparation programs decidedly mixed reviews.
All felt they were gaining valuable and applicableknowledge. They generally rated the
foundations classes as much more valuable than their peers in other portraits and found
the more pragmatic sessions of less value, believing the knowledge either self-evident or
easily learned on the job. Many felt that the preparation was too long and their class time
was not used as efficiently as it could have been. Even in the ARC and CTP programs
where the initial preparation was a matter of weeks, capstoners felt that much of the
information presented was largely common sense and they did not look forward to the
additional course work required during their first year teaching, fearing that it would be

more of a hindrance than help to their practice. Additionally, the time and convenience

107

were the greatest attraction to the preparation programs, with cost or quality of
preparation scoring very low as a motivating factor in choosing a program.

As I mentioned above, along with the great confidence they demonstrated in their
academic discipline, these candidates had distinguished themselves from their peers in
beginning to design their pedagogical and curricular approaches before starting their
preparation program. They likewise expressed confidence that their combination of age,
knowledge, and practical experience would combine to form a more commanding
presence that translates into greater patience in the classroom and more attentive
students. Their experience as authorities both in their subject area and in organizational
hierarchies suggests they are not accustomed to recalcitrance. As such, it might be
expected that they considered courses focusing on the daily tasks of teaching less useful.
Motivations

Capstoners are unique among the candidates I studied in that they enjoy the
luxury of working by choice. Their retirement benefits and other investments are largely
sufficient to sustain a comfortable living into the foreseeable future; instead they are
motivated to teach for three main reasons. First, they have a deep love of their subject
and feel that they can help others come to love what the subject. Although many
candidates in Portrait C have long enjoyed teaching opportunities when they presented
themselves, few mentioned a life-long desire to become teachers. Rather, it was more the
passion for their subject that drew them into the classroom. Second, they are trying to
avoid torpor in their retirement. In the crassest terms, teaching provides a way for them
to get out of the house and do something that is stimulating. Finally, capstoners are
motivated to do work that feels important. That they are able to apply their practical and

academic knowledge to serve a civic purpose makes teaching an attractive and noble

108

opportunity. Additionally, they hope to serve as role models for students just as, in
Richard’s words, “teachers in high school are the ones who. . .had the biggest impact on
me” (Personal Interview, 28January 2008).

Capstoners are, in effect, teaching out of an intrinsic motivation. Or as Richard
stated, “I’m not there for the money.. . .As a consultant I can go out for a month and
literally make what a teacher makes in a year” (Personal Interview, 28January 2008).
However, that they do not need to teach to support themselves or their’families also
makes their long-term investment relatively limited. Portrait C candidates find
themselves in the enviable position of teaching on their terms. As soon as their new
enterprise becomes laborious, they can leave with only the most minimal consequences.
As one candidate said, “if I ever wake in the morning and think this is not fun and I’m
not enjoying it and I’m not getting out of it what I want to, then I’ll stop doing it”
(Richard Cushman, Personal Interview, 28january 2008). Still, most capstoners
imagined themselves staying in classroom for at least ten years and several were
considering eventual moves to administrative positions.

Simon Westbrook

“I mean I really enjoyed the Air Force. It was a calling. More of a calling-
profession. Kind of like teaching. You are serving your country, putting your life on the
line, you are working toward, hopefully, a greater good.” (Personal Interview, 7june
2007)

Simon is a 52-year old white male living in central Connecticut. When I talked
with him, he was in his first days of preparation in the ARC program. He is a graduate of
the US Air Force Academy and a retired Air Force pilot, splitting 22 years between active

duty and the Air National Guard. During his military service he flew several combat

109

missions, including action in the first Gulf War. Later, he became a squadron leader and
flight instructor, one of his most rewarding posts.

I thought back to my Air Force career and said, “Gee, my best tour was as an

instructor pilot. I always liked the mentoring aspects of being a flight leader

teaching tactics and techniques. And I tried out substitute teaching and loved it.

And as the years have gone by I find now that I enjoy teaching more than I

enjoyed flying. And as the career changed I said, “Okay. It’s time to bail out of

this career and go into a different one.” (Simon Westbrook, Personal Interview, 7

june 2007)

Like the stereotype of a fighter pilot, Simon displayed great self-confidence and a
bit of. bravado. His career as a pilot had molded the way he lived his life. He spoke
directly and seriously, punctuating the interview with comments such as, “one of the
intrinsic qualities of being a pilot is having a back-up plan” or “I’m not use to failure”
(Personal Interview, 7June 2007). Upon leaving active dutyhe began working full-time
as commercial airline pilot, typically on international routes. In contrast to the Air Force,
Simon found commercial flight staid and unrewarding.

Although a bit younger than many capstoners, Simon shares most other traits
with the group. He earned both an undergraduate and master’s degree in math and
speaks of his subject with great reverence. Like so many capstoners, Simon had thought
extensively about his instructional model. He had devised a complex set of
activities—some math-based, some from other fields—-to try to reach the students in the
pre-algebra class he would be teaching. He expressed great confidence, though not

arrogance, that his someone unorthodox pedagogy would be successful.

110

Simon’s years as a commercial pilot typically saw him work twelve days a month,
earning up to $200,000 annually. Looking for ways to pass the rest of time, he began
substituting at a local school district, the same one in which he now teaches. Despite his
confidence in his abilities, Simon is quick to proclaim the expertise of his peers:

Will I be the best teacher? No, because I’ve seen the quality of the other teachers.

I’m going to have to work really hard to become the best teacher. And I will work

really hard. Whether I’ll ever attain that goal, I don’t know, but I’ll work toward

it. O’ersonal Interview, 7june 2007)

He also spent free periods observing peers in other classes to improve his practice. He
does not find teaching easy, but that is one of his main attractions to the profession.
Unlike his career as a commercial pilot which he describes as a “boringjob” where he
had to “sell his soul,” teaching, like the military, is a form of service toward a common
goal. This lack of commitment led directly to his retirement as a commercial pilot.

One of the things that helped move me along toward this profession was the unity

and the help I got from full-time teachers as I was trying to learn... . [T]hey would

provide worksheets for me so I could model mine off theirs. . ..They helped me
with lesson plans construction. They helped me with timing on classes. . .how
much material I could cover so I could stay up with them. Test analysis. '80 a lot
of my learning has been cooperative with the teachers in the profession. . .We’re
all working together for one common goal. In this case it was the best product of
the student. . .I don’t know if you could be successful in this profession. . .walking
into without that nurturing mentoring going on in school. I certainly couldn’t

have gotten to the point where I’ve got now. . ..I think a huge part of the success of

111

a ARC graduate is how much help that they get in the school system. (Personal

Interview, 7june 2007)

Simon’s views on the cooperative nature of teaching and the effort he invested in
his practice before entering he ARC program help elucidate his views on the limitations
of the preparation program. Although appreciative of the speed at which he could earn
his certificate, he felt that many of the sessions were superficial, lacking the rigor and
willingness to admit mistakes he saw as essential to grow when he trained pilots.

[onu go out and immediately put into practice what you’ve been studying and

come back and rip yourselves to shreds with every particular mistake with a very

thick skin, with the sole goal of getting better... .It was sublime.. . .You see

immediate progress. (Personal Interview, 7june 2007)

As with flight training, Simon saw the best learning as taking place on-site, followed by
honest assessment of instruction by those observing the practice of a candidate.

Despite his enthusiasm for teaching, Simon still had limited long-term
commitment to teaching, planning to teach between five and ten years, “depending how
it goes.” The challenge of the classroom was enticing, but the salary was not a significant
attractor, though it did rise to the credo he shared of “get[ting] paid for something that
you love doing doesn’t matter if you getting paid a little or a lot” (Personal Interview, 7
june 2007). Simon was simultaneously collecting a full pension from the Air Force and
full retirement benefits from the airline. If the challenge of teaching became a burden or
the work an effort, he could easily leave the classroom, with his financial security in tack.
However, as he was beginning his new career, such thoughts remained distant. As he sat
through the preparation sessions, he was consumed by the impending first day of school.

Portrait D—Classic Career Changers

112

In many ways, the candidates in Portrait D are what proponents have in mind
when they think of classic career changers. These candidates do closely match the basic
assumptions presented in Chapter 1, and in raw numbers, they compose a plurality,
although not a majority, of candidates in the study. They overwhelmingly have subject
area majors and they enjoy the subject area a great deal. Moreover, their work
experience has built on that subject area knowledge. For the most part they have
attended competitive colleges, many coming from elite private universities. They have
previous experience working with children that, when previous careers no longer seemed
rewarding, influenced their decision to “give back” by entering teaching. In many ways
the group closely resembles the capstoners of Portrait C, though twenty or more years
youngen

As a group, classic career changers present impressive résumés, with many
showing entrepreneurial dispositions that matured into financial reward. For nearly all
candidates, taking a job in teaching demanded a pay cut, and often a steep one. Still,
they were entering teaching enthusiastically, if cautious not to sever ties to their previous
careers. Although none suggested they were going back, none discounted the possibility.
Demographics

As with their closely related—if a generation older—capstoner peers, classic
career changers are also predominately white and male. However, unlike capstoners,
their composition cannot be so easily explained by the unfriendly workplaces encountered
by women and minorities thirty years ago. This group seems to expose a gender bias
operating in the assumptions of what makes a career changer, especially when classic
career changers are matched against candidates comprising the primary caregiver

portrait. If, as the term implies, being career changers demands a delineated career

113

trajectory, males are more likely to entering teaching from a successful career than
women, as the ideal of a continuous career track, at least in my sample, is more applicable
to men than to women. The women in my sample who are entering teaching continue
to be more likely to interrupt their employment history to raise children. There is an
alternate explanation that is beyond the scope of this investigation. \Vhile men appear to
be leaving successful careers to teach, it is possible that women on similar career tracks to
classic career changers {we simply less likely to leave theirjobs for the classroom.

Table 4.1 l

.v~lge, race, and gender o/iclassic career changer candidates

 

Date “hite '—
of Native .r'\fric‘.u1- Asian / Pacific Non -
Birth American American Islander H ispanic Hispzmic Female Male

(Year) en) (0'0) (0’0) ca ere) co) en)
1989 0 l 8 0 5 78 33 (i8

 

Table 4.12

A I ea ns a] 'core varialdesjor classic career cha ngir ca ndidates

 

 

Age at
Previous Bachelor’s
Salary Highest Degree High
Academic. College Job (Mean/ Degree (Mean/ Needs
Major Ranking Relevance MediatL) Attained Median) Placement
49.284/ 24.97/
1.35 2.08 1.15 43,000 3.35 22.00 2.53

 

Classic career changers were by far most common at ARC with more than a third
of candidates placed in the portrait. There were, likewise, Ian‘ge proportions at the other
sites, suggesting that this portrait is Vigorous across desigm and geography. Portrait D was
also the single largt'st of all portraits, more thzm forty percent larger them any other,
suggesting the assumed characteristics of career chzmgers do indeed occur in practice.

114

Knowledge

Classic career changers typically have bachelor’s—and often master’s—degrees in
an academic discipline. They have second highest rates of educational attainment, only
slightly less than capstoners. They had rates of academic majors about on par with job
seekers and primary caregivers, again closely trailing capstoners. Among academic
majors, biology, English, history and political science were most common. Half of
applied majors were in engineering fields. Non-academic majors most commonly
centered on business and organizational studies. Most all followed traditional paths
through college, entering immediately after high school graduation and graduating within
five years. Additionally, they expressed confidence in their academic abilities; instead
apprehensions about entering teaching focused on administrative duties, bureaucratic
oversight, or constraints on their practice by parents, perhaps reflecting frustrations from
their previous employment. In general they expressed a spirit that their academic study
along with their work experience provided them with a sufficient foundation to teach
their chosen subject matter effectively and with only limited guidance.

Like the capstoners, many candidates in this group also looked forward to
returning to engaging in a purer form of their disciplinary subject, often stating that their
previous work took them too far away from their real passion. Teaching, then, provided
an opportunity to reengage in their subject and to instill a similar passion in their
students. However, a surprising number of candidates were earning certification in a field
outside of their academic major, and occasionally far afield. Those teaching in another
discipline alternately cited ease in completing the required classes for certification, ease in

securing a job, and fear of the rigor of the Praxis exam in their undergraduate discipline.

Skills

115

Although there was a range of college selectivity within the classic career changer
portrait, most candidates had attended highly selective colleges for their bachelors’
degree, masters’ degree or both. As a group, Portrait D candidates attended the most
selective institutions. They related positive experiences throughout their schooling and
credited their professional success largely to their education. As with capstoners, these
candidates’ academic success coincided with attending rigorous undergraduate
institutions and a solid understanding their chosen discipline.

Experiences

Classic career changers have had extensive and successful careers before they
decide to enter teaching. Their jobs have typically drawn directly on their disciplinary
knowledge, allowing them to bring both academic and applied knowledge to the
classroom. Despite being, on average, nearly fifteen years younger than capstoners,
classic career changers mean income from their previous employment was only about
$53,000 less. Therefore, for most classic career changers, their move to teaching
demanded a reduction in pay.

Their success in their previous work has been tempered by growing frustration
with the demands work places on their family time or with creeping changes in the nature
of their responsibilities, often taking them away from what initially attracted them to their
work. In many cases they have become disillusioned by the corporate nature of their jobs
and the continual focus on profit margins. Although they have flourished in their
environment, several candidates commented that their tasks were now fraught with
bottom line considerations, squandering the creativity and challenge that had once

defined their work. This may in part be a reflection of ascending the corporate flow

116

chart. As many Portrait D candidates have been at in their jobs for ten years or more,
they are beginning to assume, and quickly rejecting, middle management roles.
Additionally, the decision to leave their jobs in favor of teaching often coincided
with other life changing events. For several, the birth of a child forced them to reassess
values. Others had a spouse or fiance already teaching and longed for a more compatible
schedule. Others viewed teaching as demanding less of their time, albeit for reduced pay,
and determined that they were willing to sacrifice income for less frenetic lifestyle. Ried
O’Brien, a recent graduate of Yale Medical School who decided to teach high school
biology instead of pursue a career as a physician, explained the variables he and his wife
considered before he embarked on teaching:
My wife will probably need to work. . ..If I went the physician route I’d be a lot
busier, but I’d be making a higher income, so my wife maybe wouldn’t have to
work and maybe do a lot of things with the kids and stuff, and I think here it will
be more of a shared thing, where we’re working but hopefully we’ll both have
time to spend with the kids and that was really important to me. Not to become a
disconnected breadwinner. (Personal Interview, 7june 2007)
This sentiment was common. More than half of the candidates had children, and often,
young children. Many of these new parents found their previous work increasingly
incompatible with childrearing. Yet, unlike primary caregivers, very few candidates in
the group nominated their parenting experience as advantageous in preparing them to be
effective classroom teachers. Rather, teaching allowed them to be better parents.
Motivations
Nearly all Portrait D candidates raised lifestyle issues as a significant motivator for

entering teaching. Teaching alternately provided a means to do work that impacted the

117

broader community, allowed more time with family, or exit from unrewarding work.
Motivations interacted with each other. Candidates cited both pushes from their oldjobs
and pull toward teaching as factors influencing their change. When pressed in interviews,
candidates typically would differentiate between each factors’ relative weight, ultimately
identifying a single determining factor leading to their change. The motivations of social
impact, family life, and constraints of previous work are present in each case. Although
classic career changers sought work that was emotionally rewarding, they were not
strongly motivated to teach in high needs schools. Rather, they seemed to believe that
teaching could provide a rewarding work without dominating their personal lives.
Finally, the speed of certification proved a major motivator for classic career
changers. Although they had typically enjoyed financial success in their previous work,
the demands of family and mortgage limited their flexibility. Unable, or unwilling, to
dedicate two years and the accompanying tuition bills and loss of income to a traditional
full-time teacher preparation program, many classic career changers stated that only the
existence of a fast track program could have drawn them to teaching. This was less a
philosophical statement than a pragmatic one.
Tommy Lopes
To get into the corporate world, that would require relocating, likely, huge
change. Full time change in my life where I wouldn’t see my family for a large
part of the week, or my schedule. Whereas teaching, Wow! It fits like a glove. I
don’t have to give up all that time to get a degree. So, I’m not sure I would have
changed careers unless my business collapsed totally and then I would have been

forced into something. (Personal Interview, 7June 2007)

118

Tommy is a thirty—nine year old Hispanic male and a native of Connecticut. A

Soviet and Eastern European studies major as an undergraduate student at Yale Tommy

eventually found himself working in a London art gallery featuring Russian artists, despite

no background in art. In the years that followed, this accidental summer job transformed

into a career representing Eastern European artists in the United States, setting up gallery

shows to introduce artists from the former Communist Bloc countries to the world,

enticed by

the whole idea when I first started the business was to take these legends, take
these great talents that the world didn’t know about and create them into
legends... . . [T]he whole idea of an artist creating in that sort of world, like in
Eastern Europe where they were repressed. I had one artist who painted for 15
years in secret, so to me his art was created in different conditions, it was just a
fascinating story and I thought he would be the next VanGogh. (Personal

Interview, 7june 2007)

After more than a decade of successful shows, traveling the world to promote artists, and

taking initial stabs at creating his own art, Tommy began to tire of the demands of the

work.

So now when I wake up in the morning my business kind of takes care of it’s self.
I’m more of a distributor now and so I’ve done so many years doing this that the
whole thrill and excitement about what we’re going to create, it’s kind of changed
now. I wake up saying, “Wow! .I’m almost 40 years old and is this all I’m going to

do with my life? Is decorate people’s homes?” (Personal Interview, 7june 2007)

For Tommy the work had become increasing corporate. The creative flourish following

the Glamost/Peristroka era was followed by a generation of artists coming of age in a more

119

open society, willing to alter their styles to meet consumer demand and make a sale.
Although he had enjoyed financial success, he did not want to be an agent for the artists
largely looking for commercial success.

Additionally, Tommy was feeling growing pressure to find work that would permit
more time with his family. Trips to Singapore or Prague seemed less exotic, especially
leaving his wife—an ESL teacher—at home to work and take care of their three young
daughters. “I want to be on their schedule” (Personal Interview, 7June 2007).

Although he briefly considered law school—a path he assumed he would embark
upon when an undergraduate student-*the three years in school followed by what he
feared would be a corporate lifeStyle seemed unappealing. Teaching, another profession
that he had long considered, presented itself as a viable career move. Teaching allowed
him the practical advantages of daily schedule and annual calendar that approximated
that of his wife and daughters. The summers created time for him to continue his art
business on a limited scale, and, through ARC, permitted him to enter the profession
quickly. Additionally, teaching provided relief from the increasingly corporate nature of
his art career. Profit and loss were not dependent on the number of sales scored. Finally,
Tommy had always considered teaching a “noble profession,” and had tutored high
school students when in college and has long taught Sunday School at his church. These
tastes of teaching convinced him that he would enjoy a career in the classroom.

Alone none of these factors would have been enough to precipitate a change. In
fact, even in conjunction they were insufficient without considering the route he took to
the classroom. Ultimately, it was the ease in which Tommy could earn certification that
made the difference. Although he no longer had a desire to continue his art business full-

time, his family constraints were real, and he respected the teaching profession:

120

Without ARC I would have to take either a full-time [preparation

program] . . .where simultaneously you should take the course work in the subject

area that you want to teach. I don’t think I. could have done it, because I still have

to take care of my family. I still have to travel once in a while. I still have to run
my business. But with ARC it was very clear cut. They’re taking your bachelor of
arts degree and putting it to use... .[I]fI had to [attend] full-time put everything
aside and go back to college, go back to school, with my family, with my

obligations, I think I would have probably not have done it. (Personal interview, 7

june 2007)

As with three years of law school, the determining factor was the ease of entry provided
by the ARC program.

Herzberg would have named the change in the art business and the schedule it
demanded as “unhygienic” aspects of his previous work, although maybe not sufficiently
unclean to precipitate a change. Tommy’s positive regard forithe social impact of
teaching and the promise it provided for a friendlier family life were motivating factors.
But the determining factor, the speed with which he could change professions, provided a
path to a motivating career that elevated the unhygienic factors to a level that made his
previous work escapable. One factor, then, served as a sort of tipping point to precipitate
a career change.

Tommy did earn an academic major—he describes Soviet studies as largely a
political science major—using his knowledge of Eastern European culture, politics,
history, and language to create a unique career. However, his subject area expertise
raises a couple of questions. First, the Soviet Era ended before some of today’s high

students were born. In terms of contemporary political study, the importance of Eastern

121

Europe and Russia is diminished from its place two decades ago. Even granting the
significance of history and Tommy’s expertise and passion for the region, Tommy
ultimately earned his certification is in secondary math.

Taking several courses in at a local community college to augment a relatively
meager academic background in math, Tommy gained enough math credits to teach at
the high school level. Taking the time to study the local job market, he feared that
despite his knowledge and experience, he would not be able to find a secondary level
social studies position, but knew that math jobs were plentiful. This decision—while
rewarded as Tommy did quickly find a job—does address a couple assumptions of career
changers entering teaching. First, Tommy, although seemingly intelligent and confident
in his abilities, does not have practical experience in using math in his previous career
and cannot be considered a lifelong student of the discipline. On the other hand,
proponents identify career changers as a potential way to address labor market
imbalances in math and science. Tommy provides such relief.

Finally, Tommy quickly raises his experience as a student as both a justification
and motivation for entering teaching.

[A] ctually I’m not a genius like a lot of people I went to school with. I went to a

prep school which was very intense and I went to Yale. You know when you’re

learning along side these great brilliant minds in some ways it’s intimidating and
sometimes I felt like, “Wow! I’m in this pool of such gifted people.” [A] concept
that took them maybe 20 minutes to learn it took me maybe two hours to learn
but yet I made it through and I did quite well. The way I did that was having
good habits, learning strategies to achieve what they instinctively know.. . .I can

share my knowledge and instill confidence in them. Let them believe in

122

themselves. Show them kind of a role model. It’s not just if you don’t grasp it

right away you’re in trouble. (Personal Interview, 7June 2007)
In addition to citing this experience as serving him well as role model, Tommy also uses it
to justify his qualifications as a math teacher. His academic history demanded hard work
to keep abreast of peers. As such, Tommy considered mastering a new discipline seems
rather pedestrian, when accounting for the additional benefits of changing careers.
A note on Portraits E and F

As I outlined earlier, I initially sketched the first four portraits based on my
interviews with candidates across my sites. I then used surveydata to further refine and
support them. The core assumptions of proponents of career changers have coalesced in
some form. Characteristics may support or refute the assumptions, but in some
systematic way the candidates within each portrait have shared core traits across the
domains of knowledge, skills, experience, and, to a lesser extent, motivation. However,
there remained several candidates who did not fit neatly into one of the four initial
categories in my initial placement, nor were they placed by the cluster analysis. I looked
at the individual candidates not initially placed to see if there were any commonalities
thatcould describe these outliers. At least two distinct patterns emerged. Yet these
patterns are distinctive not in the traits that they share, but in how they diverge from the
total sample. First, many of the outliers had interrupted their careers to be primary
caregivers to their children—stay-at home parents—maybe working occasional part-time
jobs. Though they share few traits outside of this common experience, that they have a
common experience of leaving the workforce for an extended period of time defines a
distinct life situation. Likewise, a second set of the outliers gathered around candidates

who for family or personal reasons needed a job immediately and chose teaching out of

123

sincere interest in the professions, sure, but also due to a belief that teaching quickly
provided entry to good work in a generally attractively setting.

Each of these portraits diverges from Portraits A-D in how I formed them and in
what defines them. Rather than the shared collection of knowledge, skills, and experience
largely prevalent in these earlier portraits, what is common across these additional
portraits is unique to the portrait itself. However, this is different than suggesting that
these additional portraits are unrelated to the other categories. I choose knowledge, skills,
experience, and motivation as an organizing structure as it echoed the arguments of the
advocacy work surrounding career changers. If I had chosen an alternate organizing
structure, or favored one of the characteristics, the candidates in Portraits E and F would
have likely been intermixed with those from the A-D. Individual candidates in Portraits
E and F may share either knowledge, skills, experience, or motivations with candidates
from across my study. For example, if I were to sift through candidates based on
motivation for entering teaching alone, individual candidates from Portraits E and F
would share motivations from candidates in other portraits, and the ensuing classification
would look quite different than that I have proposed here. It is not that the candidates in
Portraits E and F are anathema to the concept of career changers; rather they lack a
defining common set of characteristics that distinguishes the other portraits.

There were additional commonalities, as well, including candidates fresh from
their undergraduate studies who had not any work experience. Additionally, there were
many candidates already working as uncertified teachers in parochial or independent
school or under an emergency certification in public schools. While these groups could
certainly define a portrait, they lack a career, in the former case, and a change in the

latter, and are, thus, outside the scope of this study.

124'

As these portraits are composed of more diverse candidates, I am presenting the
data for these groups differently. As with the others, Iiwill provide an overview of these
portraits and present core demographic data. However, as there are no clear knowledge,
skills, and experience trends, I am omitting these sections. Although the patterns within
these domains are intriguing, they do not lend themselves to much more than simple
description. In their place, I will share two mini-cases in an attempt to better capture
some of the diversity of the portraits.

Portrait E—Primary Caregivers

More than any other portrait, the caregivers are a diverse lot. In fact, the only
two characteristics they seem to share is desire to become teachers after an extended
period out of the full-time workforce to raise children, and, but for two, they are all
women. The one additional variable that was mostly consistent for the group was date of
birth. Although there was some discrepancy based on the age of a candidate’s children
when they chose to return to work, there were no primary caregivers under the age of 32.
Simple math helps explain this finding, as a parent is less likely to have all children in
school in her early thirties, permitting a return to work. Beyond that, Portrait E
candidates come from elite universities and on-line colleges. Neither is the age at which
they received their bachelor’s degree consistent with any pattern, suggesting many
traditional undergrads, but also a substantial minority of non-traditional students. They
have held high-powered corporate jobs and they have never worked full-time. For
example, there is a preponderance of candidates who have a bachelor’s degree or a few
graduate credits. However, there is also a stay at home parent who was formally a
corporate lawyer and another with a doctorate in biology. They have been applied

scientists and cell phone saleswomen. They have majored in nearly all academic fields,

125

and applied fields ranging from art to nizuking to computer science. And their major
provides only a glimpse into their disciplinary knowledge. Primary caregivers have the
second highest rating for academic, majors. balanced by low rates of j ob relevance made
even lower by their long absence from the workforce. For example, two caregivers
mentioned that their degrees are outdated. acknowledgin g that the science they learned
thirty years ago has evolved while they have failed to keep pace with contenIporary
trends.

rl'able 4.13

Age, race, and gender of Primary (.‘angiver candidates

 

Date “whiter -*
of Native African- Asian/ Pacific Non
Birth American .‘\merican Islander Hispanic, Hispanic Female Male

gear) c '0) co) co) co) eh co ea)
1 965 0 l 0 0 5 86 90 1 0

 

Table 4.14

A leans a] ‘core variables/or Primary ( .‘arigiz'er candidates

 

Age at.

 

Previous Bachelor’s
Salary Highest Degree H i gh
Academic College Job (Mean/ Degree (Mean/ Needs
Maj or Ranking Relevance Median) Attained Median) Placement
1.43 3.05 1.00 * 2.81 2660/2250 3.00

 

.A‘ote: * I did not include salary information for primary caregivers as they have been out
of the workforce for several years resulting in limited and inconsistent data.

They are nearly all white and have. a wide breadth of household incomes and
range in age from their early thirties to their fifties. They enter teaching to fulfill lifelong
dreams to feel important and to pay for their cl'iildren’s college tuition. Despite these

differences, they are also part of one of the most common patterns in teaching career

1 26

tracks over the last half century, re-entry into the classroom as children begin to age
(Lortie, 1975).

I was able to assign a small number of candidates to the primary caregiver portrait
from their interviews, but most were based on my interpretation of their survey responses.
Therefore, the twenty-one candidates I named primary caregivers lacks precision. Even
making allowances for the inexact results, there seems to be large numbers of primary
caregivers at each site. However, they are most ineluctable at NPTT. At that site,
primary caregivers comprise the single largest portrait. Primary caregivers are the second
largest portrait at ARC, while comparatively smaller at CTP.
jan Stillman

“When the economy tanked, people were laid off. I was low man on totem
pole....I said, “To hell with it.” My kids were 3, 3 l/2,.. .and I just stayed home with
them at that point. We were fortunate we didn’t need the money. My salary was going
straight to the babysitter anyway, we weren’t keeping it.” (Personal Interview, 7june
2007)

jan is a fifty-one year old white woman from central Connecticut. For the past 15
years she has been largely a stay-at-home parent, returning to part-time work as a
substitute teacher when her twin daughters entered middle school. Jan’s undergraduate
degree is in biomedical engineering from the University of Tennessee, “kind of an insane
combination of premed and engineering courses” (Personal Interview, 7june 2007). For
several years she worked for an aeronautical engineering firm “doing heat transfer
measurements in engine components which could be anything from embedding couplers

to applying heat sensitive paint to doing thermography with infrared cameras. But it was

127

all somehow related to heat transfer problems” (Personal Interview, 7june 2007). During
this time she also earned a master’s degree in engineering science.

Despite thriving in the environment, enjoying the various challenges in her
projects, after twice being laid off due to economic downturns,_]an decided to stay home
with her then 3 year old daughters. She “describes her family’s finances as secure enough
to allow a single salary, even though in many ways she would have liked to continue with
her work. “I really did enjoy it. I had a good group to work with. I had interesting
things to do. The research was wonderful. It was everything I wanted in a job at that
point” (Personal Interview, 7June 2007).

Like many women in this portrait, as her children grew older she looked for more
work outside the home, although work of limited hours and with limited off-the-clock
commitment. She fell into substitute teaching at the suggestion of a neighbor who taught
in a local high school. Althoughjan joked that she expected “to be in jail the first week,”
she found substitute teaching surprisingly rewarding and enjoyed how highly sought-after
she was for her expertise in math and science. With her daughters now graduated from
high school and preparing to enter college, both the freedom of an empty nest and the
constraints of college tuition drove her to return to full employment. Although interested
in returning to her previousjob in the aviation industry, her seniority and changes in the
nature of the work conspired to make a return to her previous employer impractical;
instead, she decided to teach full-time.

Her experience as a substitute, including several long—term positions, convinced
her that she would be a capable teacher. Additionally, she found she thrived on her
interactions with students. “I love the kids. The high school kids especially, I think are

the neatest kids in the world. They drive me crazy, but they’re just a ton of fun.”

128

(Personal Interview, 7June 2007). Like many other primary caregivers,jan cited her
experience as a parent as great preparation for the classroom. Raising two daughters
taught her patience and introduced her to the world of teenagers. Unlike younger
teachers in the school where she substituted,Jan felt that she had a perspective on
emotions and motivations of teens that allowed her to understand how to effectively
communicate her expectations while staying’grounded in the academic material. These
soft skills are very different than the sort of experience that comes from applying subject
area knowledge to real world problems in an employment setting.

Still, although not fresh in her mind,jan did bring knowledge from the job sector
to her teaching. She obviously was attracted to her previous work and has an abundance
of practical knowledge to impart to her students. However, due to large number of
classes she would have to take to earn chemistry or physiCs certification,jan is earning her
certificate in math.

I have long-termed in [math and science]. I’m able to do both. But looking at the

amount of work to do the science program is unbelievably more. It’s harder to

evaluate. It’s harder to present and keep their interest. It’s just phenomenally out

there for the same amount of pay.. . .Plus I looked at the Physics Praxis and I

didn’t really like what I saw (laughs). It took me long enough to study for the

math Praxis. (Personal Interview, 7June 2007)

Although confident in her math ability, she will not be able to draw upon her previous
work experience to the same degree as in teaching math. This is consistent with several
classic career changers. Despite deep applied knowledge in a discipline, due to
certification restrictions, they chose to earn their certification in a different, and not

always related, discipline. This contradicts one of the main rationales for attracting

129

career changers; they will be able to draw on their employment experience to enrich
lessons and vivify potentially abstruse curricular requirements (American Board for
Certification of Teacher Excellence, 2005b; Ballou & Podgursky, 1998).

The ARC program was attractive tojan as it provided easy entry into the
classroom with minimal interference to family life. “It fit into my life at this point,
because it is the summer my kids are heading out and should be ready to hit the road in
September. . .. The year long in my life just wouldn’t have worked” (Personal Interview, 7
june 2007). Additionally, she was wary of other longer programs that she felt placed
minimal value on her degrees and her experience as a substitute teacher. She did not
care to invest eighteen months in preparation to teach.

I know the math that I’m going to teach.. . .I wanted to hit the road running,

especially since I had the 7 years of teaching experience [as a substitute]. It wasn’t

like I needed to do much as far as learning how to teach. I learned kind of
through trial and error. Now it’s nice to know what I’should have been doing
right the first time, but I kinda figured that part out through the battleground.

(Personal Interview, 7June 2007)

Jan’s comments echo another common belief of both career changers and their
supporters. The experience of raising children and application of subject area knowledge
are largely sufficient preparation for the classroom. Jan suspects that the knowledge
gleaned as a stay-at-home mom and a substitute are enough preparation to manage a
classroom. Her academic knowledge is ample to design engaging lesson that meet the

curricular requirements.

Tonya Richland

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“I think that kids really put things into focus for you.” (Personal Interview, 6 February
2008)

Tonya is a 35 year-old white mother of two living in the mountains of western
Montana. Seemingly finding unoccupied time as anathema, she currently in her first year
teaching seventh grade language arts. Tonya moved with her six- and eight-year old
daughters from Bozeman to a small town some five hours to the north to take'her
teaching position, leaving her husband behind until he is able to able to find work in their
new town. Before entering the NPTT program, Tonya had stayed at home with her
children stringing together part-time work running an informal day care out of her home,
providing medical and legal transcriptions in the evening, and fund-raising for a teen-
center in her spare time. Even when her husband, an Army reservist, was stationed
overseas for a full year in 2003-2004, Tonya remained seemingly unfazed by the burden.

Tonya began her undergraduate studies intending to teach, only to be frightened
off by the wave of school shootings in the mid 19905. “I thought, ‘I’m not even sure I
want to be a teacher and there’s people dying for this job.’ You know, you don’t make
enough money. So I graduated the fastest way I could, with just straight English
literature” (Personal Interview, 6 February 2008). But her initial interest in teaching
never vanished. Despite her English degree, Tonya spoke little about what drove her to
the discipline, beyond an admitted like of reading. Despite taking time out of the -
mainstream workforce for children, Tonya was more driven by career aspirations than
her subject area, never content with “the fact that my husband would have been bringing
home the bacon by himself” (Personal Interview, 2 February 2008). English, then, was

her subject of choice, but a career as a teacher was the stronger attraction.

131

A graduate of Montana State, Tonya also spent six years in the Montana National
Guard, actually completing her basic training between her junior and senior years in high
school. She served as a medic in the Guard. Although an apparently different track than
English literature, Tonya explained that in high school, “I liked teaching, I liked reading
and I liked medicine, all very fascinating to me. Thought the best way to do that is take a
little bit of everything and see what I liked the best” (Personal Interview, 6 February
2008). And she persisted in enjoying all three. While preparing to teach while majoring
in English, she continued her Guard work diagnosing injury and illness, “all the stuff that
a nurse actually does now” (Personal Interview, 28January 2008).

Before the birth of her girls, Tonya completed FHA inspections for an engineering
firm and later worked as a paralegal at a law firm, and thought seriously about going to
law school. It is worth reiterating the vast and diverse experience Tonya had before
entering NPTT: work in the fields of law, medicine, and engineering, several years in the
military, organizinga teen-center, and daycare, which also demanded the knowledge
necessary to run her own business. These experiences certainly transformed her into a
person with rich understanding of the working world; however, they provided minimal
hard skills to prepare her to teach middle school language arts. I mention this not as a
criticism of Tonya’s readiness, but to complicate the weight common assumptions place
on career changers disciplinary knowledge.

Certainly Tonya’s years operating a daycare did teach her soft skills in advance of
teaching. Beyond the patience demanded by the work, she explained how her work and
parenting experience have inured her to the often brutal world of middle school.

I’ve seen other new teachers come in to teaching and they’re incredibly lost,

probably even more lost than [NPI I candidates] are. I don’t care if a 12 year

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old tells me that they hate me because tomorrow they’re not going to. And the 22
year old, when a 12 year tells, “I hate you.” It’s devastating for them. It’s not
saying that it doesn’t affect you, because it does. It certainly hurts you feelings,
but at the same time, my world does not revolve around this one person, yeah but

when you’re 22 boy that just really. . ..There’s a whole different connotation, a

whole different meaning. . ..Especially after you’ve had kids. If my kids tell me

that they hate me then my world would be crushed. You know my own children.

(Personal Interview, 6 February 2008)

And this is a sentiment continually repeated by career changers, in general, and primary
caregivers in particular, highlighting a talent learned through parenting.

Tonya additionally learned a good deal about what she did not want to do from
her years with young children. Although she valued the experience, especially being able
to have her children at home with her sothat if “they said a bad word, I knew where it
came from” (Personal Interview, 6 February 2008), she also learned that when she
entered teaching as a career she longed to work with more intellectually mature kids.

I really realized that little kids is not where I needed to be, because just the

concepts they can’t get you know. When you decided to talk about the string

theory in quantum physics they’re not getting it. It’s really irritating (laughs).

(Personal Interview, 6 February 2008)

Despite her intentional hyperbole, she did find herself growing frustrated with the
continual challenge of explicating the most simplistic concepts—a talent she values in
others, but does not find in herself.

As her children entered school full-time, Tonya took the opportunity to reflect on

what she most enjoyed about her wide range of careers. She came to realize that

133

ultimately she relished “the light in someone’s eyes when they actually get it “ (Personal
Interview 6 February 2008). She recalled experiences teaching lawyers in the firm in
which she worked how to use a new piece of software, training a junior member of
National Guard, or helping her daughters choose the right word as her most valuable
professional and parenting experiences. “I’ve kind of realized in my own way I’ve always
kind of been a teacher to some extent” (Personal Interview, 6 February 2008).

And NPTT provided an attractive path to the classroom. Tonya echoed the
program’s belief that bypassing the traditional preparation design rewarded the
professional and life experiences of the candidates. Tonya admitted to entering the
classroom a little cold on day one, but saw her NPTT peers as having “world experience
under our belt” (Personal Interview, 6 February 2008) and the instincts to wield it wisely
in the classroom. To Tonya, her fellow candidates are likely to become better teachers
faster than her twenty-two year old peers just entering the adult world. In her mind,
more than a decade of experiences have prepared her for this moment and none more

beneficial than being a parent.

Across these cases, parents enter teaching with varied credentials. However, they
are almost universally informed by their experience as parents. Their own children
appear to have mellowed their personalities and thickened their skin. Additionally,
primary caregivers regularly seem drawn to the profession over the subject area.
Although there are exceptions to this, the nurturing aspects of the work resonated with
the women more than a deep love of discipline. Teaching appears as almost an extension
of parenting.

Portrait F—j’ob Seekers

134

Like the primary caregivers, job seekers are outliers from the original categories I
defined. Although individually they may share some characteristics with the candidates
in other portraits, they are distinguished from others by their motivations for seeking
certification: they need work quickly. Beyond this unifying impulse, the candidates share
few commonalities. They come from a wide range of majors—many from academic
disciplines, but others had music and’art degrees. They represent candidates earning
their bachelor’s degree in their forties and candidates with doctoral degrees. Some have
limited professional work experience, while others have held leadership positions in large
organization. Some have children, some don’t. They are only portrait in which several
have no substantial previous experience with children. They are married and single. For
some, akin to the socially mobiles, teaching represents the culmination of several years of
struggle to realize an ambition. For others the job market in their chosen careers has
collapsed with teaching embodying the best immediate employment option. However, all
of these candidates expressed the need for a good paying job now and believed they could
find one in teaching.

As with the primary caregivers, the group’s diversity renders a point-by-point
consideration of characteristics redundant. While below I present the range of traits from
the survey data, I will avoid a lengthy discussion on each variable; instead I will present
two cases that demonstrate the diversity of backgrounds of these candidates.
Additionally, this group is likely underrepresented in my sample. From the survey alone
it was difficult to determine the significance of needing a job as a major motivating factor
unless a candidate chose to make an explicit statement. However, that three out of
Menty-two candidates I interviewed raised personal exigency as driving them to teaching

suggest that several additional candidates are motivated by an immediate need for ajob.

135

Despite only seven candidates clearly placed in this portrait. the potential of many

more *overlookcd in this study —makes the phenomenon worth exploring. 'Ihe data for
thejob seekers is clearly compromised by the sample size. It is impossible to extrapolate
out to suggest that the trends present in 'I'ables 4.15 and 1.16 would hold for a larger
group of 1 ob seekers. Still, it is worth recognizing the diversity of the group.

'I'ablc 4.15

.A‘lge, race, and gender o/T/ol) Seeker candidates

 

 

Date “bite—W

of Native African- .-'\sian/Pacifie Non
Birth .-'\merican American Islander I‘Iispanic. Hispanic Female Male
(Year) en) eh) ere) co) on) 4%) en)
1067 0 l4 0 0 86 43 57

 

Table 4.16

A leans (y‘core variables/orj’oh Seeker cam/idates

 

 

 

Previous Age at
Salary Highest ' Bach elor’s High
Academic College Job (Mean/ Degree Degree Needs
Major Ranking Relevance Median) Attained (Mezui/ Medi an) Placement
56,000/
1.40 3.20 1.60 58.000 267 2583/2300 3.17
Li; 1'1 l ancino
“If somebody’s [sick] we’re in trouble....[]]ust to able to go to a doctor (laughs),

people take it for granted.” (Personal lnteniew, 7June 2007)

Lil. Mancino is a forty-four year old white woman from central Connecticut.
Now a mother of three adolescents, Liz earned an Associate’s degree before she had
children, zmd worked as a subrogation secretary in the insurance industry. After the birth

of her first child, Liz began working a series of part-timejobs. lzu‘gely in retail and as a

136

waitress. More recently she has worked almost daily as a substitute teacher in her local
school district. Now, after completing her bachelor’s degree in history in 2005, she is
seeking a teaching job. As her husband’s employer has recently altered its health
insurance package, Liz’s family now needs her additional salary and, specifically, the
benefits package that accompanies it literally to stay in their home.

“My father never went to college. Neither did my mother. He always felt it was
something very, very important. So they told me, if you want to go back. . .we’ll pay for it”
(Personal Interview, 7june 2007). Once her youngest child began school full-time, Liz
added night classes at a regional campus in the Connecticut public university system to
her existing evening work in a local restaurant. Although graduating with a history
degree, at the time she did not take the additional classes necessary for certification,
leaving her with a degree, but limited prospects for a immediate employment.

Liz discussed her evolving relationship with history as a discipline, explaining
“[a]1though I hated history when I was in school, as I grew and got older and stuff, I
found that’s what I wanted to do” (Personal Interview, 7June 2007). She had enjoyed a
long-term substitute position for an English teacher where she was able to bring her social
studies interests into the classroom during a Holocaust literature unit. As they picked
their books and designed accompanying research projects, “[i]t was like they were getting
history twice a day. They would leave my class and go to social studies” (Personal
Interview, 7June 2007). In spite of a slow start in her disciplinary subject, she came to
find history a valuable way to interpret the world and enjoyed passing that on to her
students. Yet she remains anxious about the breadth of her knowledge.

Social studies is so broad. I could talk about so many events that will get them

prepared for adulthood. More so that social studies counts, but math teachers

137

might disagree with me, but I have yet to use algebra in my life. And geometry

very rarely, but there’s a need for social studies. So I’m worried that I might not

bring it. (Personal Interview, 7june 2007) ,

Her apprehension might be consistent with what any beginning teacher would feel.
However, it also motivates her to ponder lessons design and student assessments needed
“to be prepared for life.”

While, Liz’s desire to teach history was obvious, even more palpable was her
desire to work with kids. Her career are allowed her no real opportunity to applying
historical examination in previous work. However, she cited parenting as generous
experience for teaching.

[Ajs a mom, I feel like I already am a teacher and it wasjust a natural extension

of that. . . .I can’t imagine doing anything else.. .. I have a good connection with

the kids I found out. I kind of started subbing to see “Well geez, maybe this isn’t
for me.” I get along great with my own kids, but with someone else’s kids maybe
that isn’t for me.. . .[But] they responded to me. I have fun with them. I treat
them as if they are my own. If they say something just total idiotic I can give them

the Mommy look and they know. (Personal Interview, 7june 2007)

And Liz does command “the Mommy look.” It is easy to imagine her joking with and
teasing her students balancing on a line between chaos and vibrancy, with her able to
hold the class’s focus by drawing from a deep well of parenting tricks.

Liz’s sentiment echoes many comments made by primary caregivers. Commonly,
these candidates, as well as others who are experienced parents, cite their child-rearing
experience as helping them develop patience, determine priorities, and learn to talk with

students. And in many other ways Liz fits the profile of a primary caregiver. Her career

138

and education were postponed so that she could be home when her children returned
from school. Now that her children youngest child is in middle school, she is better able
to reassume the duties of full-time employment out of the house. Yet, Liz’s motivation to
teach is more desperate than other primary caregivers returning to the workforce.

Liz was admitted to the ARC program on her third try. Despite a desire to teach,
her family’s finances did not permit her to enroll in other certification options that would
have demanded more expense and a full-time commitment, while restricting her from
working and contributing to the family income. Quite literally her family needs her to
find a lucrative job with a good benefits package.

My husband and I do not have the resources to go back to a traditional

[program]. . .As soon as I got my acceptance letter that I got in here I could start

looking for ajob. I desperately need a job. Or else we’re selling the house and

moving to this tiny one room condo. I need to help support my family. So, that’s
exactly what happened. I got the letter. I called all my teacher friends who
helped me. “What do I do know? Where I go? How do I get all this stuff going?

I need a job. I’ve got feelers out. They all know I’m looking. And I’m hoping by

September I’ve got a full-time position with benefits. (Personal Interview, 7june

2007)

Although Liz’s husband’s job does offer health insurance, the premium would demand
such a large proportion of his salary that they would not be able to stay in their house.
Her family has chosen to go without insurance for the time being, hoping that her ARC

certification will lead to ajob.

William Mueller

139

“I don’t belong in the classroom yet. These are hard kids and experiences to deal
with and I do not have the training to teach them. I am failing the students.” (Personal
Interview, 11 September 2007)

William is a forty-eighty year old white male, living in an inner ring suburb of
Saint Louis. For twenty years William was a bassoonist performing with major symphony
orchestra, which, until it folded five years ago due to financial problems, was considered
I one of the top orchestras. in the country. The shuddering of the orchestra coincided with
his wife’s decision to return to school to study labor law. Although initially intending to
attend law school in Florida, the new circumstances allowed her to broaden her search,
eventually drawing the family to Saint Louis for her studies.

William has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in applied music from the
University of Miami. Before entering the Career Transitions Program, for years he
supplemented his orchestra income by teaching individual bassoon lessons, as well as
teaching music performance and music theory at the local public university. Therefore,
he entered the classroom with extensive performance experience as well as familiarity
with instruction, albeit, not in a K-12 school setting.

William describes the market for world-class bassoonists as limited to six jobs
nationally in a good year, severely limiting his employment opportunities as a performer.
With his family settled in Saint Louis and American orchestras in general ill health,
William decided not to seek an orchestra job unless, perhaps, one would open in Saint
Louis itself. In the years since the collapse of his previous orchestra, William has worked
in the music industry in various capacities including teaching individual lessons, sessions

at elite summer camps, and working with a music publisher.

140

Much of this work has demanded either he live away from his family or travel
extensively. He had tired of being away from his family regularly and his wife’s schooling
and work required William’s regular assistance athome. William struggled to find
rewarding and profitable work. Recalling that he had enjoyed and felt successful in his
previous teaching settings, William decided to apply to CTP

When I spoke with William, he was in the middle of his third week teaching
elementary music in a PreK-8 public school in Saint Louis and it was not going well. He
was overwhelmed by the demands of the job, trying to learn and teach 10 different
curricula in a school he felt was rife with behavioral problems. Already in the first two
weeks, two experienced teachers had quit out of frustration. William had seen chairs
thrown in his class and sexually inappropriate behavior from older students.
Additionally, despite his training in performance, he had no instruments that children
could use, limited instead to teaching only theory and vocal performance. William
described himself as a “rose-colored glasses guy. I’m very laid-back, but I am used to
success. I am really trying, but already am thinking about leaving. It is spiritually
draining to get up to do this everyday” (Personal Interview, 11 September 2007).

Paradoxically in William’s attraction to CTP—the prospect of quick
certification—were sowed the seeds of his growing fruStration with the program. He felt
his lack of training on how to teach the curriculum and how to teach in a high needs
setting led him to fail to meet the students’ needs. In particular, he felt ill prepared to
bridge the cultural differences between the students his all African-American school and
his own background. William felt the speed of the program allowed only shallow
discussions of the interactions of race and class on classroom instruction and

management, a disservice to him and his students.

141

According to the assumptions made by proponents of career changers, in most all
ways William is an ideal candidate. He has excellent knowledge, skills, and experiences in
his subject area. His previous work centered on application of his knowledge, but he also
had regular opportunities to teach. Although his employment situation required him find
work quickly, he entered teaching eagerly. Yet after only a couple weeks he was already
seriously considering quitting. William presents a cautionary tale, then, in the
assumptions about career changers. Despite the characteristics he brings—including an
interest in teaching in a high needs school—he is floundering. In terms of preparation, he
feels he failed to receive the knowledge necessary to be successful in this setting. In terms
of placement, he believes that the district failed to make good use of his skills. His desire
was teach middle school band where his knowledge of and experience with performance
would be called upon. Yet his calls fell on deaf ears. In terms of management, the
program and the schools have failed to provide William with sufficient mentoring and ‘
induction, largely leaving him to find his own supports. The result appears to be a
teacher in great need of a job ready to quit and students potentially left without a

knowledgeable music teacher.

As with primary caregivers, job seekers are a diverse lot defined not by a set of
common characteristics, but a single common motivation that distinguishes them from
other career changers. While job seekers enter teaching with various levels of
commitment to teaching, to none is it odious or a last resort. Rather, teaching is
attractive and is consistent with earlier career commitments. Now, under the stress of
financial need, job seekers are their enjoyment in guiding others’ learning is evolving from

an avocation to a vocation.

142

Chapter 5
Investigation of Context

In the previous chapters I have examined programs and candidates more or less
in isolation. Now I turn to contextual factors. Place is always important in understanding
the implementation of policy. The history, culture, and economics of region can shape
both the focus of the written policy and which aspects of that policy are emphasized in
practice. In order to understand the unique aspects of the environments in which the
programs operate and candidates live, I will present broad data on the overall economy,
the teaching market, race, wealth, and poverty for each region. Where relevant I will
share political and cultural trends that shape the region and the schools.

Alternative Route to Certification

Although lacking the primacy in teacher education history typically associated
with Massachusetts due north, Connecticut shares in the New England’s long experiment
dating to the normal schools movement. Prominent engineers of the movement-honed
their craft in the state, including William H. Wells among those credited with
transforming the normal school into a four-year public college (Herbst, 1989). And that
tradition remains evident today.

To understand the context of teaching in Connecticut it essential to know both
that the state has the highest beginning and average teacher salaries in the country, at
$39,300 and $57,800 respectively (Gould et al., 2007), and that it has not always been
that way. Any consideration of the motivations for Connecticut career changers to enter
teaching must consider the relative wealth enjoyed by the state’s faculty. Although in part
a product of a high cost of living, teachers enjoy recompense that allows them a solid

middle class lifestyle. At the same time, the salaries acknowledge the status in which the

143

state elevates public education assuaging the long endured stigma that teachers are those
who “can’t do.” However, in the middle 19805 this was not the case.

In 1985 reformers worked across institutions to create incentives for a
combination of higher pay, more stringent certification requirements, and higher student
achievement. The integration of these policy goals led to salaries increasing by nearly
two-thirds injust five years. In conjunction teachers were subject to more rigorous
preparation and certification standards including a written test of teaching competencies,
a three-step induction process accompanied by mandatory mentoring for new teachers.
In the 19903, the state added a new program of student assessment and a requirement for
all colleges of education to be accredited by NCATE9. Together, these reforms reframed
the reputation of public schools and schoolteachers in the state (for a more complete
discussion of the Connecticut reforms, please see Youngs & Bell, 2008).

Directly influenced by advocates of a professionalization model such as Arthur
Wise, Connecticut’s revisions pushed preparation in the state toward demanding mastery
of discrete knowledge unique to the profession over preferring content knOwledge as the
primary governor of quality teaching. The ARC program, then, with its preference for
strong disciplinary knowledge and experience, is someone of a contemporary and
historical anomaly. In fact, the program director acknowledged ARC’s diminished status
relative to more traditional preparation routes in the state, arguing the program as
' “somewhat of a black sheep of the CDHE (Connecticut Department of Higher

Education),” viewed at once as less rigorous than other routes and as siphoning off

 

9 The state has even mandated that ARC be compatible with NCATE standards, making
them, according to ARC’s director, the only alternative certification program in the
country to meet NCATE standards. However, they have not actually been accredited, as
NCATE has not developed accreditation standards for alternative route programs.

144-

potential candidates at other schools and their accompanying tuition (Personal Interview,
7_]une 2007).

The strong educational history of the state, including the nation’s second oldest
college in Yale, Connecticut’s educational attainment rates are comparatively high.
Eighty-four percent of residents have at least a high school diploma, thirty-one percent
have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and thirteen percent have a graduate or professional
degree. Compared the other states in this study, while rates of high school graduation are
on par or even a bit lower, rates of higher education attendance are substantially greater,
suggesting a large potential pool from which to draw professionals into the classroom.

Yet, acknowledging Connecticut as having the highest average teaching salaries in
the country sketches an incomplete picture. Despite their wealth relative to the teaching
force in the rest of the county, compared to their fellow workers in the state, teachers’ real
buying power has diminished over the past decade. Using constant dollars, average
annual teacher salaries declined between 1995 and 2005 nearly $7,000, although average
initial salaries increased by nearly $3,000. Over the same period average private sector
salaries increased by nearly $9,000 (Gould et al., 2007). Today, Connecticut has the
fourth highest Median Family Income of any state in the country (United States Census
Bureau, 2008). These data suggest that teachers moving from other careers to teaching
can expect a good initial salary when compared to national trends and good salaries over
the course of their careers, if diminished compared to what teaching once paid compared
to the private sector. It would seem that career changers entering teaching might be
aware that teaching both pays well in Connecticut and demands a pay cut, in aggregate,

when compared to their previous work. In other words, teaching may not pay as well as

145

the career they are leaving, but it allows for the maintenance of a comfortable standard of
living.

As of December 2007, Connecticut had an unemployment rate of 5.0%, close to
the national rate of 4.8% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008d). Over the course of 2007
and into 2008, the unemployment rate slowly rose. For career changers, this might signal
a risky economy in which to leave steady employment, with less assurance of returning to
previous work if teaching proves unpalatable. Connecticut has an overall poverty rate of
eight percent with ten percent of children under eighteen living below the poverty line.
This translates to twenty-seven percent of enrolled students eligible for free and reduced
lunch. Still, despite Connecticut reflecting the national trend of a slowing economy, it
remains a very wealthy state. With Hartford the home of the insurance industry, the
finance and insurance sector accounts for eighteen percent of the state GDP. While these
numbers point to the relevance of this sector, on even a brief trip to Hartford one feels the
influence of the insurance industry, from the names topping buildings and, underwriting
festivals to the prevalence of people working directly or otherwise in insurance. ’While less
inseparable than a true company towns such as Gary and steel, spending time in
Hartford—in effect an industry town—ignorant of the influence of insurance is akin to a
visit to Detroit without seeing evidence of the auto industry. Additionally, real estate and
manufacturing account for large segments of the economy (Bureau of Economic Analysis,
2008a)

The Median Family Income for the state sat at $60,500 in 2006 (Could et al.,
2007), as mentioned above, the fourth highest in the nation. Accompanying the high
incomes is the high cost of living. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Connecticut is the

highest in the nation registering 236 in May 2008, compared to the national average of

146

216 (Office of Prices and Living Conditions, 2008). To some extent, the generous

teaching salaries are cancelled out by high living costs in the state.

Table 5.1

Racial distiibution of teachers, students, and overall population of Connecticut, in percent

 

 

American African Asian/ Pacif Hispanic White
Indian American ic Islander

r-i a: t-l m *d m r-1 {/2 t-l m

(D E ('9 E ('D e O E ('9 E
§,§-s§’§-%§§%E§s§§—a

Program 91. 9; 5’. B. 3 a E‘— Q a E. 53 a E. 9% a
Connecticut * # * 10 # .14 3 # 4 9 # 15 78 # 64-
ARC ! 0 l ! 5 ! l 0 ! ! 8 l ! 86 !

US Average * * l 12 6 l7 5 l 5 15 5 20 74 90 57

 

 

 

 

 

Note: Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding and selecting more than one race;
* Less than 1%; ! Not Applicable; # Connecticut teacher data only specifies “minority”
and does not disaggregate by race—7% of Connecticut teachers were classified as
minorities and 93% as white; Connecticut total and student data from (United States
Census Bureau, 2000b); Connecticut teacher data from (Connecticut State Department
of Education, 2006); US total data from (United States Census Bureau, 2006); US
teacher data from (National Education Association, 2003); US student data from
(National Center for Education Statistics, 2008c)

More than any other state in which the programs in this study are based,
Connecticut has a more cosmopolitan ethnic mix, with African-Americans and Hispanics,
both comprising significant minorities, ten and nine percent, respectively. Still, the state
is predominately white, accounting for seventy-eight percent of the population, with an
Asian population of three percent (United States Census Bureau, 2000b). This compares
to a student distribution in the state’s public schools where whites make up sixty-seven
percent of enrollment, Hispanics fifteen, African-Americans fourteen, and Asian students
four. Only the white population has lower proportional representation among youth

than the total state ratio, following a demographic trend common across the country.

And among ARC candidates, white teachers make up a strong majority of candidates, in

147

proportions greater than either the white student population or the overall white
population. There were also substantial numbers of Hispanic teachers, close to the
overall proportion in the state. Compared to the composition of the overall teaching
population in Connecticut, ARC candidates were slightly more likely to come from
minority ethnic groups. The Connecticut Department of Education only published
teacher ethnicity according to white and minority. The rate of minority employment is
about 7 % (Connecticut State Department of Education, 2006) , compared to the ARC
minority enrollment of 14 %.
Career Transitions Program

Historically, Missouri was considered a border state, and though the term is most
applicable to an era 150 years in the past, in many ways it remains apposite. Today, it
continues to straddle a cultural border. In the southern tier of the state, and especially
along the Mississippi River, the land, the dominant religions, the pace of life, the crops,
and accent would not be out of place a couple hundred miles further south. The
northern border has lived a different history, marked more by com than cotton and more
by open plains than the deep woods of the Ozarks. Sitting in the middle, as it has for
more than two centuries, is Saint Louis. With its brownstones, narrow downtown streets,
and constrained city borders at first glance Saint Louis resembles other old river cities to
the East, like Cincinnati or Pittsburgh. However, digging a bit deeper exposes a racial
history accompanying its frontier status that is still recalled by older residents. A tour of
the city might pass the first African-American high school west of the Mississippi. Most
school districts, both in the city and the suburbs, were integrated with Brown v. Board and 1
students still enter buildings that were legally segregated during the lifetimes of some of

their teachers. In some ways Saint Louis has never reached a comfortable resolution.

148

Despite an influx of immigrants in the last decade from hotspots like Ethiopia and Bosnia,
regional racial diversity remains largely limited to black and white and mutual trust
remains limited.

Trust is limited, too between Saint Louis City and the surrounding suburbs of
Saint Louis County. Although today the details can be recounted by few, in 1876 the
regions divorced, with the city determining that it was being held back by the then rural
and sparsely populated county. And for many decades the city was the more urbane
belle-of-the-ball looking down its nose at the neighbor who surrounded it on three sides.
Gradually with white flight and changing economics of the region, the county has enjoyed
financial and cultural ascendancy, so that even if the city crawled back begging for
forgiveness, the country would not be wont to reconnect. Today, to many residents of the
suburbs the city is entered only for a ballgame or a visit to the Arch or zoo, and then only
with caution. In the past sixty years the city’s population has been in a steady decline,
now with a population under 350,000 (United States Census Bureau, 2000e) in of a
region with a population of 2,500,000 (United States Census Bureau, 2003). At the same
time the student population in SLPS is declining at a rate of more than 1,000 students
annually, with a 2007 student enrollment of 37,000 (Missouri Department of Elementary
and Secondary Education, 2007a), although some estimates put the actual number closer
to 28,000 , a thirty-six percent decline in just six years (Giergerich, 2008). Finally, the city
has one of the nation’s oldest housing stocks with half of the city’s residences built prior to
World War II.

It is within this memory that the Saint Louis Public Schools operate. Although
the city remains largely evenly split between its black and white population—fifty-one and

forty-three percent (United States Census Bureau, 2000e), respectively—the school

149

district does not reflect this diversity; instead, African-American students comprise nearly
eighty-two percent of student enrollment, with white students limited to less than fourteen
percent (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2007a). (Saint
Louis County, in contrast, is seventy-six percent white and nineteen percent African-
American.) Not unlike other urban districts throughout the country, SLPS are charged
with the responsibility to educate impoverished students coming from homes where their
own parents’ educational attainment was limited. In SLPS, eighty percent of students
(Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2007a) are eligible for
free and reduced lunch, compared to thirty-six percent in Saint Louis County public
school districts (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2007c).
The current graduation rate for SLPS is fifty-six percent. Within the city seventy-one
percent of adults over twenty-five have at least a high school diploma and nineteen
percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher. When compared to the entire region those
rates grow to eighty-four percent with a minimum of a high school diploma and twenty-
seven percent with a bachelor’s degree or higher. When measured only against Saint
Louis County, the closest and most populous suburbs, the diploma and bachelor’s degree
attainment numbers jump to eighty-eight and thirty-five percent, respectively. Therefore,
the regional perception flourishes that Saint Louis Public Schools are little more than
holding pens for unteachable students. Yet, this picture of intractable educational failure
is too simple. Waves of migration, though admittedly small in numbers, have witnessed
many students achieving at the highest levels. Added to this milieu is an extensive magnet
program, including a gifted and talented magnet sequence that consistently ranks as

among the highest achieving schools in the state.

150

A twenty-five year old court mandated busing program between the city and
many county school districts, augments this perception. Through the program, students
of African descent can voluntarily attend and be bused to a suburban district that has a
student minority population of less than twenty-five percent. This has led to many
students leaving SLPS for the wealthier surrounding districts. In return, and much less
utilized, suburban students can choose to attend SLPS magnet schools.

Table 5.2

Racial distribution (f teachers, students, and overall population of Saint Louis, in percent

 

 

American African Asian/ Pacif Hispanic White
Indian American ic Islander

:3 so "3 92 :3 so :3 so :fi 9

c: r: s: r: :3

Sés—EE—sgirsé‘is'ééa

program a 2 E. a 2 a a £2 a E E: a P’— 9: a

Saint Louis * * * 51 61 82 2 l 2 2 * 2 43 37 14
City/Public

CTP ! O ! 45 ! ! 4 1 ! l l ! 49 !

Saint Louis * @ * 19 @ 40 2 @ 3 l @ 2 76 @ 55
County

Missouri * * * 11 6 18 l * 2 2 * 3 84 93 76

US Average * * 1 l2 6 l7 5 1 5 l5 5 20 74 90 57

 

 

 

 

 

Note: Totals may not add to 100% due to rounding and selecting more than one race; *
less than 1 %; ! Not Applicable; @ Data not available; Saint Louis City total data from
(United States Census Bureau, 2000e); Saint Louis City teacher data from (Missouri
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2008); Saint Louis City student
data from (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2007a); Saint
Louis County total data from (U nited States Census Bureau, 2000g); Saint Louis County
and Missouri student data from (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education, 2007c); Missouri total data from (United States Census Bureau, 20000);
Missouri teacher data from (Division of teacher quality and urban education, 2008); US
total data from (United States Census Bureau, 2006); US teacher data from (National
Education Association, 2003); US student data from (National Center for Education
Statistics, 2008c)

For this discussion I will discount ethnicities other than African-American and

\Nhite. The numbers of other ethnicities at all levels are simply insubstantial in

151

comparison. These data do show a pattern at the state, county, and city levels of high
proportions of African-American students compared to their prevalence in the total
population. likewise, white students have low enrollment proportions compared to their
prevalence in the total populations. Outside of simple changes in demographics patterns
in the state, there are a couple of additional explanations for the apparent discrepancy.
First, the data reported above includes only students in public schools. Catholicism is the
prevailing religion in Saint Louis and the parochial school system from PreK-l2 is
extensive. likewise, there is a large network of other religious-affiliated and independent
schools. Although there are exceptions, these schools are overwhelmingly white.
Additionally, the Saint Louis County enrollment data includes students from Saint Louis
City who attend school in Saint Louis County through the Voluntary Desegregation
Program. This would result —as designed—in higher proportions of students of African
decent in the suburban schools.

Although not approaching the rates of African-American enrollment across the
district, CTP did have high proportions of African-American candidates when compared
to other programs. Compared to the existing teaching force, CTP candidates were
slightly more likely to white and much more likely to be male (Missouri Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education, 2008). However, data on the existing SLPS
faculty were not disaggregated by grade level and included administrative personnel.
Teacher race and ethnicity data was not available for the surrounding suburban schools.

Additionally, for the past several years SLPS district leadership has been in
turmoil. Successive turnover on the school board has led to bitter disputes among board
members and a revolving door in the superintendent’s office. In 2006, the district lost

accreditation and was taken over by the State of Missouri after being on probation for

152

unsatisfactory student performance for several years. The state appointed its own school
board who hired yet another superintendent, all while the elected school board refused to
resign, creating serious questions of where oversight responsibilities lay. And most
recently, upon the urging of Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, the Missouri
legislature has passed and the governor has signed legislation permitting certification
through the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) to meet
the reported 400 teacher shortage in SLPS (Logan, 2008). This complicated recent
history also includes the added pressures of consistent struggles to achieve Adequate
Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, resulting in attempts to improve
student performance, often varying from one school to the next.

Like much of the Midwest, Saint Louis’s economy has struggled during the rust-
belt decline. Once a heavy manufacturing center for cars, planes, and clothing, today
much of the large industry has left. Strength in the financial services (seven percent of
state GDP), healthcare (eight percent of state GDP) (Bureau of Economic Analysis,
2008b), and, of course, brewing sectors allows the region to maintain a steady, if not '
expanding, economy. State unemployment sat at 5.5% in December 2007 (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 2008d)with the Saint Louis region a tick lower at 5.4% (Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 2008c); both are a bit higher than the national rate of 4.8% and rank in lower
third of both states and regions. In comparing the county to the city, the picture changes
slightly. The state’s poverty rate stands at roughly twelve percent for all residents and
fifteen percent for children under eighteen. Saint Louis County’s poverty rate is seven
percent for all residents and nine percent for youth. Saint Louis City’s rates are twenty-
five and thirty-six percent, respectively (United States Census Bureau, 2000c, 2000c,

2000g)

153

Missouri has an average beginning teacher salary around $29,000 and an overall
average salary of 339,000 (Gould et al., 2007). Teachers in SLPS had a slightly higher
average salary of nearly $40,500 (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education, 2007a). The state beginning teacher average salary is slightly lower than the
national average that approaches $32,000. SLPS has a beginning teacher salary of
$33,400 (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2007a), or
slightly-larger than the state average and consistent with first year teachers nationwide.
The overall average salary for both the state and SLPS teachers trails substantially behind
the national average of $47,500, placing the state in the bottom ten nationally in teacher
pay (Gould et al., 2007). Although there are no numbers aggregated at the regional level
for beginning teacher pay, the overall average salary for Saint Louis County districts was
more than $51,000 (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,
2007b), more than $10,000 higher than either the state or SLPS average and higher, too,
than the national average. In total, the data constructs a portrait where the teachers in
SLPS get paid substantially less to work in what are often perceived to be more
challenging schools than the colleagues just a few milerand sometimes only a few
hundred yards—-away in Saint Louis County.

In 2006 dollars, Missouri has a Median Household Income of 344,500 (United
States Census Bureau, 2008). Saint Louis County had an MHI of nearly $61,100. Saint
Louis City had an MHI of 332,800 (United States Census Bureau, 2000c, 2000e, 2000g,
2008). The county rate is much larger than the national MHI of $48,023. The state
MHI is slightly lower than the national average, while the MHI for the Saint Louis City is
substantially lower than the surrounding region. Additionally, the cost of living in the

Saint Louis region is lower than the national average. The CPI for the Saint Louis region

154

in May 2008 was 194, compared to the national index of 2 16 (Office of Prices and Living
Conditions, 2008).

As with at the other sites, this data only offers a hint at the cost of living relative to
the rest of the country. In general it suggests that costs are slightly lower than average,
with a dollar going a bit further in the Saint Louis region than elsewhere. The sharpest
distinction, however, comes from the discrepancies in the MHIs between the city of Saint
Louis and the surrounding suburban communities. With half the income and more than
twice the poverty rates, Saint Louis City knows an economic milieu different than most of
its neighbors. As with many metropolitan areas, the densest pockets of multi-generational
poverty are closest to the city center and profoundly effect the operations of the schools,
from recruiting and retaining teachers to teaching students.

Nort/zem Plains Transition to Teaching

The Great Plains and the front range of the Rockies retain a mythic status in the
US. The eerie and rugged Badlands and Black Hills of South ”Dakota, Montana’s “Big
Sky Country,” and the beauty and ecological diversity of Yellowstone are cast against the
breadbasket image of combines harvesting wheat and cowboys driving their cattle. The
continued legacy of American Indians remains as palpable the libertarian streak that
paints the region. Today, as small farming communities slowly disappear from maps,
Indian reservations remain populated, if economically impoverished, communities.
States largely without highly competitive colleges and universities, education historically
has been more appreciated for its pragmatic value than as an end in itself. Politically, this
region has a long favored a libertarian spirit typically resulting in Republican strongholds
in statewide and national elections. More recently, this has begun to change as both

Montana and Wyoming now have Democratic governors, and three of the six US

155

Senators and one of the three of the US Representatives are Democrats, reflecting maybe
more than anything the proudly held independence of the region.

Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota are. among the most rural in the nation,
ranking forty-ninth, forty-eighth, and forty-sixth respectively in population density
(United States Census Bureau, 2000a). Sioux Falls is the largest metropolitan area,
although ranking 203ml in metropolitan population in US, with a population of 187,000.
And with limited candidate enrollment from South Dakota and Sioux Falls’s location in
the far southeastern corner of the state, it is exceedingly generous to suggest that the city
is the cultural or commercial center of the region. More representative is the second
largest metropolitan area in the region, Billings, with a national rank of 263 and a
population of 139,000 (United States Census Bureau, 2003), sneaking in right ahead of
Battle Creek, Michigan. By any measure, these states are extremely rural often with
extensive distances between population centers. For residents in the most remote towns,
it is not uncommon to travel an hour or more for groceries. Many NPTT candidates are
originally from the region or have been living there for a decade or more, over the years
growing accustomed to both long commutes and limited local amenities. Despite the
rural character of the states, many of the most rural towns have gradually been emptying.
Particularly in farming communities on the Great Plains, youth are not returning to farms
upon high school graduation, moving, instead, to larger towns. Therefore, across the
Plains there has been a steady drift, if not to true urbanization, away from the farm.

Throughout the region the population has long bemoaned the influx of new ‘
residents. California homesteaders—whether truly from California or not—are viewed

with suspicion and are seldom welcomed into the fabric of the community for many

156

years. In South Dakota”), thirty percent of the population were born outside of the state
(United States Census Bureau, 2000c). In Montana, forty-one percent of the population
were born outside of the state (United States Census Bureau, 2000d) and in Wyoming,
fifty-five percent were born in another state (U nited’ States Census Bureau, 2000b).
Additional data suggest that people continue to move to the region, or at least to
Montana. Montana experienced a thirteen percent population grth between 1990 and
2000 with population projections suggesting growth slowing by 2030 to a population of
1,050,000, or a sixteen percent growth over the 2000 census (United States Census
Bureau, 1990a, 2000d, 2005c). Wyoming experienced a more modest growth rate of eight
percent between the last two decennial censuses with total population expected to reach
523,000 by 2030, only a six percent growth over the same thirty years (United States
Census Bureau, 1990c, 2000b, 2005b). Still, even in Wyoming, there have been areas of
enormous growth. Jackson had the fourth largest grth of any micropolitan area in the
country between 1990 and 2000 in terms of percentage increase, an expansion of two-
thirds (United States Census Bureau, 2003). Jackson, likewise, produced all but one of the
Wyoming candidates in the NPTT sample. South Dakota has seen growth similar to
Wyoming with the population expected to grow by six percent between 2000 and 2030 to
a total population close to 800,000 (U nited States Census Bureau, 1990b, 2000f, 2005a).

All candidates in the NPTT program were non-Hispanic whites. This somewhat
reflects the racial and ethnic composition of the NPTT region. Montana’s population is
ninety percent non-Hispanic white, six percent American Indian, and two percent

Hispanic. Similarly, Wyoming’s population is eighty-nine percent non-Hispanic white,

 

1° Although South Dakota is included as one of the three states in the NPI I service area,
there were no candidates from the state in my sample. Therefore, this contextual
discussion does not consider South Dakota as thoroughly as the other two states.

157

two percent American Indian, and six percent Hispanic. South Dakota’s population is
eighty-eight percent non-Hispanic white with a nine percent American Indian
population. Although there was one candidate currently teaching on an Indian
reservation and a second considering moving to a reservation, there were no indigenous
candidates; neither were there any candidates of Hispanic origin despite a growing
population, particularly in Wyoming. Still, all three states remain largely white.

Table 5.3

Racial distribution of teachers, students, and overall population (y‘NPY 7 states, in percent

 

 

American African Asian/ Pacific Hispanic White
Indian American Islander

'-l m r-l m *-l m *-l m '-1 m
(b E O E ('D E (D e ('0 e
E @- s 9”? 9’9} s- 5? 5- 9.- 23a 9"; s- ? ii— a
program a 2 a a £3 a a 9: a E E: E. e. 2 2
MT 6 3 ll * * l * * l 2 * 2 90 97 84
WY 2 @ 4 * @ 2 * @ 1 6 @ 9 89 @ 85
SD 8 1 10 * * 2 * * 1 1 * 2 88 98 85
NPII ! 0 ! ! 0 l l 0 ! l j 0 ! l 100 !
US * * 1 l2 6 l7 5 l 5 15 5 2O 74 90 57

 

 

 

 

 

Note: Totals may not add to 100% due to rounding and selecting more than one race; *
Less than 1 %; ! Not applicable; @ Data not available; Montana total data from (United
States Census Bureau, 2000d); Montana teacher data from (Montana Office of Public
Instruction, 2005); Montana student data from (National Center for Education Statistics,
2008b); Wyoming total data from (United States Census Bureau, 2000h); Wyoming and
South Dakota student data from (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008a); South
Dakota total data from (United States Census Bureau, 2000f); South Dakota teacher data
from (Office of Finance and Management, 2007); US total data from (United States
Census Bureau, 2006); US teacher data from (National Education Association, 2003); US
student data from (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008c)

Just as NPTT candidates are overwhelmingly white, so to is the existing teacher
population. In the 2005-2006 schoOl year, ninety-seven percent of all classroom teachers
in Montana were non-Hispanic white, less than three percent were American Indian, and

no other race or ethnicity accounted for more than one half of one percent of the state’s

158

teaching force (Montana Office of Public Instruction, 2005). The state’s student
population, while largely white like that of teachers and the state, did exhibit greater
diversity than the overall population. The non-Hispanic white population is about
eighty-four percent and the American Indian population is eleven percent (National
Center for Education Statistics, 2008b). Hispanics comprise about two percent of the
total student enrollment, while Asian and African-American students are about one
percent each. Wyoming had similar percentages of white students to Montana with lower
rates of American Indian students and higher rates of Hispanic students (National Center
for Education Statistics, 2008a). No data was available on Wyoming teacher ethnicity.

The numbers of African-Americans, Asians, and, in most states, Hispanics are all
quite low with the percentage representation in teaching close to the representation at the
state level. Likewise, the small numbers of students from these categories are insufficient
to draw any conclusions. However, white teachers are consistently represented in higher
proportions than in the overall population. In addition, non-White students represent
higher proportions than non-white teachers suggesting that minority students appear to
have limited exposure to teachers from their own ethnicity in their classrooms.

NPTT seeks to attract candidates who have distinguished themselves in part
through their academic success, placing high value on undergraduate and graduate
credentials. As a region, the NPTT states have high school graduation and bachelor’s
degree rates that are-consistent with national averages. In Montana, eighty-seven percent
of the population twenty-five or older have a high school diploma or higher and twenty-
four percent have at least a bachelor’s degree (United States Census Bureau, 2000d). In
Wyoming eighty-seven percent have at least a high school diploma and twenty-two

percent have a bachelor’s degree (U nited States Census Bureau, 2000h). In South

159

Dakota, those numbers are eighty-five and twenty-two percent respectively (United States
Census Bureau, 2000f). When compared to the national averages of eighty-four percent
completing high school and twenty-six percent with at least a bachelor’s degree (U nited
States Census Bureau, 2002), these rates reflect a population that completes high school
and college at rates largely commensurate with national averages. This might suggest
that NPTT has an applicant pool with knowledge and skills neither greater nor lesser
than most states, but representative of the nation as a whole.

In general, the West is enjoying the nation’s strongest economy, with the three
states comprising NPTT reflecting this trend. As unemployment rates crept higher
throughout the country, Wyoming and South Dakota retained an annual rate of 3.0
percent in 2007, with Montana only slightly higher at 3.1 percent (Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 2008c). When compared to a national average of 4.6 percent for the year, jobs
are readily available, potentially suggesting that making the move to a new career is less
stressful than in other regions of the country with the availability of jobs providing a
fallback if the move is unsuccessful. Despite the strong economy, median family income
is consistently below the national average in all three states, buffered somewhat by lower
than average costs of living. Using 2005-2006 averages (in 2006 dollars), Montana has a
median household income (MHI) just under $40,000. Wyoming’s family income is closer
to the national mean ($48,000) with a median of $46,500. South Dakota’s is a bit lower
at 345,000 (United States Census Bureau, 2008). While there is no CPI data collected at
the state level in these states, the western US index for medium sized cities registers at
134, substantially lower than that of any other program and far below the national

average of 216 (Oflice of Prices and Living Conditions, 2008).

160

Compared to the national average of $31,753, Montana and South Dakota have
low initial teacher salaries while Wyoming’s is nearly on equivalent to the national mean.
According to the American Federation of Teachers annual salary survey for 2004-2005,
Montana has a beginning teacher salary of $25,318, Wyoming has an initial salary of
$31,481, and South Dakota teachers average $26,111 in their first year. Montana and
South Dakota are among the lowest beginning salaries of any state in the country,
ranking forty-eighth and forty-seventh, respectively; Wyoming ranks twenty-fourth
(Gould et al., 2007). When considering average salary, South Dakota is last in the nation,
with an average salary of $34,000. Montana is forty-third, with an average salary of
$38,500. Wyoming is thirty-fifth with an average salary of $40,500. The national
average is approximately $47,500 (Gould et al., 2007). The Plains high rates of
employment and low costs of living combine to allow their dollar to buy much more than
that same dollar in other regions of the country.

A broader picture of the region shows an economy with larger than average
agricultural, tourism, and, particularly in Wyoming, mining segments. Wyoming’s
extensive gas and coal reserves have powered the economy and filled the state treasury in
such a way that beginning teacher salaries are larger than in most surrounding states.
With each state home to at least one large and popular national park, it is not surprising
to see tourism play a large part in the economy. This was reflected in the prevalence of
NPTT candidates’ previous work in the service and tourism industries.

Montana has an overall poverty rate of 14.6% and a child poverty rate of 18.4%
(United States Census Bureau, 2000d). Wyoming has an overall poverty ratelof l 1.4%
and a child poverty rate of 13.8% (United States Census Bureau, 2000h). South Dakota

has an overall poverty rate of 13.2% and a child poverty rate of 16.7% (U nited States

161

Census Bureau, 2000f), all mostly consistent with the national average of 12.4% for the
full population (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000). Using free and reduced
lunch (FRL) figures to represent school age poverty rates, in Montana thirty-five percent
of students are eligible for FRL; in both Wyoming and South Dakota thirty-two percent
are FRL eligible. All three states have FRL rates below the national average of forty
percent (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008a, 2008b). Poverty remains
pervasive on Montana and South Dakota’s many American Indian reservations.
Likewise, in the small farming communities on the plains, poverty grows, while services
dwindle.

In conjunction these data present a picture of a region with low incomes relative
to national averages, although buffered by low costs of living. Teachers’ salaries,
although lower than national averages, as a percentage of median family income, are
relatively consistent with national rates. Poverty remain pervasive, but, not out of line
with national averages. Low unemployment rates suggest growing economies and a
market favorable to employees, mitigating the risk of changing careers. Aggregated at the
state level, the numbers presented above do not account for large differences within
states. Anecdotal stories suggest that individual districts have increased salaries
precipitously in hopes of attracting superior teachers. In some cases this is due to a
district’s isolation, believing that greater salaries are needed to draw anyone to the school
(Judy Randazzo, Personal Interview, 28January 2008). In other cases communities have
chosen to increase salaries in hopes of improving teacher quality in a market without
labor shortages (Karen Davis, Personal Interview, 28January 2008). In total, the rural

nature of the region seems to provide ample need for new teachers, so long as they are

162

willing to move to accommodate job openings, a consideration explicitly stated in the

NPI I student handbook.

163

Chapter 6
Discussion Across Programs, Candidates, and Contexts

Thus far, I have presented data on programs, candidates, and context largely in
isolation. I hope that the data are clear in suggesting that there are commonalities across
these three domains, as well as that great diversity exists within each. As suggested by
Humphreys, it is misleading to expect that describing a program’s design be ample to
make accurate assumptions about the candidates populating the program; instead, he
emphasized looking across programs at candidates who share common characteristics as
the appropriate unit of analysis. However, defining such a group has also proven more
difficult than first blush might suggest. As assumed by both supporters and those
skeptical, career changers do not appear to define a single distinct group. As with
programs, career changers assume multiple profiles and while those profiles correlate to
individual programs, they remain a partial description.

If career changers do not define Humphreys’s “subgroup of individuals from
different programs with similar backgrounds and experience who work in the same or
similar school settings” (2007, p. 30), each of the portraits might. Yet, even candidates
from each profile ultimately choose to teach in a variety of settings, both as determined by
the design of their program and by, seemingly, personal preferences. Therefore,
including local context in this equation might more fully account for the decisions made
by programs and the candidates who populate them

As I begin to build a case for the interrelation of programs, candidates, and local
context, I should reiterate that this is not an attempt to compare sites to each other, but to
fully account for sites by what makes them unique. Local context serves as a sort of

matchmaker, both shaping the candidates and the programs that develop in a particular

164

region and guiding them to each other. Certain candidates are then attracted to certain
programs, as those programs reflect shared local values, opportunities, and perspectives,
making a case for why certain candidate characteristics might cluster around certain sites.
Let me look first at the Connecticut ARC program.

The ARC program is most distinguished by speed in which candidates earn full
certification. In the program cluster analysis in Chapter 3, ARC was placed in Cluster 1,
the cluster distinguished by the speed in which candidates enter the classroom as the
teacher of record and the speed in which they earn certification. ARC candidates are
eligible to earn full certification—upon the recommendation of their administering
superintendent—potentially within six months of entering the program in early summer.
ARC trumpets the academic achievement of its candidates and the candidates do, in fact,
come readily from more selective institutions and leave more. lucrative jobs for the
classroom. Many of the stay-at-home parents who populate the program, themselves, left
solid professional jobs, albeit often more than a decade ago. In total, the emerging
picture of the ARC candidate is a highly educated, highly successful professional entering
teaching motivated to find work that has greater social reward than that found in
previous work. When compared to the context of the state this characterization of
candidates is not surprising. The high standard of living is matched by a high regard for
education. Teachers are the best compensated in the nation and, when compared to the
states housing the other programs, Connecticut has high levels of educational attainment.
In a state that values education, it is not surprising that a program like ARC is successful
in attracting candidates from relatively high paying professional work to find good
paying—even if an overall pay cut—teaching jobs that maintain, or even elevate, their

status in the community. As such, this might help explain why the Connecticut ARC

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program is populated with candidates who mostly closely resemble the assumptions of
supporters of career changers. Likewise, high achieving suburban schools view new
teachers from professional backgrounds as good desirable hires. These same trends might
suggest why ARC enrolls a large number of stay-at-home-parents. Several of these
parents describe leaving good paying jobs to raise their children. As their children are
about to enter college—very much the expectation in the state—the parents are returning
to work, now seeking teaching positions.

However, despite trends in the program, not all candidates fit the classic model of
a career changer. In excess of fifteen percent of ARC candidates fell into the socially
mobile and career seeker portraits or their corresponding groups from the cluster analysis.
Despite an overall strong academic background and relevant experience, one in three
ARC candidates still did not fit the assumed career changer profile. And, while, the
cohort remains predominately white, it does have a higher minority composition than
Connecticut teachers as a whole. Despite being in many ways a “suburban state,”
Connecticut is far from monolithic. While it has high rates of bachelor’s and master’s
degree, it has slightly lower rates of high school graduation than the other states in the
study, and despite high median family income, there are large pockets of poverty. In a
state where education is highly prized and teachers well compensated, it is tenable that
some candidates lacking the ascribed characteristics of career changers chose ARC as a
quick path to middle class income and status. Whereas more prosperous districts may
view classic career changers and capstoners as encompassing desirable traits in a teacher,
in lower resource districts these—by some measures—less attractive candidates may be
an alluring alternative to the permanent substitutes and emergency certificates with which

they are used to filling their classrooms. Regardless of their motivations for entering the

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program, the diversity of the candidates suggests while there may be strong trends in the
program, the candidates reflect the diversity of the state, where many are wealthy and
well educated, but an important subset may be neither.

Saint Louis’s Career Transition Program provides a contrast. Candidates from
the socially mobile and career seeker portraits—or the analogous Clusters l and
2—comprise nearly two-thirds of candidates placed by the cluster analysis in CTP. For
many of these candidates—who grew up in working class households, did not matriculate
through a traditional bachelor’s program, worked many years in relatively low paying
and low status jobs—teaching represents an initial entry into the middle class and its
associated status and income. These candidates often lack the elite academic and
experiential pedigree assumed of career changers. The confluence of the program,
candidates, and local context indicates several factors that together begin to coalesce into
a suggestive narrative. This can in part be explained by the CTP’s sole placement in
Saint Louis Public Schools (SLPS). To a large urban district With high numbers of failing
schools, large percentages of students in poverty, systemic turmoil, low local status, and
high numbers of teaching vacancies, CTP candidater—regardless of their
background—are an upgrade over permanent substitutes and emergency certified
teachers. While neighboring suburban districts with lower rates of teacher turnover and
greater stability within their systems might look at the same candidate more skeptically,
cautious of inconsistent employment records and the long-term commitment of older
entrants, CTP and SLPS see candidates with a commitment to social justice, a minimum
of five years in the district, continuing education to full certification and a master’s
degree, and candidates who understand the culture of the schools. In turn, SLPS appeals

to socially mobile candidates despite, or maybe even because of, its regional

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marginalization. In addition to entry into middle class status, SLPS represents a
comfortable environment for candidates who themselves often came from modest
backgrounds.

Additionally, CTP has a comparatively large African-American population,
mirroring the SLPS student body. Therefore, for CTP candidates, teaching in SLPS
provides increased community status, relative financial security, and the potential to affect
the lives of kids who share common life experiences while in a familiar cultural setting.
Informally, several candidates confided that their own substandard public school
education was a motivating factor to teach; they voiced the limited academic
opportunities available to African-American students and viewed their entry into the
profession as an attempt to make the impact in the lives of black students they lacked in
their education.

And beyond race, one white candidate expressed his comfort in teaching in a
predominately African-American high school that happened to abut the neighborhood in
which he grew up and he has now returned. Familiarity with the immediate geography
and culture surrounding the school superceded the potential barriers imposed by racial
differences. For career seekers, CTP offered a limited investment that reaped the rewards
of a real job paying a decent salary, a free master’s degree, and, akin to the Teach for
America sales pitch, at least a few years serving in a high needs school district.

The relative status of the University of Missouri Saint Louis is also worth briefly
considering. UM—Saint Louis is a commuter university dedicated to serving non-
traditional students. That the candidates who populate CTP were in large part non-
traditional undergraduates is consistent with the student body as a whole. Regardless of

the quality of the preparation, in some sectors of the Saint Louis region the very mission

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of UM-Saint Louis leads to a perception of inferiority, regardless of whether the
reputation is deserved. For a socially mobile candidate this may not pose challenge.
However, one could speculate that for a candidate with a more distinguished academic or
employment history, attending a program housed at UM-Saint Louis might demand
additional consideration. If a more universally esteemed institution in the region housed
an identical program, it would be easy to imagine a different composition of candidates.
Still, CTP is not composed solely of these ostensibly “less attractive” candidates.
While socially mobile candidates are in part motivated by the social justice commitment
of working in urban schools, so too are many of the classic career changers enrolled in the
program, even if only for a limited number of years. In fact, all of CTP’s promotional
material states the program prefers candidates dedicated to serving the urban poor, a
theme that is continually raised in the application and interview process. As students
move through the program, coursework focuses to race, class, and privilege, with Freire,
Ladson-Billings, Delpit, and Kozol punctuating syllabi. Additionally, and unique to CTP
from my research, there are several candidates with academic and career backgrounds in
the visual and performing arts. For these candidates filling a shortage in these fields in the
Saint Louis schools creates a more secure income stream while allowing them to remain
in their chosen discipline and benefit from a schedule permitting them to continue to
pursue their own studio and performance projects. These additional motivators suggest
that, while the educational, economic, and cultural context in which CTP lives attracts
many candidates for whom the program represents a path to middle class success, the
program must also accommodate candidates with myriad characteristics and motivations.
Montana State’s NPTT program convenes a new set of factors—rural geography,

on-line format, and stay-at-home parents returning to the workforce. Here, though, the

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pathway of the interaction seems to be slightly different. In both ARC and CTP, there
are direct links between the decision to teach and regional economic and cultural factors.
In Connecticut, the esteem in which education is held and its accompanying
compensation help draw classic career changers into a fast-track preparation program. In
Saint Louis, a school labor market favorable to employees, the opportunity to engage in
social justice work, and a free master’s degree unite to present a singular opportunity for
class ascension. In both Connecticut and Missouri, however, one could imagine alternate
successful program designs, and, in fact, other options do exist. Out west, in contrast, the
rural context demands the on-line program design. The three states comprising the
NPTT service area covers in excess of 300,000 square miles while populated by just over
2,000,000 people. The distances between towns makes commuting to the limited number
of campuses a challenge that creates potentially fertile ground for on-line learning. (By
comparison, Connecticut has about 3,500,000 people in an area of 5,500 square miles.)
Further, rural districts struggle to attract teachers.

For stay-at-home parents (moms, really), the on-line format proves ideal.
Although few had previous experience as teachers, the combination of ease of entry and
their experience as parents makes teaching an attractive second career. Yet, until
informed of the program, many primary caregiver candidates had not seriously
considered a teaching career. Judy Randazzo provides a perfect example. Although now
teaching English in a rural Wyoming high school, her real passion was to be a librarian.
However, a clear and mostly painless path to teaching presented itself, while there was no
equivalent for the library sciences. The on-line option resonated with candidates already
engaged in the caring work of parenting. Even if previously considering teaching, being

gone for several hours at a time—between classes and the commute—in an on-site

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program was not practical for many. On-line, candidates could complete coursework in
the twenty minutes blocks that present themselves throughout the day or after children
are in bed.

Again, as with the other target program, the largest portrait is not the only one.
In particular, NPTT has a large proportion of candidates in their late 205 and early 303
who have yet to settle on a career. In part they have been drawn west by the tourism
industry, often working at the ski resorts, hiking and rafting companies, or the associated
service industries. Now seeking steadier work, teaching provides the combination of
professional status, community service, and a schedule that will continue to accommodate
recreational pursuits, such as raised by Nick Evans. And for these career seeking
candidates, too, the on-line format is attractive. Generally employed injobs not
accustomed to standard or consistent hours and occasionally in work, such as leading
backpacking expeditions, that demands engagement for days at a time, a conventional
course structure is often prohibitive. Nick, in fact, expressed the need to be able to
continue with his full-time, if eclectic, work schedule while seeking certification.

Humphrey and Wechsler propose looking across sites at candidates of similar
backgrounds as the appropriate unit of analysis. What seems obvious from my study is
that career changers do not comprise a single subgroup, but many. Moreoyer, although
there are similarities between candidates of a particular portrait across programs, local
contextual factors also lead to important nuances within each portrait. For example,
while younger candidates first entering teaching—the career seeker portrait—exist in
similar proportions at all three sites, within ARC there are several candidates who have
recently completed masters and even terminal degrees only to decide that the path they

have pursued is not ultimately rewarding. Teaching then, presents a new career option to

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explore—and at little risk due to the limited nature of ARC preparation. In contrast, the
same young candidates in CTP are more motivated by the social justice work of teaching
in under-resourced urban schools. With candidates coming from the AmeriCorps
program and other service experience, CTP is akin to a Teach for America opportunity.
Finally, many young candidates in NPTT find teaching attractive, in part, because they
can continue to pursue other interests over their vacations. While young candidates at all
three sites share many characteristics and are truly attracted by to the work in classrooms,
even within a group sharing similar career trajectories and academic backgrounds there
are distinctions that reflect particularities of the local context.

Differences also appear within the primary caregiver portrait. Those in ARC
program appear more likely to be entering the classroom after longer periods out of the
workforce, motivated in part by a child heading to college and the need for additional
income. They have. enjoyed financial stability on a single income. In contrast, several
stay-at-home parents in the NPPT program, as typified by Tonya Richland, are
dependent on a dual income household and choose to return to full-time work once their
youngest child enters school full-time. Additionally, many NPTT primary caregivers
have pieced together limited employment while staying at home, including working a few
hours weekly in church office, taking in additional children for daycare, or completing
transcription out of the house.

And with the socially mobile portrait, race and gender appear to distinguish
candidates between ARC and CTP. (There were no candidates in the NPTT placed in
thisportrait). Of the seven socially mobiles in the ARC program, three were women and
six were white. In contrast, of the nineteen candidates from CTP, twelve were women

and twelve were African-American. The same pattern held true for the cluster analysis,

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with two female and eight white candidates of ARC’s nine Cluster 1 candidates, and six
female and five African-American candidates of CTP’s ten Cluster 1 candidates (See
Table 6.1).

Table 6.1

Race and gender of Socially Mobile candidates and Cluster I candidates In) site

 

 

Socially Mobile Cluster 1
Program Total Female African-American Total Female African-American
ARC 7 3 1 9 2 1
CTP l9 1 2 1 2 10 6 5

 

This is partially a factor of the higher frequency of women and African-American
candidates enrolled in CTP, but these differences also emphasize the context of schools in
which candidates from each program are placed. CTP candidates, regardless of portrait,
are assured of being placed in a high poverty school, likely with high percentages of
minority students. In contrast, ARC candidates are only limited by the districts that will
hire them. Although I did not consider variables for race and gender in creating the
portraits, the diversity by program within portraits seems to reflect the local contextual
factors of school culture, economy, and labor markets. While the patterns of within
portrait diversity are less profound in the other three portraits, some differences persist.

In total, the portrait diversity suggests that while Humphrey and Wechsler’s
caution in viewing programs as composed of uniform populations is well heeded, similarly
situated candidates across programs also lack true homogeneity, whether I define a
subgroup as all career changers or even by the identified portraits. Instead,
understanding local contextual factors is essential to knowing the needs and
characteristics that describe candidates.

There is a final complication raised by the interplay of candidate characteristics

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and local context that needs to be briefly explored. As has been the trend in public
schools, candidates in each program largely resemble the students they will eventually be
teaching (D.J. Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wycoff, 2005). NPTT is all white, much like the
rural population of the northern plains. ARC is predominately white. Only eight percent
of candidates stated a strong preference for teaching in a “majority minority” school and
eleven percent stated a strong preference for teaching in a high needs school. Candidates
expressing a strong preference included all four African—American candidates enrolled in
ARC. In contrast, all of the much more racially diverse CTP candidates would be placed
in high needs schools and, likely, all in majority minority buildings. Additionally, as
chronicled in Chapter 5, the Saint Louis Public Schools were plagued by low student
achievement and institutional turmoil.

That CTP candidates are more likely to lack the desired characteristics forwarded
by supporters of career changers, might raise concerns of social replication of educational
inadequacies for the students most in need of quality teachers. Students struggling in
SLPS end up with the teachers least qualified to provide a quality education. Meanwhile,
the wealthy suburban students in Connecticut will benefit from the plurality of classic
career changers prepared through ARC. However, the cases of two CTP candidates
caution against simplistic assumptions.

Profiled in Chapter 4, Amana Collins was in the socially mobile portrait, a non-
traditional undergraduate student who bounced between jobs, making enough to sustain
a household, but never fully engaged in a clear career path until teaching presented itself.
However, upon entering the classroom as a special education teacher, Amana discovered
her combination of work in the courts, the city’s foster care division, raising her own two

children, and attending schools similar to the one in which she is teaching has prepared

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her well for her new vocation. After her first few weeks teaching, she detailed a nearly
seamless transition.

While William Mueller was placed in the job seekers profile, in many ways he
closely fit the classic career changer profile. A former concert bassoonist, both his
academic and professional experience mirrored the assumed characteristics of career
changers. However, after only a few weeks, William was seriously considering leaving his
job, frustrated with student behavior and his own effectiveness. William specifically
voiced his concern that CTP failed to sufficiently prepare candidates for the cultural
norms of both the students and the school.

First, let me be forthcoming and acknowledge that teacher effectiveness was
beyond the scope of this research. As such, these observations are anecdotal based on
two conversations. However, these cases suggest that a candidate’s knowledge, skills, and
professional experience may be an incomplete metric for potential classroom success.
Understanding the cultural norms of the school and the students are also an important
consideration. It is further possible to suggest that all else being the same, if William and
Amana were candidates in either NPTT or ARC, they may have experienced quite
different levels of success. William’s skill set and cultural knowledge of a suburban school
may have translated into classroom effectiveness while Amana may have lacked the
necessary mastery of cultural mores of the school, the students, their parents causing her
to question the appropriateness of her fit in that setting.

These two cases suggest that programs may also have learned—either consciously
through the application and selection process or more intuitively—how to select
candidates who are good matches for the context in which they are likely to teach. This

would add an additional dimension to understanding the factors that deliver candidates to

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programs. CTP’s “less qualified” candidate pool may translate into a teachers who better
understand the challenges and realities of urban education, while ARC and N PTT may
be better situated to teach in their respective suburban and rural settings.
In summary, there are four main findings that flow from the questions that

initially motivated this study.

° There is great diversity with the career changer population.
The appellation career changer does not describe a subgroup of candidates populating
alternative certification or general certification programs, but several subgroups. The
knowledge, skills, experiences, and motivations of candidates in my study are extremely
varied and more accurately described by several distinct portraits.

° The context, placement, and candidates shape the program, and programs attract

certain types of candidates over others.

The confluence of local economic, historic, cultural, and labor market factors, along side
program design and school placement tend to steerparticular portraits toward particular
programs. Connecticut’s strong history of valuing education and more recent history of
compensating teachers well correlates with a large percentage of candidates who reflect
the broad associations of career changers. CTP partnership between a large commuter
university and the high needs schools of the city of Saint Louis and the complicated racial
past and present of the city presents an opportunity for candidates from modest means to
enter middle class status. The long distances and limited higher education options out
west makes the on-line structure an attractive alternative to stay-at-home parents looking
to return to workforce. Additionally, data from both the directors survey and the three
target sites identify candidates with higher levels of educational attainment seeking

programs that delivered them to the classroom more quickly. Finally, programs enrolling

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candidates from more selective undergraduate institutions were less successful in placing
these candidates in high needs schools and districts.

° Certain programs are likely to attract certain portraits of candidates, but
candidates are not a homogeneous set within a single program.

Despite tendencies towards certain portraits within a program, nearly all portraits are
represented at each site. The local context predisposes a program to attracting particular
groups, but it is far from deterministic. The program, then, serves as an inaccurate level
of analysis to understand who is entering teaching. Moreover, within portraits there can
be a considerable range of candidate motivations and backgrounds, making the portrait
itself only a tendency and not ironclad. Rather, true understanding comes from close
examination of the local context.

° Certain candidates are better suited to certain programs and programs need to
understand their context in order to select candidates with the best chance for
success, remaining cognizant of how race, class, and gender are understood and
enacted by both candidates and the students they will eventually teach.

Particular findings called easy assumptions about candidate characteristics and potential
classroom effectiveness into question. Although teacher effectiveness and student
achievement were outside the parameters of this study, the assumed definitions of what
makes a good candidate may lack the complexity of classroom reality. While it is facile to
argue that abundance of qualified candidates in the ARC program and comparatively
weak backgrounds of CTP candidates replicates the inconsistent instructional quality in
the most needy schools, the success some candidates displayed in their first weeks in these
challenging schools stood in stark contrast to the despair expressed by others in similar

placements. That the success was voiced by a supposedly lesser prepared teacher and

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frustration by the more attractive candidate, at least on paper, demands a deeper

discussion on what constitutes quality.

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Chapter 7
Conclusions, Limitations, and Policy Recommendations

I began this discussion framing my questions as elucidating the potential policy
implications for developing programs aimed at recruiting career changers to the
classroom. As I proposed in Chapter 1, there were four policy aims met by attempts to
broaden pathways to teaching for career changers—quality, equity, exigency, and fit. Let
me now return to complicate the contentions assumed by the policies.

I did not endeavor to discredit the policy assumptions, but rather to stoke a richer
discussion with regard to the central arguments. For each contention there is more than
a kernel of reality. Career changers arguably improve the quality and equity of the
teaching force and the programs are responding to demands of exigency and fit. Yet the
reality is more nuanced and contextualized. Although my findings are inconclusive, this
study presents a richer portrait of candidates and programs than the rhetoric surrounding
career changers would suggest. In light of these findings, I offer some policy suggestions
underscoring the finer distinctions of the implications of recruiting career changers to the
classroom.

These policy aims can be seen as in some tension with one another, as Green’s
discussion of policy questions has suggested (1994). He proposed that a policy question
may be defined as “a request for a fairly stable, but modifiable, line of action aimed at
securing an optimal adjustment of the conflict between different goods, all of which must
be pursued, but which, taken together, cannot all be maximized” (p. 2). Notable is his
claim that any well formulated policy must identify the full set of values that are
implicated in order to understand the inevitable tradeoffs among them. For policy

initiatives aimed at attracting career changers the goals of teacher education, emphasizing

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proper training, development, and professional socialization operate in tension with the
goal of reaching equilibrium in local teacher labor markets. One goal calls for relatively
extended preparation, while the other for efficient delivery of new teachers to fill
classrooms in hard to staff positions, schools, and districts. And further, within the call for
this efficient delivery there appear to multiple policy aims of quality, equity, exigency, and
fit that also demand tradeoffs.

An emphasis on candidate quality might limit the efficacy of career changers as a
policy tool to meet staffing equity. Attempts to address equity might constrain the
effectiveness of classroom fit. Quality might be sacrificed if there is a need to get a physics
teacher to fill out a roster, and so on. This is not, however, as simple as a series of zero
sum games. Quality and equity are not necessarily in direct conflict. Programs do
attempt and succeed at addressing both simultaneously. This is, in part, a reflection of
the diversity of candidates within an individual program who negate any easy conclusions
about what is lost and gained by highlighting one policy objective over another. Also,
tight local labor markets can'make teaching a more or less appealing option. In a local
market suffering high numbers of white-collar lay-ofls, teaching, even in a high needs
school, might prove an attractive option. Still, programs cannot meet all policy aims
simultaneously. Rather, the classroom needs, the potential candidate pool, and local
economic and cultural conditions prioritize certain aims over others. The solution, then,
to the issue of training versus staffing will likely be construed and constructed according to
the particular needs of a locale.
awn

Boosters of career changers’ potential teaching prowess assume quality to be a

combination of knowledge, skills, and experience. Accepting that definition, my study

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does not offer a simple answer as to whether career changers are quality candidates (by
design my data did not attempt to answer this question). There are many candidates in
my study with central casting credentials. Within both the classic career changer and
capstoner portraits, candidates come to teaching with solid academic and practical
experience in their disciplinary field. They are motivated to teach in order to spend their
days engaged in personally rewarding work. Many candidates, particularly capstoners,
are renewed by the chance to reacquaint with a long loved subject area from which they
have been estranged by job and life demands. However, programs are not solely or even
predominately populated by these candidates. Rather, while many candidates have
sterling knowledge, skills, and experience, many others followed less direct routes through
college and employment, often in fields that were only tangentially associated with school
subjects. Even some of the best-prepared candidates chose certification in fields outside
of their expertise for expediency. And the diversity of candidates’ experiences is
explained substantially—though far from fully—by the program and context in which
they were prepared.

The metric for quality based upon knowledge, skills, and experience creates a
hierarchy of quality among my target programs, with ARC at the top followed by NPTT
and CTP. ARC candidates, on the whole, attended more selective colleges, had greater
subject area knowledge, and enjoyed employment experiences that demanded application
of their academic knowledge. ARC saw the highest proportion of classic career changers
and capstoners—portraits that approximated the conjectured definition of quality. Yet
not all programs accepted the same definition of quality. While ARC, benefiting form
Connecticut’s well-compensated teachers and highly skilled workforce, saw quality on

these terms, CTP, facing the challenges of attracting candidates to high needs schools in a

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district in turmoil, included social justice and personal resilience prominently in their
designation of an attractive candidate. Finally, while NPTT defined quality in similar
terms to ARC, the program also valued attracting “citizens” who conceived of teaching as
in part a political act. Largely these are matters of degree. CTP, too, desired candidates
with strong academic records and ARC sought “citizens” for the classroom. Still, traits
received varying emphasis according to the setting.

While the candidates within the programs are far from monolithic, program
tendencies seem to be a partial factor in alternative definitions of quality. Even as
programs contrasted in their meaning of quality, the candidates within programs only
reflected these definitions inconsistently. While the program did prove an approximation
of a candidate’s talents, candidates still fell into multiple portraits suggesting that the
program alone is an insufficient predictor of the candidates who populate it.

The decision to emphasize some attributes over others is ultimately a policy
choice as Green indicates. My data suggest that the choice to emphasize quality as a
policy aim is related to program design and local context. Quality, as defined by
proponents of career changers, seems to be most prominently achieved in programs
where candidates are free to seek a teaching placement in any school setting and in
regions where the economic conditions allow highly employed professionals to leave their
previous careers for the classroom. Programs that consider social justice or a candidate’s
resilience more conspicuously seem to be linked to placement in high needs schools, and
come at some expense of quality as a defined by academic knowledge, skills, and
experience. Understanding the context in which candidates will be teaching appears
obligatory for understanding the general quality of the candidates a program will attract

and criteria for quality delineated by a program.

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Eqmb’

The equity logic argues that career changers will alter the distribution of access to
good teaching. In schools that are patently inequitable, career changers are one policy
response to improving teacher quality in high needs schools. My study again provides
conflicting insights. First, as with all teaching candidates, career changers have
inconsistent dedication to working in hard to staff schools. While some actively seek the
most needy students, others feel leaving the comforts of their previous jobs for the
classroom is both a sufficient sacrifice and a sufficient challenge. While there are
candidates in all programs who chose to teach in high needs schools, those programs that
are not designed around placement in high needs settings tend to have candidates who '
seek assignments in less challenging settings.

Second, to an extent the program itself matters. Clearly in a program such as
CTP, candidates will be teaching in hard-to-serve urban schools. However, as examined
above, when measured by quality as defined by academic knowledge, skills, and
experience, CTP candidates on the whole appear less qualified than their ARC and
N PTT peers. This discrepancy seems to perpetuate inequitable distribution of quality
teachers—again, based on one conception of quality. In making some concessions on
quality (or, alternately, by redefining quality to reflect the needs of the schools), CTP is
able to attract candidates who still make access to good teachers more equitable, but may
lack the desirability hoped for by many proponents of career changers. However, when
measured against the teachers CTP candidates are replacing in their schools rather than
comparing them to candidates in other programs, the equation might be quite different.
Compared to long-term substitutes, teachers teaching out of their certification area, and

teachers working under emergency licenses, the CTP candidates are likely a substantial

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upgrade. Compared to filling the classrooms with more temporary faculty, CTP
candidates eventually receive a full teacher preparation regimen of course work and make
a long-term commitment to the district.ll

Finally, as with patterns of initial placement for all candidates (D..J Boyd et al.,
2005; Cannata, 2007), my sample suggests that career changers trend toward schools that
reflect their personal experience and match their cultural capital supplies in relation to
particular schools. Candidates from middle or upper middle class backgrounds or with
strong academic and professional experience sought work in similar districts and teachers
from working class backgrounds were more likely to find work in schools filll of working
class students. And this trend was prevalent along racial lines with white candidates
typically seeking rural and suburban placements and African-American candidates from
all programs much more likely to teach in urban schools with high percentages of
African-American students. The low number of Hispanic or Asian candidates obscure
trends within these populations. It seems to be the rare candidatewilling to cross racial
and class lines in order to teach. Among those who do, whether in an urban school or, in
two occasions, on an American Indian reservation, such a decision was often consistent
with a longstanding personal dedication to social justice.

As a policy mechanism, then, the active recruitment of career changers appears to
have the potential to address the challenges of equity. However, the design of the
program will influence the efficacy of a policy by partially determining the candidates
who enroll and where they eventually seek appointments. Programs where candidates

are linked to placements in high needs schools at the outset are most effective in meeting

 

’1 CTP candidates must teach for five years in Saint Louis Public Schools to receive the
full tuition reimbursement. However, I have no data on attrition rates for the candidates
in my study.

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equity demands, while programs where candidates are free to seek placements in any
district tend to draw fewer candidates willing to teach in high needs schools. If equity is a
primary policy goal, it needs to be considered in the design of the program. Data from
this study tend to refute the assumption that career changers will, per se, ameliorate the
inequitable distribution of competent teachers. Career changers are a diverse lot. Many
are driven to help assuage the greatest inequities in schooling. Others are content to be
good teachers in a familiar environment. 1
Fit

Related to equity is the question of fit, or attracting candidates to schools where
their skills match the needs and their expectations match the realities of their placement.
Also associated with fit, is the desire to better reflect the student composition by attracting
males and minorities to the classroom. The development of programs that prepare career
changers is considered a policy mechanism to try to draw candidates into schools for
which they are a good fit. As mention in Chapter 2, there are several dimensions to the _
concept of fit. Race and gender are a factor. So too, though, is an understanding of the
institution and an ability to translate common experiences and preferences into fertile
relationships with students, families, and teaching peers.

Policy levers engaging career changers to address equity concerns are, in Green’s
(1983) terms, concerned with righting discrepancies in achievement based on
“educationally irrelevant” variables like race, gender, and class. While attentive to these
same variables, fit considers them more in relation to what these variables suggest about a
candidate’s comfort and effectiveness in a school than actively trying to right wrongs.
Career changer policies appear to be an effective option for increasing rates of male

teachers, accounting for forty-three percent of all candidates in my study——though nearly

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all at middle and high school. Career changer programs as a whole appear less effective
in drawing minority candidates into the classroom. Only nineteen percent of all
candidates were African-American, and outside of CTP only four of ninety-one
candidates identified as African-American. In the three programs combined, only seven
candidates identified as Hispanic, six of them in Connecticut.

While the racial construction of the candidate pool may not be as diverse as
imagined by the policy, this is not the same as suggesting that candidates are a poor fit for
their eventual teaching environment. The predominantly white candidates of ARC
indicated their intention to teach in lower need suburban schools, likely similar to the
ones they once attended. NPTT candidates were prone to teach in rural schools. CTP
candidates were distinct in that the district in which they would be placed had already
been determined upon acceptance. The most diverse group in terms of racial
composition, CTP candidates were the only ones intending to teach in urban high need
schools in large numbers. And here there was evidence that candidates with more
cultural familiarity with Saint Louis Public Schools enjoyed more initial success than
candidates struggling to fit into the habits of their setting. It would likewise be
unsurprising if candidates less familiar with the mores of rural schools struggled in their
NPTT placements or those to whom suburban life was foreign struggled in such a
placement after completing the ARC program.

Together, these data suggest that candidates self-select into programs that will
guide them to teaching settings that most resemble their personal experiences and
backgrounds. So it has always been in American education. While this results in a good
fit between candidates’ skills and experiences and schools’ needs and realities, it appears

to be at some expense to equity. In general, career changer programs do not appear to

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be particularly successful in drawing minority candidates into majority minority schools.
Programs overtly concerned with addressing social justice issues seem to be the exception.
If the policy goal is to attract candidates who are a good fit for high needs schools while
simultaneously promoting equity, it seems that placement in such schools needs to be
requisite from the outset. If given a choice of placements, candidates appear to migrate
to cultural settings that most closely reflect their personal experience (Cannata, 2007), and
programs that provide such a choice are less effective at attracting minority candidates.
Programs largely attract candidates who understand the culture of the schools in which
they will eventually teach, whether the program itself determines those placements or
candidates apply to positions they find appealing.
Exigency

Addressing regional, localized, and subject area staffing shortfalls is the final major
policy motivation for attracting career changers into teaching. As with other rationales,
this study provides mixed reviews to the success of career changers as a policy lever to
meet such needs. Filling vacancies in low income urban and rural schools is a primary
staffing need nationwide. As has already been suggested in the above discussion on fit
and equity, programs not targeted at particular districts are likely to have limited
eflectiveness in combating staffing shortfalls in high needs schools. While a program such
as CTP directly targeted at high needs schools appears to be initially successful in
attracting more candidates to urban classrooms, programs content with drawing career
changers to the school system writ large appear best at replicating local employment
trends. In Connecticut this meant generating a greater pool of applicants for districts that
were already in comparatively high demand. NPTT produced several rural candidates

who sought employment in higher need rural districts that mirrored their personal

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backgrounds. Individual career changer programs, then, can serve as a successful policy
strategy for addressing the teaching market misalignment between urban, rural, and
suburban schools, while other appear to exacerbate the surplus of applicants in lower
need schools.

Although my data are less rigorous in considering regional labor markets where
the shortfalls are not limited to high needs schools, my broader survey of programs
suggests that programs are larger, more numerous, and deliver candidates to the
classroom at a greater speed in areas experiencing high population growth. The
Carolinas and Virginia, Texas, the desert southwest, and California all have multiple
options available to career changers looking to enter the classroom. In several large
districts, including Los Angeles Unified and Clark County (Las Vegas), the district itself
operates its own programs to meet the continual needs and fills these programs despite
competition fromother institutions in the region. As I did not investigate any of these
programs in great detail, this data is only suggestive. However, the mere presence of
options implies that institutions recognize attracting career changers as a legitimate
investment to meet demand.

Many needs are specific to subject areas and largely distinct from other market
forces—most commonly math, science, English as a Second Language, and Special
Education. Programs attract and prepare substantial numbers of candidates in many of
these subjects, as well as in disciplines in less demand. However, there are differences
between programs. Candidates leavingjobs in engineering, accounting, medicine, and
multiple fields of scientific research provide a brisker stream of knowledgeable potential
teachers in ARC than other disciplines. Special education majors, while a need in all

areas, were most strongly represented in CTP. While there were candidates with math

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and science in NPTT, they were not as prevalent as in other programs. Candidates
preparing for ESL instruction were rare in all of my target sites. And these trends should
not be surprising. The more professionally inclined ARC candidates had greater
instances of previous work in science and math. The local need for teachers in these
positions seemed a motivation to many candidates to make the jump to teaching. In
contrast, the need for special education teachers in Saint Louis Public drew candidates
making a lateral or upward career move in terms of salary and status. There were large
numbers of candidates in CTP with backgrounds in social work and related fields who
found position-s in special education. The rural nature of employment in the northern
plains seemed to play a more significant role in placements than larger subject area
trends. Unlike more populated regions, there was not a superfluity of candidates in the
more common humanities subjects. When a rural district lost an English teacher, there
were not a dozen candidates waiting to apply. If a candidate like Judy Randazzo was
willing to move to an isolated community, teaching jobs were available in all subjects.
Finally, needs in specific subject areas in a local district seemed to attract a niche
of applicants. A surplus of teaching positions in music and fine arts in the Saint Louis
Public'Schools led to a large representation of artists and musicians in the CTP cohorts.
While not typically high demand markets, the local conditions created a need that was
answered by practitioners. While these candidates had degrees—and occasionally
advanced degrees—in the arts, teaching presented a steadier income stream than that to
which they had grown accustomed, while still allowing time to practice their art.
Therefore, it again appears that the local context focuses the candidate pool
according to what the market will support. Candidates from different programs respond

to local, regional, and subject area demands in different ways. The diversity of local

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needs is in part responsible for the diversity of the compositions of candidates in
individual programs. As a policy mechanism, then, attracting career changers to teaching
appears to hinge on the needs of a specific market, with subject area pressures more
consistently relieved across programs than exigencies emanating from schools with high
needs and low resources which are better served by targeted programs. This trend
suggests that programs be designed and implemented in light of the staffing needs in local
labor markets, while working consciously to balance the four competing policy goals.

Policymakers have options to use either targeted or wide-angle programs. As with
fit and efficacy, it seems that programs targeting high needs districts where placement is
determined upon entry is a better option in addressing misalignments between high and
low needs schools in localized teaching labor markets. Broader-based programs appear
to have more success in addressing subject-specific needs though not necessarily in higher
needs districts. Again, focusing on exigency demands trade-offs. An argument could be
made that a statewide program such as ARC be targeted only to high-needs districts.
However, my data suggest that this would alter the quality of candidates enrolling in the
hypothetical program. NPTT previously offered tuition reimbursement if a candidate
chose to teach in a US Department of Education designated high need LEA. However,
the additional challenge associated with a high need placement coupled with reasonable
tuition drew few career changers to these districts. This suggests that either offering
incentives, but not requiring them, is insufficient to alleviate local misalignments or,
alternately, that the incentives themselves were not large enough to influence candidate
behavior.

Limitations

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Before a more detailed enumeration of my study’s limitations, let me first reiterate
what my study is and is not. By design, I was attempting to explore trends in career
changers entering teaching, not reach definitive conclusions about them. To date there is
no rigorous research of which I am aware that explicitly investigates the phenomenon of
career changers. As such, this study serves as a map of the terrain drawn from several
miles above. The ensuing sketch is accurate for what? it is, but lacks the definition that
would be gained for more nuanced inspection. While I find that classic career changers
account for twenty-seven percent of all candidates in my sample——a plurality—I could in
no way suggest that such a percentage would hold in a larger scale examination.
However, I would expect a larger study to maintain classic career changers as a plurality
of candidates, with fluctuations dependent upon the program. Likewise, while I would
expect a more thorough study to maintain that capstoners represent a comparatively
small percentage of all career changers, whether they account for three, five (as in this
study), or eight percent would be speculation.

Neither did this study try to make any comment on the effectiveness of career
changers. Effectiveness—whether measured in student outcomes, administrative
assessments, longevity, or any number of other conceivable metrics—is ultimately a
different question than this effort to describe and categorize candidates and programs.
However, without first understanding the diversity of the supposed subgroup called career
changers, investigations of effectiveness likely would over-simplify matters. Additionally,
since programs have been woefully inattentive in tracking their candidates for more than
a year or two out of preparation, a study of effectiveness would demand a longitudinal
design impractical for a dissertation. Through this study I have described a cadre of

candidates at the outset of their teaching careers. These candidates—now teachers—-do

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present an opportunity to track their development over time looking at multiple measures

of effectiveness.

With these qualifications in mind, an ideal study would have several factors that

were not considered or proved insurmountable in my attempt to better understand the

characteristics of candidates, programs, and local contexts.

My initial design intended to include two additional programs for study. One
program decided not to participate after first suggesting that it would. like CTP,

this program was a partnership between a university and a high needs urban

school district. In my study I claimed that candidates in programs concerned with

social justice and the dearth of applicants from nearly all preparation tracks to low
income schools tend to have higher minority enrollment and more candidates for
whom teaching represents an advancement in social status. Data from a second
similarly situated program would have helped to strengthen or complicate claims
of the distinct nature of candidates entering high needs schools.

A second program included in the initial design was housed in the same institution
as CTP. This program, however, was a post-baccalaureate program not
partnered with Saint Louis Public Schools, and free to seek employment in any
district that would hire the candidates. Although the program director agreed to
participate, an insufficient number of candidates—only four or five—responded to
my survey despite repeated urging from faculty. Data from this program would
have allowed me to compare candidates prepared in the same institution, by,
occasionally, the same faculty, and in the same local context. This would have
elucidated the role placement in an urban high needs district played in

determining the candidates’ traits. Additionally, it would have allowed me to

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examine whether the status of the host institution assumed a consistent role across
programs.

The loss of these two programs is symptomatic of a larger limitation of the study.
Having a match for each program—sites with similar design but located in a
different region—would have highlighted or diminished my claims of the vitality
of local context. A future study might focus exclusively on, say, on-line
preparation programs to help understand what was unique to the design of NPTT
and the context of the rural northern plains and what is common to all on-line
preparation programs aimed at attracting career changers.

I have a hunch, shared by others who have researched alternative certification
programs, that a large number of career changing candidates are hiding in
traditional university-based preparation programs. A handful of career changers
in each traditional program could quickly aggregate to a substantial proportion of
all candidates prepared. However, tracking these candidates raises several knotty
issues. Looking at a- single program would only surface a handful of candidates,
and could not be easily extrapolated to all traditional preparation programs.
Additionally, identifying these candidates would be a particular challenge. Date
of birth would be one potential proxy, but may still provide only a partial sample
of the enrolled career changers. A systematic review of career changers in
standard university-based programs—beyond the scope of this study—would
present a more comprehensive accounting of all career changers, whether
confirming or refuting my suspicions.

Related to the previous limitation is an inability to include a more traditional

preparation program of any sort as one of my target sites. I did not attempt to

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steer clear of the heated debate between traditional preparation and alternative
certification. Nor could I, had I so desired. And, increasingly, the distinction
between traditional and alternative is murky. Still, this study was not meant to be
an investigation of alternative certification and I attempted to include a more
traditional program that makes serious attempts to attract career changers—the
post-baccalaureate program in Saint Louis—to avoid the appearance of restricting
my search to the alternative certification world. This limitation obliged me to
protect against the assumption that any criticism or adulation was intended to be
indictment or praise of the very concept of alternative certification, rather than a
finding aimed at a unique program. The inclusion of a more traditional program
would have provided additional protection.

There were a handful of questions that hindsight would have demanded I pursue
further. I was startled to find several candidates who were seeking certification in
subjects outside of their academic and professional experience, and further
surprised that many of these were classic career changers. In many ways this
undermines the logic of recruiting career changers to the classroom. These
candidates were motivated by both the ease with which they felt they could pass
the PRAXIS-II subject area exam and the regional job market. Although my
survey inquired into their intended subject area, I did not ask follow up questions
in my survey and only began pursuing the question more thoroughly later in my
interview process as I saw the trend begin to repeat itself.

Additionally, I failed to initially understand the significance of the status of
teaching as representative of social and class advancement for candidates.

Although this became a theme in interviews and I could infer its importance by

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perusing employment histories, I did not systematically collect data on candidates’

impressions of teaching’s social status. This data would have help corroborate

claims of both social mobility and the relative esteem in which communities’ hold

education.

Policy Recommendations

Many pages ago, I began this investigation by justifying my focus on career
changers with Humphrey and Wechsler’s (2007) assertion that subgroups of candidates
across programs, rather than programs themselves, are a more appropriate unit of
analysis for understanding who seeks entry to the classroom. While I found that
programs are suggestive of the candidates who populated them, they are only suggestive.
Candidates’ motivations are multifaceted and diverse. As such, candidates from vastly
different backgrounds are likely to find themselves sitting abreast from each other in a
preparation program. More surprising was the diversity that career changers themselves
embodied. The breadth of backgrounds and motivations quickly exposed career
changers as a subgroup that described nothing more than a chestnut that candidates once
had a career and were now changing; instead, several subgroups arose, and though still
imperfect descriptions of a subgroup, each allowed for a closer accounting of the full
range of characteristics displayed by candidates. Additionally, although there were
important patterns that held across programs, the portraits I developed seemed more
uniform within a program, suggesting that the program itself retains some ability to
structure candidates’ perspectives;

I began, too, trying to move beyond simplistic and opportunistic representations
of career changers, hoping to describe the rise of career changers more accurately than

the images that currently inform our deliberation. So I conclude hoping to avoid a facile

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observation that context matters. Yet, context did matter. It arose as an ineluctable
influence on programs and the candidates who fill their ranks. The status of the
institution, the local economy and labor market, historical and cultural trends, local
attitudes toward education, and eventual classroom placements appear to influence which
portraits are most represented in an'individual preparation program. Programs adopt
multiple designs, not only in response to local conditions, but also out of philosophical
conviction, intellectual innovation, legislative mandate, and simple habit. Programs are
distinguished by their candidates, the students their candidates will teach, the speed,
order, and location of preparation, the number of students, and cost, among others.
While many of these factors are influenced by place, programs and candidates are not
strictly subjects of contextual determinism. They also shape the context in which they
operate.

By emphasizing the interaction between program, place, and candidate, this study
has implications for policy and program designs. While place plays a role as it always
does in policy and program implementation, design features might be developed with an
eye to the particulars of context. Combining the design and contextual features from
above provides several concrete policy suggestions.

1. Consider the relative importance of quality, fit, equity, and exigency at the outset
of designing a program. Identifying balance and priority among these goals is
essential in designing a program that approximates desired outcomes.

' If quality—as career changer proponents define it by knowledge, skills, and

experience—is essential to a program, a design intended to meet only high
needs districts may be less practical than in a program where candidates are

free to seek employment in a wide range of districts.

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° If equity is a primary goal, preparation programs should consider recruiting
their candidates expressly for the high needs schools in question. Similarly, if
the staffing goal is to reduce the disequilibrium of local labor market pressures
between higher and lower need schools, a career changer program, alone, is
insufficient. A program not targeted at the specific schools where need exists
is unlikely to attract large numbers of candidates willing to teach in more
challenging settings. The net result may be to actually exacerbate the trend by
preparing even more candidates for positions that are already in high demand.

° Meeting subject area needs, especially in math and science, appears to be
dependent, at least in part, upon both a highly educated work force and
teacher salaries nearly commensurate with other professional work. Successful
professionals seem less likely to move to the classroom when their income and
perceived status are more severely diminished.

° Candidates consider fit in less enlightened terms than policymakers might
hope. Career changers seem to look much like other teaching candidates in
preferring to teach in settings that are culturally familiar. While this limits the
effectiveness of career changing programs as a mechanism to create a more
diverse teaching force, it suggests that candidates are choosing placements
where conditions are predictable and expectations are realistic, leading,
perhaps, to the potential for longer tenures.

2. The institutional experience and mission of a program’s host agency will influence
the focus of the program and the candidates who apply.

Institutions have diflefing expertise in addressing quality, exigency, fit, and equity

goals along with differing prominence lent to each. Understanding both the institutional

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history and mission can predict which goals are most emphasized by a program. ARC

has long had to defend itself against changes of low rigor by other colleges in the state. In

contrast, UM-Saint Louis has developed expertise in issues in urban education and

preparation for teachers in high needs schools. Montana State, the land grant university

for a state with a substantial agricultural sector, administers NPTT. That ARC

candidates score high on the quality aim, CTP candidates meet equity and local exigency

goals, and NPI I candidates supply cultural fit with rural settings should n0t be a

surprise. As a program determines the importance it lends to the various policy objectives

it should also reckon what educational issues have concerned the host organization in the

past as those experiences seem to seep into the focus of the career changer programs.

3. The local economy suggests design features for a program cognizant of place.

Teacher salaries will influence which policy aims are prioritized.
Programs where high teacher salaries predominate seem to favor an
emphasis on quality as a policy aim, while regions with lower salaries
emphasize equity. If the stated main policy goal is to improve the quality
of the candidate pool, this is best addressed in a local context marked by
high teacher salaries. In these markets, candidates with strong academic
and professional credentials can enter teaching without absorbing as
substantial a financial toll. Additionally, while certainly influenced by
local costs of living, high teacher salaries also indicate high status for
education that may be an additional attractor to candidates from more
prominent jobs. In contrast, meeting policy goals of equity are more
effective in programs attracting candidates to markets or districts with

lower salaries. In these contexts, the comparatively low salaries may not

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be a significant deterrent to candidates dedicated to teaching as social
justice work, and may serve as an incentive to candidates from lower
paying jobs for whom teaching represents an enhancement in earnings
and standing.

There is evidence that for some career changers teaching can serve as
quick employment, especially for professionals who have lost their jobs.
Although an implication that demands more research, this suggests that in
a weak economy punctuated with white-collar lay-offs, teaching might be a
stopgap measure to earn a respectable, if lesser, income, and programs
may see a spike in enrollment. This would. also likely be associated with an'
increase in applicant quality. The converse suggests that during a strong ,
economy, a higher proportion of candidates would come from less
prestigious academic and employment backgrounds. The resulting
exigency from such an economy might allow greater opportunity for
candidates from socially mobile or career seeking backgrounds to seek
entrance to the classroom, leading, potentially, to fulfillment of equity

aims.

4. Race, gender, and class matter and should be taken seriously by programs.

I did not set out to conduct a study about race, gender, and class. However, this

study has taught me that policy must not overlook these factors. Policies need to account

for the opportunities and limitations afforded by cultural factors. White, male, and

upper-middle class teachers appear less willing to take positions in more challenging

schools than African-American, female, or working class peers. While this suggests social

reproduction in the schools with the most affluent candidates gravitating to the most

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affluent schools, anecdotal evidence hints that these more privileged colleagues may be
less effective in high needs schools than their less privileged candidates. This question is
tricky, to be sure, and the evidence of cultural matching does not convincingly support a
judgment of greater effectiveness. One recent study, however, finds that African-
American teachers are more effective with African-American students (Dee, 2004),
suggesting that “fitness,” as variously defined, may matter. For policy, this trend suggests
that quality—again borrowing the definition used by proponents of career changers—is
not synonymous with effectiveness. A candidate’s hard skills are an important
consideration. So, too, are softer skills that, while less indicative of disciplinary mastery,
point to a candidate’s ability to relate to students, parents, and other teachers. At the
least, it is incumbent upon programs to prepare their candidates for the mores of the
context in which they will be teaching, whether that is in a rural, suburban, or urban
setting. Programs should not expect that all candidates to possess the instincts or cultural
knowledge to thrive in a foreign environment, and may require direct instruction for
candidates to acquire the level of comfort necessary to develop a rapport with students
unlike themselves.

5. Diversity of candidates is inevitable.

The above policy suggestions have taken programs as largely monolithic. As I
have argued throughout this study, this is a misrepresentation. Programs dedicated to
high needs schools will attract some high quality candidates regardless of how quality is
defined. Wide-angled programs will attract candidates dedicated to teaching in low-
income schools. There will be upper middle class professionals who will thrive in urban
settings and working-class candidates who will prosper in tony suburbs. Yet, programs do

witness trends in candidate characteristics, even if those trends can occasionally appear

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counter-intuitive. Policies can make assumptions about the characteristics of candidates
in specific programs. And while those assumptions will often prove accurate,
policymakers need to expect that the diversity of the candidates will lead to many
unintended consequences.
6. Preparation programs can act as incentives or disincentives for entry into
teaching.

The speed at which candidates were able to enter the classroom was constantly
raised as an incentive for entering the program. This seems to be particularly relevant for
career changers. While a traditional preparation program might be more effective in
preparing candidates for day one in the classroom, many career changers are also
primary wage earners and feel that a more thorough preparation program is a luxury
they cannot afford. Digging a bit deeper, data presented in Chapter 3 points to
candidates with higher levels of educational attainment seeking programs that place them
in classrooms as the teacher of record more quickly. Whether these candidates are
attracted to faster-track programs because they feel less able to absorb the financial costs
of a longer preparation program or because they believe their higher attainment further
negates the value of tradition preparation or because of myriad other reasons cannot be
conclusively answered by this study. However, many candidates did raise speed of
certification as an essential consideration and the programs in this study responded by
marketing speed as an incentive, arguably at the cost of classroom effectiveness.

Future Considerations and Final Wrong/its

I have intentionally avoided employing a single theoretical framework to explain

the multiple trends I have observed in this study. It is precisely because of the multiplicity

of these trends that a universal framework would fail to capture the richness of the data.

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Similarly, adopting several frameworks to consider the data from various points of view
would be limiting, as there is no core set of data to consider. Rather the multiple strands
each require their own framework to explain what might be happening. In this final
section I will briefly comment on these strands that need explaining and sketch a skeletal
prospectus for each of what a more measured explanation might entail.

° What motivates career changers to enter teaching?

Over the course of the last 200 pages I have observed how candidates in my study
reflected and differed from the portrait assumed by advocates. Just as there are multiple
portraits that have emerged, there are multiple motivations, both confirming and defying
traditional patterns of teacher entry. Lortie (1975), most prominently, but also Herbst
(1989), Ravitch (2000), Rury (1989; 2002), and many others, traced teaching’s historical
route of upward mobility from working class to a toehold in middle class professionalism.
And this trend was evident in this study, most lucidly with the socially mobile portrait.
However, built into the assumptions of the advocates and corroborated by many
candidates, there was a strong and persistent contrary trend. For many candidater—most
notably the classic career changer portrait, and less consistently primary caregivers and
career seekers—teaching represented a downward mobility, if not in status, at least in
terms of income. While the former trend can be explain in historical context, the latter
requires a new lens to try to understand why candidates would eschew income and status
for the classroom. And the characteristics of candidates who compose the respective
groups also demand consideration.

One path to begin to explain this can be found in Richard Sennett’s book 77w
Corrosion of Character (1998). Subtitled The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism,

Sennett describes the alienating nature of contemporary work. From the corporate titans

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to shop floor technicians, work increasing lacks craft and community. Therefore, the
traits that make the new economy flexible also make all workers expendable, ultimately
providing no real reason for workers at any level to care about anything but themselves.
This isolation, Sennett predicts, will eventually lead to individual workers “speaking out of
inner need, rather than through mass uprisings” (p.148). This inner need is a demand to
replace isolation with dependency and risk with continuity. He predicts that workers will
increasingly leave their jobs in the new economy in favor of work that feels more
important.

And these sentiments are rank among the career changing candidates I
interviewed. They were motivated to leave jobs that paid more, often considerably more,
for teaching precisely because of the alienation and expendability they experienced in
their previous jobs. As stated byJonathan Waxman in the ARC program,

if I didn’t do myjob, someone else would have done it. If someone else
didn’t do it, someone else would have done it and if someone else didn’t do
it and it didn’t get done, the company wouldn’t have lost a single cent on
the bottom line. Everything would have kept going as if nothing was ever
wrong with it. (Interview transcript, 7June 2007)
He sought teaching, then, to return to both a subject about which he was passionate and
to attempt to instill that passion in the students he would eventually teach. Passion for
work is far afield from Sennett’s representation of the new economy; Likewise, other
candidates named a desire to be better spouses and parents as motivating their departure '
from lucrative employment that kept them away from home more than 80 hours a week.
Their desire to make connections to family and their students can be understood as

blowback from the flexibility and anonymity of the structure of contemporary work.

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It is interesting, then, to think of teaching as simultaneously a refuge for mobility,
both up and down. To some, those from modest or meager means, teaching signals, as it
always has, arrival in the middle class and the accompanying prosperity and status. For
others, teaching is a safe haven from (upper) middle class isolation and insecurity. That
for both groups the classroom serves as the realization of such disparate goals situates
teaching as a unique profession in the world of new capitalism.

° How do programs look different in design and goals in various settings?

And essentialist perspective would suggest that teachers, regardless of their
backgrounds, environment, and intended location of practice demand identical
preparation and outcome in their teacher education program. However, this study has
described vastly different program designs contextualized by the local institutions,
candidates, and needs. Whether this variety is ideal or the essentialist view should
flourish is beyond the scope of this question. Rather, I would propose attempting to
explain my observations. To do so I would employ Carol Weiss’s 4 I’s framework (1995).

In her examination of school reform initiatives, Weiss enumerates a framework
allowing her to consider the different actors present in shared decision-making schemes at
several high schools across the country. The typology of interests, ideology, information,
and institution—the “4-I’s”—allow her to understand how different threads affect the
interpretation and implementation of policy initiatives in these schools. As she explains
her analysis, interests, ideology, and information present competing metrics for
understanding and reacting to policy changes, while the institution structures how actors
understand the first three strands. I have reproduced Weiss’s representation of their

interplay in Figure 1 below.

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Figure 7.1

Interaction of Ideology, Interests, Iry‘brmation, and Institution (1995, p. 575)

    

titutional Rules and Culture

The four domains of Weiss’s analysis each present a different explanatory model
for making sense of shared decision-making. Alone, each colors a portion of the complete
picture from a distinct perspective. Collectively the multiple points of view enhance the
depth and richness of the analysis. And building a model consciously curious for how the
domains interact permits more subtle explorations of the relationships of the strands than
the summations of five blind men exploring an elephant. Certainly the selected domains
are not exhaustive and choice of what to include and exclude prejudice the final portrait.
Still, painting with multiple brushes allows for nuances and interactions that would not

have been present if relying on only a single strand.

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Although the details of her framework are new, Weiss is not creating a new
tradition in education, public policy, or organizational studies by examining a problem
from multiple angles. Tyack (1976), and likely others before him, applied multiple frames
of analysis to educational problems more than thirty years ago. And Tyack, too,
borrowed from this approach that, though ascendant at the time, can arguably be traced
back to the Christian gospels—foundational and Gnostic—if not before.

While developed to analyze shared decision making in high schools, Weiss’s
framework provides a coherent way to investigate the way that a policy is interpreted and
adapted by overlapping domains. However, her framework is limited to a single
institution, even if schools are large and amorphous and she considers schools writ large,
akin to Tyack and Cuban’s “grammar of schooling” (1995). When multiple institutions
interact the model continues to provide an elucidatory analytical path, although the
complexity accompanying new institutions demands a model modified to reflect these
intricacies. I suggest such an adaptation with an emphasis on the particular demands this
adaptation places on the domain of information.

I imagine a new model reworked to reflect (at least) three institutions, or spheres:
the career changing candidates entering preparation programs, the places in which they
will eventually be working, and the programs themselves. While I am focusing on the
spheres of programs, candidates, and place, there are additional institutions at work, as
well, including the colleges of education, charitable foundations, and local, state, and
federal government. Allow a quick definition of each sphere.

Candidates
An individual candidate does not alone define an institution. However, as a

candidate enters a preparation program she brings with her the assumptions and mores of

206

the institution from which she came. Her previous experience has colored the way in
which she understands how organizations operate. Additionally, if certain candidates
within a program share similar institutional experiences, certain sets of assumptions might
be more closely associated with particular programs. Candidates also have distinct sets of
ideological beliefs. Although they may not be clearly articulated or even deeply examined
by the candidates themselves, each candidate has an orientation towards education and
beliefs about what makes a good teacher that played a part in their decision to become a
teacher. likewise, candidates self-interests, be it needing a job, desiring summers off, or
returning to engage in a subject area they love, shape their decisions to teach. Finally,
candidates use multiple sources of information to reach settle on teaching. They consider
salary, working conditions, subject area, the broader job market, and satisfaction at work
to name but a few.
Place

I am using place as a less structured sphere. Primarily I am referring to
candidates’ eventual teaching placements, but also to the context that shapes the
communities in which the schools operate. In this way I include the historical, economic,
and cultural factors that structure the communities in which the schools operate.
Therefore, I consider the institution of the school in much the same manner as Weiss.
Schools are shaped by the general assumptions of the broad educational system—“school
board/ district office/ schools, the division of high school into administration and
departments with department heads, academic/ vocational/ special education areas,
teachers and counselors, etc” (Weiss, 1995p. 585). I also extend this consideration of the
school to include the local conditions that shape the school, such as teacher and broader

labor markets, educational attainment, race, and class. As with candidates, placements

207

express a multiplicity of ideologies. And, like candidates, they do not always explicitly
state their commitments and may not even be aware of all of the beliefs that motivate
their actions. Unlike candidates, schools to have to make public pronouncements—at
least in the form of mission statements—of their philosophical underpinnings. The extent
to which those ideologies drive actual practice is less clear. Additionally, schools have
long enjoyed success with self-preservation, remaining aware of their self-interests. Not
that protectionism is the sole motivator of schools, but as one competing domain schools
are adept at deflecting policy and community challenges to their organizational
operations (Meyer & Rowan, 1991; Tyack & Cuban, 1995). Finally, information about
the community context is an essential domain for a school’s response to all challenges, not
the least of which is crafting a faculty well positioned to prepare successful students.
Understanding the needs of the students demands a knowledge of the context from which
they come. This deep information about the community is requisite in fielding a faculty
prepared to understand the perspectives with which students arrive in the classroom.
Programs

The institution of the program includes the preparation program itself and the
agency in which it is housed. In my study different preparation programs live distinct in
locations varying from colleges of education to state governmental departments, to
amalgams of colleges, government, local school districts, and charitable foundations.
Additional programs outside of this study might also be lodged in private—both for and
not for profit—institutions, individual school districts, the military, or several others. The
context in which each program operates determines the immediate inherent mores and
assumptions. As each program has a unique blend of institutional homes, each is colored

by the distinct practices of those institutions. Programs ideologies are, likely, the most

208

explicit of any of the three spheres. Their public affirmation of the career changers
model demands that they explain their motivating rationale. Again, these ideological
commitments are unique to the circumstances of the program. Self-interests also
motivate programs. They need to ensure they have a design keeping them in business,
while limiting the unknown aspects of their work to allow for predictability (Thompson,
1967). Finally, programs need to gather deep information about candidates and their
potential placements.

Weiss considers information as “the range of knowledge and ideas that help
people make sense of the current state of affairs, why things happen as they do, and which
new initiatives will help or hinder” (1995, p. 575). It is in fashioning the way that
programs gather and make sense of information that drives my revision of Weiss. While
institutions, ideologies, and interests each illuminate specific domains motivating a
program’s decision making, each program sits at the intersection of candidates and the
place—both schools and communities—in which candidates will eventually be working.
In trying to understand the interaction of the various spheres, it seems that candidates
and place have more potential to influence programs than programs do to shape the
other institutions. As such, successful programs tend to react to the institutional choices
of both candidates and placements. Therefore it is incumbent upon programs to gather
deep information on both the candidates and their potential placements to create a design
that reflects the desires of both institutions. It may helpful to think of this intersection as
an ecosystem. Unlike assumptions of a natural equilibrium inherent in laissez-faire
market theory, ecosystems require greater stewardship. Programs, then, need to amass
information on the candidates and place to protect their own ideologies, interests and,

perhaps, their very institutional survival. Additionally, the information that programs

209

gather on other spheres can help them understand what constrains those organizations
allowing programs a narrow window to influence other institutions.

Briefly pondering the interaction of influences in the local ecosystem surfaces
countless considerations. An accounting of employment rates and salaries in various
sectors of the economy creates an initial sketch of the market. A bit more thorough
consideration forces programs to determine the potential placement market for their
candidates. Will candidates be free to find positions in any school in the state? limited to
a single district? able to seek jobs in a multi-state region? The answers to these questions
raise more questions than they answer, forcing a program to consider the relative rural or
urban nature of their placement sphere, the racial construction of the placement districts,
the relative reputations of these districts and the historical and cultural forces shaping the
districts. 1

While the placement environment structures preparation programs, so, too, might
the candidates. Programs’ nimble responses to the local context must also render them
attractive to career changers. The employment rate in one sector might translate into
relative interest in candidates seeking entry into schools. So too might the length of the
preparation program, a focus—or lack of focus—on high-need districts, availability of
candidates to meet the employment demands, teacher salary in the state, and the
reputation of the district. An enumeration of the potential influences is not essential; they
will arise during the examination of the local contexts and the candidates seeking
certification in them. Let it suffice that they are potentially vast and may be specific to
very localized conditions.

In reacting to local markets, programs potentially have the power to shape them

by emphasizing certain facets of a program depending on the context at a particular point

210

in time. For instance, during an economic downturn, teaching might represent relatively
stable employment. Or a program could promote itself to the candidate who is able to
enter teaching because, in the words of one New York City Teaching Fellow, “[t] he stock
market is doing well, my wife is a lawyer, I’ve been practicing law for twenty-five years.
So at this point, I can afford to take what is in essence a volunteer job” (quoted in
Goodnough, 2000b). The intersection of candidates and placements may force the
programs to have a deep knowledge of this ecosystem and react to maintain its health.

I have borrowed the framework outlined by Weiss to make sense of preparation
programs as an institution. My alteration and application of Weiss is within, to borrow
from Kuhn, “normal science” (1996) and does not constitute a paradigm shift, but an
expansion of an existing framework. My adaptation suggests that Weiss’s formulation,
limiting herself to a single institution in her analysis, can be stretched to provide a
framework for understanding multiple actors in multiple institutions. Although simplified
for sure, I have tried to reflect the relationship of the three spheres in Figure 2, below. A
more complete picture would have multiple placements and candidates, along with
additional institutions not represented in favor of practicality and coherence. As with
Weiss, within the domain of institution lay interests, ideology, and information. Although
important in understanding the action of a program, I have set aside interests and
ideology in favor of a deeper investigation of information. The domain of information
now demands profound knowledge of the other institutions in order to both react to these
conditions and shape the ecosystem toward the desires of the program. This model, then,
attempts to understand how individual programs respond to the unique local historical,
economic, and cultural contexts and candidate characteristics to design and perpetuate a

curriculum that reflects the ideologies, interests, and institutional rules and culture

211

exclusive to each program. In particular this model allows me to explain, at least in part,
the diversity of designs found in various locations across the country and how the
candidates who populate each program and the context of the place shape the design of
the programs. In presenting my data, then, I will examine both the local environment
and the candidates as a precursor to understanding how the program design reflects the
4-I’s in their unique amalgam of institutional influences, a design not necessarily
transferable to other ecosystems.

Finally, I present an adaptation of Weiss to the realities of my study.

Figure 7.2

77w centrality of infinnation in programs preparing career changers

 

Context

 

 

 

 
       

  

\I

Ideology '

Other
Institutions

      
 

     

Institution of
Candidates

Institution of
Districts

 

Programs

 

 

 

' How do career changers differ from traditionally prepared candidates?

212

Implicit in the call for attracting career changers is an expectation that they will be
better than the teachers we have. But how do we define the teachers we have? By one
construction this could mean more effective than the emergency certified and out of
subject area teachers and long-term substitutes that inordinately fill classes in high needs
schools. Altemately, career changers could be measured against teachers who take more
traditional routes to classrooms. What defines career changers—their previous
career-should inform their teaching in a demonstrable manner if they are to be sought
as a population.

This study has exposed some potentially concerning trends linking the
characteristics and ultimate placements of career changers. Namely, quality—as defined
by advocates—is largely linked to placement. Career changers teaching in high needs
schools tend to come more readily from the Socially Mobile portrait and have weaker
academic achievement and professional experiences in their disciplinary fields. By
comparison, candidates intending to teach in higher resourced schools more readily
attended more selective universities, had academic degrees, and relevant job experience.
That candidates sought to teach in settings similar to those they attended raises the
specter of social reproduction. Bourdieu (1973) traces social reproduction of cultural
capital as central to maintenance of the class structure. Students holding capital of lower
exchange value fail to be provided with the tools of linguistic and cultural competence
necessary for upward mobility while students already with capital of higher exchange
value both receive and are better situated to expand their linguistic and cultural
competence.

Applied to this study, it appears that candidates holding higher cultural capital opt

to teach students from a similar stratum, while candidates holding lower valued capital

213

teach in settings replete with students holding low capital. Therefore, the students most
in need of gaining access to the tools of capital are less likely to be provided with a path to
cultural literacy, as their teachers are not as likely to have that literacy themselves. If
career changers are demonstrably more effective teachers than either those they are
replacing or traditional candidates, the cultural capital gap should be closed. However,
placement trends appear to replicate those of traditional preparation, where candidates
choose to teach in schools that reflect they ones they attended themselves, in turn
maintaining the gap.

And a closer look suggests that the placement preferences might even exacerbate
the gap. In the highest need schools are being filled with candidates who, based on
advocates definitions of quality, are superior to the current teachers, but likely have had
access to lower levels of cultural capital than traditional candidates. In turn, candidates in
the highest resource schools are most likely to arrive with the highest levels of cultural
capital—obtained as military officers, corporate managers, lawyers, academics, and
physicians—and at levels greater than the typically traditionally prepared teacher.

Finally, even if candidates with high levels of cultural capital could be redirected
to the highest need schools—no easy feat—there is no promise that they would prove
successful in transferring their cultural competence to the students (Achinstein & Ogawa,
2006; Achinstein, OgavVa, & Speiglman, 2004). The difference in what cultural
knowledge is valued in different social strata may lead these potentially attractive
candidates to struggle to be accepted “in their schools and classrooms. In these cases
where they prove unsuccessful there are at least two potential outcomes immediately
apparent. First, candidates will leave for schools that better reflect their experience,

again, further replicating the existing structure. Or second, these candidates could learn

214

to adopt lower expectations for their students, simultaneously trapping students in levels
of capital with low exchange value while not providing the students access to the capital
owned by the teacher.

' What knowledge and experience translates into good teaching?

Let me briefly sketch a final paper—one that would require a longitudinal study of
candidates I interviewed before they entered the classroom. This strictly qualitative study
could begin by explicitly stating candidates’ beliefs as to why they would be a good
teacher before they entered the classroom. Using the specific knowledge and experiences
they enumerated during their preparation, I could track candidates’ changing
understandings of what knowledge proved useful to the classroom and what they needed
to better understand to be effective teachers.

I will use case to suggest further clarify. Simon Westbrook, the Navy pilot,
describes the critique following a training mission as “sublime,” while drawing on his
experiences leading these debriefings as an important motivation for entering teaching.
He hoped to echo the practice in which he engaged as a pilot to both improve his
students’ performance and his teaching practice. This level of critique is largely foreign to
teaching as a profession. Following Simon could help describe whether he was able to
adapt the practice from his previous career to the classroom and whether it proved an
effective experience in education.

In a similar manner, following multiple candidates could help to piece together a
more complete picture of what knowledge, skills, and experiences from their previous
career were most useful in their practice and what was missing. Such a study could help

to better evaluate which career changers are more likely to become effective teachers and

215

help programs target their preparation toward what career changers themselves cited as

the knowledge they most commonly lacked.

It is essential to recognize that design of a program and the context in which it
operates will, intentionally or not, prioritize the demands of quality, fit, equity, and
exigency. Thoroughly weighing definitions of quality candidates against the needs of the
target districts, equity goals, and attracting candidates with realistic expectations of the
classroom will defend against policymakers’ panacean expectations. Together, the i
diversity of candidates, programs, placement, and context combine to describe the rise of
career changers more accurately than the images that currently inform our deliberation.
But the diversity of candidates, contexts, programs, and policy goals also present
opportunities. Appreciation of the multiple factors at play will allow policymakers to
target programs to specific educational and policy aims. In doing so, the diversity of
career changers as reflected in this study becomes, more than an interesting observation,

but a policy tool wielded to supply qualified teachers to all schools.

216

APPENDIX A
Program Cluster Analysis

I first conducted an analysis that divided the programs into two groups based on
their commonalities. Subsequently I conducted a three and four group analysis. In total,
23 programs were placed in a group. Six programs were excluded due to missing data in
at least one core variable. The two-group analysis broke the sample into clusters of six
and seventeen programs. The three-group analysis further divided the cluster of
seventeen into two clusters of four and thirteen. The four-group analysis further divided
the cluster of thirteen into two clusters of nine and four. The data from each of these

analyses are presented in Tables A. 1-A.3 below.

Table A.1 ’

Two-group cluster analysis of program traits

 

 

 

:3. of? :2

a a. o E z s

. a Q :n a 0;. ('o (b

n z o 8 n e g 5' U, cs 0 3

g ‘3 t-n '_] a '8 13. (b 9.. > $ 9" g

E" o. 8' 8 g s» B 0 —- 5:, "o :r. 93. 0 :r a:

2’. El '1 O :7 '5- “ E. 2’ o g S. g 03 8 0;;-

53 2 $3 9., a. 93 :3 8 Q EL 3 a. Q o. 8 5‘ :r
1 6 170 2.5 3.5 1.5 1 3.3 2 2.7 1.7
2 17 67 2.9 4.5 1.5 2.1 4.3 3.2 2.5 3
Tot. 23 94 2.8 4.2 1.5 1.8 4 2. 2. 6 2. 7

 

The first analysis seemed to focus its discrimination of programs by number of candidates
enrolled and the speed at which they both become the teacher of record and earn full
certification. Those programs in which candidates are prepared more quickly also appear

to be more likely to provide their candidates with opportunities for stipends, come from

217

less selective schools, and are more likely to eventually teach in high need schools
comprise Cluster 1. The level of certification upon entry into the classroom and

educational attainment were nearly identical for both clusters.

Table A.2

T7zree-group cluster anabm's of program traits

 

 

 

:1 9 m '3

W

.51 0 EL- E as 2 s

o z 8 n c: g 5' 8 8 B

9’ e O 3 '0 ct. a g’ 59. o. a

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E‘ o. 8" 8 g a: 3 a .... c. -o :3. 83. 0 :r m
L”. 21 "t g :r g- 0 E. 2 o g S. g ”3 g as“
53 2 8 9., o. 8 :s 8 ~21 2. 5 o. 2‘ a. 8 UT :1”
l 6 170 2.5 3.5 1.5 1 3.3 2 2.7 1.7
2 4 114- 2 4.5 1 3 3.3 2.8 3.5 2.8
3 13 52 3.2 4.5 1.6 1.8 4.6 3.3 2.2 3.1
Tot. 23 94 2. 8 4.2 1.5 I. 8 4 2.9 2. 6 2. 7

 

The three-group cluster analysis effectively sliced Cluster 2 from Table A.l into
separate groups, while Cluster 1 remains fully intact. While small in terms of number of
programs, the programs that do compose this new Cluster 2 are larger than those in
Cluster 3 and have programs that get candidates into the classroom as the teacher of
record more quickly, with more provisional certification and more on-line options than
candidates in either Cluster 1 or 3. However, despite the speed at which they gain entry,
candidates in these programs take that same amount of time to earn full certification as
those in Cluster 3, and a longer time than those in Cluster 1. Compared to Cluster 3,
Cluster 2 programs have candidates more likely to receive a stipend, come from less
selective undergraduate institutions and are slightly more likely to be placed in high needs

schools. Of all groups, Cluster 2 programs have candidates with the highest educational

218

attainment. On the whole, Cluster 2 looks like a rough average of means of Clusters l
and 3, though not consistently across all variables. Programs in Cluster 3, in turn, appear
to have more coursework upfront, resulting in greater amount of time before candidate
become the teacher of record. Additionally, Cluster 3 programs are least likely to receive

a stipend and originate from the most selective undergraduate institutions of all clusters.

Table A3

Four—group cluster analysis of program traits

 

 

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m S: 2: a "d a 0 ('0 59+ ‘3‘”
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9; 2 in" 9., 0.8 :1 o ~21 :3 5’, a. Q 0.0 a":
l 6 170 2.5 3.5 1.5 l 3.3 2 2.7 1.7
2 4 114 2 45 1 3 33 2.8 35 2.8
3 9 64 3.3 4 6 1.4 1.8 4.8 2.8 2 2 3.4

 

Tot. 23 94 2.8 4.2 1.5 1.8 4 2.9 2.6 2.7

 

As with the three-group cluster analysis, the four-group analysis simply cleaved
the previous Cluster 3 into two distinct clusters, fully maintaining Clusters 1 and 2 from
Table A.2 above. Despite creating these two new clusters, Clusters 3 and 4 continue to
resemble each other in large part, with the most substantial difference found in the
selectivity of undergraduate institutions and the size of the programs. Cluster 3 is

composed of larger programs, though still smaller than those in Clusters l and 2. There

219

are small differences in the amount of time it takes candidates in programs from Clusters
3 and 4 to enter the classroom and gain full certification. Candidates from Cluster 3
programs are more likely to enter the classroom on a provisional certificate and are the
least likely of all clusters to seek jobs in a high needs school. Candidates from Cluster 4

programs attended the most selective undergraduate institutions of any cluster.

Table A4

Cluster assignment of administrative oversight categories

 

 

 

 

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O

95 S s a

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a o o s a. w a. a m as s
3 = = a 2 3' a 3' o S- 2: o' a
53' -s 8 :3 £3 8 £33 8‘ :5 .9. 8} 53 B. 33
Two- 1 l 1 1 2 1
group 2 - 3 11 1 1 1
Three- 1 1 - l 1 2 1
Group 2 - - 3 1 - -
3 - 3 8 - 1 1
Four- 1 1 - 1 1 2 1
Group 2 - - 3 l - -
3 - 3 4 — 1 1
4 - - 4 - - -

 

In Table A4 I compare the cluster assignments from each of the three analyses
with the administrative categories presented in Table 1. Most notable in the two-group
cluster analysis is the large concentration of university-based—public and
private—programs group together in Cluster 2 and the comparative concentration of
extra-university programs in Cluster 1. The three-group cluster analysis largely removes
a group of university-based programs, placing them in Cluster 2. (The Cluster 2 program
identified as administered by a local school district is more accurately described as a

university/ district partnership where the university and district jointly admit candidates

220

and design the curriculum.) Similarly, in moving to the four-group analysis, another
group of university-based programs is cleaved to create Cluster 4. It is worth noting that
all of the programs comprising Cluster 4 are from public institutions.

Looking across Tables Al and A4 suggests that, on the whole, university-based
programs tend to be smaller and candidates enrolled in them take longer to become the
teacher of record and gain full certification. The university programs of Cluster 2 have
more on-line options, fewer opportunities for stipends and candidates have bachelor’s
degrees from more selective undergraduate institutions and are less likely to eventually
seek jobs in high need schools.

Combining the data of Tables A.2 and A3 with that of Table A4 highlights the
diversity of university-based programs. For variables measuring the amount of time it
takes a candidate to become the teacher of record and the level of certification at which
candidates enter there are wide differences among programs. likewise, variables
measuring programs’ on-line and stipend availability, candidates’ educational attainment,
selectivity of their undergraduate college, and placement in high need schools show that
university-based programs are far from monolithic.

There are two trends of particular note I would like to briefly highlight. First,
programs whose candidates had higher levels of attainment also entered the classroom the
more quickly and candidates with lower levels of attainment entered the classroom more
slowly. This was a consistent trend in each analysis. Second, with the exception of the
four programs comprising Cluster 4 in the four-group analysis, higher levels of selectivity
correspond with lower levels of placement in high needs schools. Conversely, lower levels

of selectivity correspond with higher rates of placement in high needs schools.

221

APPENDDi B

Distribution and Frequency of Majors andJob Relevance by Site

Table B.1

Distribution and fiequency of ARC majors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 1 0
Ranking (ll/=46) (N=23) (N=5)
Most Frequent English (10) Engineering (5) Theater Arts (2)
Majors Biology (8) Communications (4) Marketing
History (4) Computer Science (3) Health
Administration
Note: Total N=74
Table B.2
Distribution and fiequency (f C TP majors
2 l 0
Ranking (N =2 1) (JV=7) (N229)
Most Frequent Psychology (5) Architecture Art (5)
Majors Biology (4) Journalism Social Work (5)
Math (3) Engineering Human Services (4)
Note: N=57
Table B.3
Distribution and frequency q/WPTT majors
2 l 0
Ranking (N=12) (fl/=2) (ll/=3)
Most Frequent English (5) Mechanical Development
Majors Biology (2) Engineering (2) Visual Art
Spanish Music
Note: N: l 7

222

Table B.4

Distribution and fiequency of ARC j’ob Relevance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 1 0
Ranking (N=24) ' (N=36) (N: l 3)
Examples of Pharmaceutical Accountant Waitress
Previous Researcher School Customer Service
Employment Environmental Paraprofessional Representative
Scientist Computer Specialist Photographer
Aerospace Engineer
Note: Total N: 74
Table B.5
Distribution and frequency of C TPj’ob Relevance
2 1
Ranking (N=O) (N=3 l) (N=17)
Examples of Lawyer Court Recorder
Previous Disability Case Wal-Mart Floor
Employment Manager Manager
Foster Care Sales
Development Consultant
Note: Total N=48
Table B.6
Distribution and fiequeng) of NPTTjob Relevance
2 1 0
Ranking (N=4) (N=9) (N=3)
Examples of Engineer Church Music Postmaster
Previous Actuary Director Sales Representative
Employment Graduate Research Childcare Director Construction
Assistant Substitute Teacher
Note: N: 16

223

APPENDIX C
Portrait Development

After candidates had completed the survey at each of my three sites, I scanned
their responses to demographic and educational items to inform my selection of
candidates to invite for a follow-up interview. In my initial glance at the data I classified
my sample according to age, gender, ethnicity, salary, and academic major. This was not
a formal analysis, but an attempt to quickly gauge the demographic diversity of the
candidates in a particular site. Beginning with the Connecticut ARC program, I created
a table displaying the attributes of the candidates at the site. Having previously
determined to interview about ten percent of respondents, I divided each cell by ten to
approximate the number of candidates I needed to interview with each characteristic. I
then returned to the surveys searching for candidates who fulfilled multiple attributes.
For example, out the total of four women I needed invite to be interviewed, I knew that
three should be white, two between the ages of 36 and 45, tin/0 with a previous annual
income under $30,000, and two with an academic undergraduate major. Selecting a one
white woman aged 42 with a previous income of $15,000 and academic major allowed
me to fill several attributes simultaneously. Figure Cl is a partial charting of this work
included for clarification.

As I listened to and read through the interviews, I began to see four portraits
emerge. I will briefly highlight each.

' Socially Mobile—For these candidates, teaching represented initial entry into the
professional middle class. Often coming from more meager backgrounds,

completing undergraduate degrees in a non-traditional manner, and having non-

224

professional work experience, for this portrait, teaching represented both
increased social status and salary.

Figure C.l

Sample fiir determining candidates for interview based on survg: results

Attribute Total Total Male Needed Needed
Female Female Male
Gender 37 35 4 4
White/Non- ' ° 34 29 3
African-American 1 3 0
' ' l 0
26-30 4
3 1-35
36-45 15
46-55

4
6
8
9

 

' Capstoners—The smallest of the four main categories, these candidates were
entering teaching after retiring from long careers in various other fields.
Generally, this portrait was punctuated by candidates with strong academic
credentials and profitable careers. They planned on teaching for only a handful
of years and were only tangentially motivated by salary and benefits.

° Classic Career Changers—These candidates tended to reflect the assumptions of
proponent of career changers and were distinguished by their subject area
knowledge and academic achievement. They were often drawn to teaching after
finding their previous work financially, but not personally, rewarding. In many
ways they reflected the capstoners, but tended to be a decade or more younger.

° Career Seekers—This portrait was primarily comprised of candidates under the
age of 30 who either had yet to settle on a career of had quickly determined that

their chosen career path was unrewarding. In general, this group had limited

225

applicable work experience, but relatively strong academic achievement and
undergraduate degrees in a disciplinary subject.
Upon observing the portraits, I briefly reexamined all of the surveys and placed most
candidates in one of the four groups based on a non-rigorous analysis of their responses to
key items. This allowed me to see if the candidates on the whole shared background
characteristics consistent with those interviewed. Several candidates were not classified,
as they did not seem to fit clearly into a particular portrait.

, I then used the surveys employing the more rigorous and objective two-step
cluster analysis to create groups based on key item responses assessing knowledge, skills,
and experiences. These variables and how they were scored are presented below.

° Knowledge—-I selected two key proxy variables to measure the subject area

knowledge of a candidate: undergraduate major and educational attainment.

o Major—This variable attempted to measure the nature of undergraduate
majors. I rescaled majors on a 0-2 scale. Disciplinary majors that had a
direct classroom match such as history, math, biology, or foreign language
received a 2. Applied majors such as accounting or engineering received a
1. Non-disciplinary majors including social work, fine arts, and marketing
received a 012.

0 Highest Degree Attained—This variable attempted to measure the depth

of knowledge candidates gained in their fields. The variable was scored on

 

’2 This process is fraught with potential bias—for instance, how do you classify an
education degree (I chose to give it a 1)? When conflicted I returned to the prevailing
assumptions guiding supporters of career changers who tend to favor academic subject
area knowledge over pedagogical or pedagogical content knowledge.

226

a 1-7 scale with 1 representing a bachelor’s degree and 7 a terminal
degree.

- Skills—Initially I intended to assess candidates’ skills through three proxy
variables: selectivity, grade point average, and standardized test scores.
However, I was limited to self—report data for GPA, leading me to question
their reliability. Additionally, potential differences in grades across schools
and potential grade inflation across time The combination of inconsistent and
inaccurate reporting of SAT and ACT scores led to similar concerns for test
score reliability. As I had no confidence in their accuracy, I chose to
o Selectivity—I measured the selectivity of a candidates’ undergraduate

institution as measured by the Barron’s College Admissions Selector
(College Division of Barron's Educational Series, 2006). This is a 1-6 scale
with 1 representing the most selective institutions and 6 representing the
least selective.

' Experience—I assessed candidate experience through previous job relevance
and the salary earned in that work.

0 Job Relevance—This variable attempted to assess the applicability of a
candidate’s responsibilities in their previous work to the subject area they
would be teaching. The variable was reclassified on a 0-2 scale.
Admittedly subjective, jobs that built on subject area knowledge such as a
research scientist scored higher than jobs that had no direct correlation to
academic disciplines, such as childcare or waiting tables.

0 Salary—This variable intended to measure whether entering teaching was

a lateral financial move or resulted in a pay cut or raise. Previous job

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salary was placed on 0-2 scale with previous salary above $50,000 earning
a 2 and salary under $30,000 earning a 0. This was based on a rationale
that for candidates rating a 2, teaching would represent a salary reduction.
For candidates rating a 0, teaching would signal a salary increase.

Only candidates for whom I have data on all the variables of interest can be
placed in a cluster. In total, 84 out of 149 candidates were placed by the cluster analysis.
Those who were not placed fell into a handful of categories. A few did not respond to
several items on the survey, making their placement impossible. Many of these chose not
to provide previous employment or salary. In several cases candidates explained that
they had been out of the workforce for many years, typically in these cases as the primary
caregiver for their children. A handful of other candidates were freshly out of college and
did not have any career experience. I also chose not to include an additional set of
candidates who were already practicing educatorsr Some of these practitioners were
working in independent or religious school without a license. Others were teaching under
an emergency certification. For them the programs presented an opportunity to gain
quick certification, and, even if they were changing jobs, they were not changing careers.

My initial cluster analysis divided the candidates into 2 distinct groups, instead of
the four I had I witnessed in my interviews. An examination of these groups revealed that
of the 84 candidates placed by the cluster analysis, 95% of candidates (39/41) I had
placed in the career seeker or socially mobile category on my cursory examination of the
data were in Clusterl and 93% (40/ 43) I had placed in the capstoner or classic changer
categories were placed in Cluster 2. It appears the cluster analysis found salary and work

experience particularly robust in forming groups. Socially mobiles and career seekers

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share limited relevant work experience and salary, while capstoners and classic career
changers both typically have substantial experience and higher salaries.
Table C.1

Means of prorgz variables for two-group cluster analysis

 

 

Highest
Academic College Job Previous Degree
Cluster N Major Ranking Relevance Salary Attained
1 41 1.14 3.42 0.59 0.74 2.10
2 43 1.38 2.74 1.24 1.67 3.48

 

Note. Four candidates had a ranking of 7, or other (included college of chiropractic and
international universities). Those four rankings were not included in the means.
For Highest Degree Attained, 1=Bachelor’s degree; 2=Bachelor’s + some Master’s
credits; 3=Master’s; 4=Master’s + fewer than 15 additional credits; 5=Master’s +15-35
credits; 6=Master’s + more than 35 credits; 7=Ph.D, Ed.D, M.D.,J.D

Two potentially significant distinctions within each group revolved around their
age. Based on my interview analysis and cursory look at the surveys, it appeared that the
socially mobile portrait reflected a high preponderance of non-traditional undergraduate
experiences. One proxy for measuring this would be the age at which they received their
bachelor’s degree. And, despite many common characteristics, an important distinction
between capstoners and classic changers was age. As recent retirees, capstoners should be
older than the classic career changers. With that in mind I included date of birth and
candidates age upon completion of a bachelor’s degree13 in a second cluster analysis. The

most non-traditional candidates—those who. received their bachelor’s after the age of

thirty—received a 2. Additionally, in keeping with accepted cluster analysis protocol, I

 

‘3 This, too, was a transformed metric on a 0-2 scale. Candidates receiving their
bachelor’s degree at age 24 or earlier—approximating standard matriculation through
undergraduate programs—were assigned a 0. Candidates receiving their bachelor’s
degree between the ages of 25-29 received a l. The most non-traditional students, those
receiving bachelor’s degrees at age 30 or older, received a 2. Date of birth was read as a
continuous variable.

229

specified the analysis into four distinct groups to see how they would reflect my initial
assigned portraits. The resulting clusters were close approximations of my initial portrait
placement (Pearson Correlation=.717, significant at 0.01 level) suggesting that both the
clusters are reflected in the characteristics of the candidates and that my initial skimming
of survey responses were accurate. Cluster 1' proved to be a close approximation to the
socially mobile portrait. Cluster 2 reflected the career seeker portrait. Cluster 3 was the
least defined. Although the majority of the cases included in the cluster were classic
career changers, seven of the eight capstoners in my total sample were also placed in this
cluster. Cluster 4 was composed strictly of classic career changers. Table C.2 displays the
clusters with their analogous portrait.

Table C.2

Four-group cluster analysis and analogous portraits

 

 

Cluster Analogous Portrait
1 Socially Mobile
2 Career Seekers
3 Capstoners & Classic
Career Changers
4 Classic Career
Changers

 

Table C.3 displays the means of the variables assessing knowledge, skills, and
experience for the four groups defined in the cluster analysis. For most all variables,
measures approach those assumed by proponents of career changers moving from Cluster
1 to Cluster 4. Cluster 1 is characterized by academic majors that moderately reflect
school subjects, registering the second highest measure of disciplinary match, again, a key
assumption of supporters of career changers. However, for all other measures, Cluster 1

looks the least like the assumed picture. They attended the least competitive colleges, had

230

jobs demanding the least discrete subject area knowledge, had low—although not quite
the lowest—previous salaries, had the lowest levels of educational attainment, and earned
bachelor’s degrees at the oldest age. In terms of age upon entering teaching they do not
differ markedly from the full sample.

Cluster 2, analogous to the career seekers, is compoSed largely of comparatively
younger entrants into teaching. As a group they have the weakest academic majors of all
candidates. The selectivity of their undergraduate institutions is in the middle of the full
sample and similar to those in Cluster 3. Their relevance of their previous job to teaching
is, again, in the middle. This might be expected as the career seekers in my interview
sample have often bounced around between seasonal work and jobs that require limited
experience. Their previous salary is comparatively low, although this could well be a
combination of age and the types of jobs in which they have been employed. As a group,
they have relatively low educational attainment, again, potentially linked to age. Cluster
2 candidates appear to have overwhelmingly followed traditional undergraduate paths,
with the vast majority completing their bachelor’s degree by the age of 24.

Cluster 3 candidates begin to more closely approximate the characteristics
assumed by career change proponents. In most all measures they have higher academic
achievement and job experience than Clusters l and 2. The most distinguishing
characteristic of these candidates is their age and income. This is consistent with the
large percent of capstoners who were placed in this cluster. Additionally, their age
suggests that Cluster 3 candidates have been in the workforce for longer, rising to more
responsible and higher paying jobs. There were more candidates placed in this cluster

than any other.

231

In terms of measured characteristics, Cluster 4 candidates truly appear to reflect
the assumed portrait of career changers. They attended the most competitive colleges,
majoring in academic disciplines. Their previous jobs seem to have demanded the
discrete subject area expertise desired from career changers. They have the highest
proportion of advanced degrees and were all traditional undergraduate students. While
their pay lags behind that of Cluster 3 candidates, this might be explained by the
difference in age between the two groups. 'Finally, it is essential to notice that although
this group looks the most like the assumed career changer, they represent the smallest of
the four clusters. Although these candidates do exist in practice, they appear not to be as
prevalent as some might hope them to be.

Table C.3

Means qurorgy variables for finer-group cluster analysis

 

Highest Age at Date
Academic College Job Previous. Degree Bachelor’s of
Cluster JV Major Ranking Relevance Salary Attained Degree Birth

 

1 19 1.37 3.65 0.37 0.79 1.95 1.53 1970
2 24 0.96 2.92 0.79 0.71 2.17 0.08 1976
3 27 1.15 2.96 1.19 1.81 3.07 0.37 1962
4 14 1.93 1.79 1.36 1.43 4.43 , 0.00 1977

 

Note. Four candidates had a ranking of 7, or other (included college of chiropractic and
international universities). Those four rankings were not included in the means.
For Highest Degree Attained, 1=Bachelor’s degree; 2=Bachelor’s + some Master’s
credits; 3=Master’s; 4=Master’s + fewer than 15 additional credits; 5=Master’s +15-35
credits; 6=Master’s + more than 35 credits; 7=Ph.D, Ed.D, M.D.,J.D

An essential element of this study is to understand how candidates differ according
to program. As I discussed in Chapter 1, there has been little investigation into how
candidate backgrounds might differ from one program to the next. By disaggregating the

clusters by site, this begins to show that each of my three target programs tends to attract

a distinct blend of cluster types. However, it is also important to recognize that despite

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trends in each program, with one exception, all programs attract some candidates from
each cluster and from each portrait. That exception exists in the smaller NPTT program
where there were no candidates placed in Cluster 1 or the corresponding socially mobile
portrait. 14. ’

Table C.4

Two group cluster analysis and portrait aggregation by program

 

 

 

Socially Capstoner &

Mobile & Classic

Career Career
Program Cluster 1 % Seeker % Cluster 2 % Changer %
ARC 15 36 16 34 27 64 31 66
CTP 23 66 31 70 12 34 13 3O
NPTT 4 57 4 50 3 43 4 . 50
Total 43 52 5 1 52 41 49 48 48

 

Table C.4 shows the clusters from the initial cluster analysis that created two
clusters. For this analysis, Cluster 1 is analogous to the aggregation of the socially mobile
and career seeker portrait—largely a combination of Clusters l and 2 from my second,
four-group cluster analysis. Cluster 2 is analogous to the combination of the capstoner
and classic career changer portraits—Clusters 3 and 4 for the four-group cluster analysis.
As I mentioned above, Clusters 1 and 2 and Clusters 3 and 4 share many of the same
characteristics outside of date of birth and age at which they completed their bachelor’s
study. As the data in this table suggest, the three programs are distinct in their
composition. Connecticut’s ARC program strongly favors Cluster 2 candidates, those

with characteristics more consistent with the assumptions that surround career changers.

 

M The NPTT program had only seventeen respondents (out of twenty-one enrolled) from the cohort.
However, a large percentage of the candidates (seven) had been stay-at-home parents for several years and
were just now reentering the workforce. Because they could provide no salary or employment data they
were not included in the analysis. This will, however, be examined in greater depth later in the chapter.

233

In contrast, CTP has many more candidates entering the classroom with fewer of the
characteristics typically attributed to career changers. NPTT seems to have an equitable
mix of candidates, although represented by a very small sample size. Still, despite these
trends, each program has candidates from each cluster and portrait.

Table C.5 displays four group cluster placements and portrait assignments by
program. As with the data displayed in Table C.5, these data further suggest that there
are important distinctions between the characteristics of the candidates disaggregated by
program. In the ARC program, Cluster 3 is by far the single largest group. In terms of
both numbers and percentage there are more Cluster 3 and Cluster 4 and capstoner and
classic career changer candidates in the ARC program than either CTP or NPTT. In
contrast, although present, ARC has fewer candidates defined by Clusters 1 and 2 and
the socially mobile and career seeker portraits. Across ARC, there is very close
correspondence between the cluster assignments and my earlier portrait placements.

CTP is noteworthy for its higher representation of candidates from Clusters 1 and
2 and the corresponding socially mobile and career seeker portraits, and lower
representation of candidates from Clusters 3 and 4 and, in particular, classic career
changer portrait. Again, there is relatively good correspondence between the cluster and
portrait assignments. The one notable exception seems to be the discrepancy between
candidates assigned to Cluster 1 and the number I placed in the socially mobile portrait,
with nine more candidates placed in my initial assignment. A closer look at my data
helps to explain a large part of this apparent inconsistency. There are seven more
candidates assigned to portraits than to clusters from CTP. Due to instances of missing
data, they were not included in the less forgiving cluster analysis, while I chose to

approximate their portrait based on the available data. Of this difference, six of the seven

234

candidates were ones that I had placed in the social mobile portrait. Again, despite the
preponderance of candidates from Clusters 1 and 2, there are still several candidates who
share characteristics that are more consistent with the classic career changers and
capstoners.

NPTT is less relevant to this discussion. Although there is a distribution of
candidates across the portraits and clusters with the one exception noted above, the
sample of assigned candidates is too small to be very suggestive. Still, the comparatively
large number of career seekers and Cluster 2 candidates were consistent with two NPTT
candidates I interviewed who mentioned their attraction to the Mountain West after
finishing their undergraduate education and their oscillation between jobs according to
the seasons.

Initially I sketched these portraits based on my interviews with candidates across
my sites. I then conducted a cluster analysis of the survey data to further refine the
categories and support the initial profiles. The cluster analysis placed most of the
candidates into groups, but left many unconsidered. As I mentioned above there are
many reasons for their omission, ranging from missing data to candidates I withheld from
consideration who were too young to have had a previous career to candidates already
working in classrooms as the teacher of record. After analyzing the clusters, I looked
more closely at the outliers, examining both interview transcripts and survey responses.
There was one substantial pattern that emerged and a second that the data suggested.

First, many of the outliers had interrupted their careers to be primary caregivers
to their children—stay-at home parents—maybe working occasional part-time jobs. In
interviews, candidates at all sites fit this profile. Although there was no single question on

the survey asking if a candidate had been a stay-at-home parent, combining items

235

inquiring about employment history, parenting, and the occasional additional comments
aflixed to the survey hinted that many candidates reflected this portrait. A second set of
the outliers gathered around candidates who for family or personal reasons needed a job
immediately and chose teaching out of sincere interest in the profession, yes, but also due
to a belief that teaching provided quick entry to good work in a generally attractively
setting. Although these sentiments were raised with regularity in interviews, they were
difficult to determine with certainty by sieving the survey data alone. Therefore, this
profile appears likely to be underrepresented in my analysis.

Table C.5

Four-group cluster analysis and portrait assignment by program

 

 

Cluster ARC CTP NPTT Total
Cluster 1 9 10 0 . 19
% 21 29 0 23
Socially Mobile 7 l9 0 26
% 15 43 0 26
Cluster 2 7 13 . 4 24
. % 17 37 57 29
Career Seeker 8 12 4 24
% 17 27 ‘ 50 24
Cluster 3 17 8 2 27
% 40 23 29 32
Capstoner 4 3 l 8
% 9 7 l3 8
Cluster 4 9 4 l 14
% 21 11 14 17
Classrc Career 27 10 3 40

Changer

% 57 23 38 4O

 

Note. The N=84 for candidates placed in clusters; JV=99 for candidates initially assigned
to a portrait. Some candidates were not included in the cluster analysis due to missing
data but assigned to a portrait in my more subjective assessment.

Cluster 3 is a mix of classic career changers and capstoners. % represents percentage of
candidates placed by the cluster analysis or my portrait assignment from each program,
not the total number of candidates from each program.

236

Table C.6 shows the distribution of primary caregivers and job seekers by site.
For a small number of the candidates, I assigned them to a portrait based on their
interviews, but most were based on my reading of their survey responses. Therefore,
these are suggestive numbers lacking precision. Even making allowances for the fuzzy
results, there seems to be a substantial number of primary caregivers at each site.
However, this is most obvious in the NPTT program. At that site, primary caregivers
comprise the single largest portrait. Primary caregivers are the second largest portrait at
the ARC program and are comparatively smaller at CTP. The job seeker portrait is
small at the ARC and CTP sites and apparently nonexistent among candidates at the
NPTT program. However, let me caution again that this portrait is particularly
challenging to ascertain from survey data alone. Unless candidates explicitly stated their
immediate need of a job in an interview or as an additional comment on the survey, I was
unable to place them in this portrait.

What is particularly notable about these two portraits is that outside of the
common experience of raising children among primary caregivers and being motivated
by a pressing need for employment among the job seekers, the candidates within each
group have diverse characteristics.

Table C.6

Primapz caregiver and Job Seeker assignment by program

 

 

 

Unplaced
Total Candidates
Unplaced as % of total Primary Job

Program Candidates candidates Caregiver % Seeker % Other %
ARC 2 7 36 l 1 41 4 15 1 2 44
CTP 1 3 22 3 23 3 23 8 62
NPTT 9 53 7 78 0 0 2 22
Total 49 33 21 43 7 14 22 45

 

Note. % represent the percent of candidates not placed in the initial portrait assignment.

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Table C.7

Distribution qurorgr variables firr job seeker assignment

 

Highest Age at Date

Academic College Job ' Degree Bachelor’s of

Major Ranking Relevance Salary Attained Degree Birth
N=7012012012012012012012

 

Job

Seekers2l323ll23ll2322511411
0.83 0.71 0.5

Means 1.17 43.5) 1.3 1.25 (3.14) 0.42 (1967)

 

Although there are trends for each variable, the portrait is far from uniform. For
example, there is a preponderance of candidates who have a bachelor’s degree or a few
graduate credits. However, there is also a stay at home parent who was formally a
corporate lawyer and another with a doctorate in biology. likewise, although nearly half
of the candidates attended a college with selectivity rating of 4 or higher, there were also a
handful of caregivers who attended the most selective colleges. The one additional
variable that was mostly consistent for the group was date of‘birth. Although there was
some discrepancy based on the age of a candidate’s children when they chose to return to
work, there were no primary caregivers under the age of 32. Simple math helps explain
this finding, as a parent is less likely to have all children in school in her (and the portrait
was female, but with two exceptions) early thirties, permitting a return to work. \Nhen
compared to the variable means from the cluster analysis presented in Table C3, the
primary caregivers do not follow predictable patterns. Primary caregivers have the
second highest rating for academic majors, yet the second lowest ratings for college
selectivity. While their college ranking was close to that for Clusters l, 2, and 3, the age

at which they received their bachelor’s degree is not consistent with any pattern. And the

238

range for this variable shows many traditional undergrads, but also a substantial minority
of non-traditional students.

The data for thejob seekers is clearly compromised by the sample size. It is
impossible to extrapolate out to suggest that the trends present in Table C.7 would hold
for a larger group of job seekers. Considering that, it is still worth considering that there
are no strong trends for any of the variables of interest. Academic majors are quickly
balanced by non-disciplinary majors, candidates with only a bachelor’s degree are
countered by one with a doctorate in biochemisty, and while there candidates who
previously had jobs with high salaries, there are also many with comparatively low
salaries and three who have been out ajob for so long that they did not list any salary
data. It does appear most job seekers were traditional undergraduate students. As with
the primary caregivers, when compared to the clusters in Table C.3, they defy confident

predictability.

239

APPENDIX D
Aggregated Core Variables by Program
Table D.1

Means ofproxy variables by portrait

 

 

m
> 70 13’ Ear,"
o 76 9;. "U > A 8 t” :r
:3":— gsg Eggs-25.? 3333,32
3.3 'g 553‘ B'uo'S‘E 93'9”ng (iii
2 8a 0308 80‘ 333 8.8 3383' as—
Socially 2886/
Mobile 28 1 14 400 0.63 30,000 2.07 27.00 1.93
Career 23.21/
Seekers 24 1.00 3.08 0.74 25,500 2.38 22.50 2.25
Capstoners 8 1.50 2.75 1.38 46,250 3.38 222é8§0/ 2.63
Classic
Career 40 1.35 2.68 1.15 43,000 3.35 24'9“ 2.53
22.00
Changers -
Primary * 26.60/
Caregivers 21 1.43 3.05 1.00 2.81 22.50 3.00
Job 2583/
Seekers 7 1.40 3.20 1.60 58,000 2.67 23.00 3.17

 

Note: I have presented means and medians for the Age at Bachelor’s degree variable as
there was a large discrepancy between the two measures. I also used the median value for
the previous salary variable, as outliers skewed the results.

*Primary Caregivers have been out of the workforce for several years.

240

Table D2

Distribution of candidates according to age, race, and gender, by percent

 

 

 

 

 

tn 9 if 2 8 a E w 1? a: a; 2: g g 8"
r—I- H a CD a 5 CD 3. g Q. N t-C "D :3 B
3“ 8-2‘ 88 c4593 w ”8 2% w
9‘1 w a w E’ 8 "U 8 g i r?
Socially
Mobile 1969 O 50 0 l l 39 46 54
Career 1978 0 4 4 0 92 25 75
Seekers
Capstoners 1955 0 l3 0 88 88 13
Classic
Career 1969 0 18 0 5 78 68 33
Changers
Pr‘mf‘ry 1965 0 10 0 5 86 10 90
Caregivers
JOb 1967 0 14 0 0 86 57 43
Seekers
Table D3
Experience with children according to portrait, by percent
No significant
Direct work with experience with
Parent children children
Socially Mobiles 29 64 l 1
Career Seekers 21 83 0
Capstoners 38 63 0
Classrc Career 53 50 0
Changers -
Pr‘mi‘ry 100 57 0
Caregivers .
Job Seekers 57 28 43

 

241

Table D.4

Distribution (7f portraits by program

 

 

ARC CPT NPTT

Socially Mobiles 8 , 20 ‘ 0
Career Seekers 8 l2 4
Capstoners 4 3 1
Classic Career

Changers 2 7 l 0 3
Pr‘maf” 11 3 7
Caregivers

Job Seekers 4 3 0

 

242

APPENDIX E

Additional Candidate Mini-Cases

Portrait [fl—Socially Mobiles
Devin Stuart

Devin is 36-year old African-American male living in western Connecticut. For
the past nine years, Devin has been working at Norwich Free Academy (NFA), a large
semi-public high school, in several capacities, ranging from academic support counselor
to in-school suspension supervisor to multi-cultural coordinator, as well as assuming ,
several athletic coaching positions. Devin is also a graduate of the school. When I spoke
with Devin, he had recently been hired to teach history at NFA beginning in the fall of
2007.

Unlike many socially mobile candidates, Devin went straight to college out of high
school, receiving a full-ride scholarship to play football at the University of Connecticut,
taking advantage of this opportunity to receive a double major in political science and
sociology.

It seems that I’ve always been around and always have had a positive experience

with education. As a student and as a student-athlete, education has some

significance in having me go to college in the first place, because I had a

scholarship to go to the University of Connecticut. And I just really enjoyed the

relationships'l’ve been able to develop through those experiences. (Personal

Interview, 7June 2007)

Despite his scholarship, he encountered financial hardships and did not complete his

degree until he was twenty-nine. Soon after earning his undergraduate degree, Devin

243

began a graduate degree in education at the University of New Haven, although with his
eye on becoming a football coach, seeking one-on-one relationships with student-athletes.
He eventually worked for a couple of years as an assistant coach back at the University of
Connecticut, before becoming disillusioned with the instability of college coaching.
Despite his degree, without a teaching credential Devin settled for
paraprofessional status for the better part of a decade, enduring lower status than full
faculty and lacking job security. He supplemented his income by serving as an assistant
football coach at NFA.
[T]hree years ago I applied for the head coaching position at the school and really
felt, cause I had been there for such amount of time, I was basically the defensive
coordinator and the offensive coordinator, 1 was second behind the head coach.
And the head coach had indicated that I was going to get the job. And I did not
get the job. They ended up giving it to somebody that did not have the
experience, but was a teacher. And that kind of really showed me
something. . .about paraprofessionals, They’re not viewed, I don’t believe, on the
same status as teachers. And I just started taking clasSes. (Personal Interview, 7
June 2007)
Both for his own personal desire to grow professionally and to earn the security and
compensation that accompanies full faculty status, Devin decided enrolled in the ARC
program.
In some ways Devin’s story differs from the typical socially mobile portrait. He
has taken a different educational track, earning a bachelors degree from a flagship public
institution majoring in traditional academic disciplines. He continued his studies,

beginning graduate study. However, in many other ways he fits the model quite neatly.

244

As he is quick to share, his scholarship made undergraduate study feasible. Since his
graduation, Devin has had no clear career track. Although he has worked continually in
education, his work has been comparatively low status and low pay. Teaching will
represent Devin’s greatest annual salary. Additionally, his previous work has not made
direct use of his major. Likewise, he will have limited practical experience in his
disciplinary field to inform his classroom practice.

As with Amana, Devin associates teaching more with job security and middle class
status than service. However, he does value education, viewing his role as a teacher as a
opportunity “to persuade students to have an appreciation for education and also being
and African-American, also giving a perception of what an African-American teacher can
be like” (Personal Interview, 7June 2007). This is a more targeted mission than simply
“doing good.” Devin views the educational opportunities he has enjoyed as integral to
achieving middle class status. He now hopes to spread his belief that education yields
security.

Portrait B—Career Seekers

Melissa Thompson

Melissa is a twenty-seven year old white woman, living in central Connecticut.
Melissa typifies the Portrait B candidate in as many ways as she contradicts it. Although
she has worked steadily in a professional setting as an accountant for five years, she has
never been dedicated to the work, nor has she much enjoyed it. While more lucrative, to
Melissa accounting has held little more significance than the short-term service work that
is common to other candidates in this portrait. ARC, then, presented her with an
opportunity to assess her previous career decisions and take time to examine what she

deems essential to a career and what is expendable. She has come to realize that she

245

ended up in accounting through a sort of academic passivity, finding herself on a track
that did not reflect what she considers personally important.
As an undergraduate at small Catholic college in Connecticut, Melissa entered
her college with no clear career interests.
I just started college and orientation.. . . [My academic advisor] didn’t really ask me
what I wanted to do. He kind of just said, “\Nhat kind of classes do you want to
take?” “Well, I took accounting in high school.” “Let’s start you off with an
accounting class.” And I never really thought about what I wanted to do with my
life and it was just kind of convenient and I fell into it. Never thought about being
an accountant. And I after I graduated, figured, “\Nell let me follow this.” The
ball just kept rolling and I graduated, got a job and then after five years of doing
accounting I thought, “Darn it, if only I had gone back and thought about and
said in you know10 years you’re going to be worried about what you’re doing.”
(Personal Interview, 7June 2007)
In high school she had enjoyed accounting classes, but less than the math than the formal
elements of the discipline. The tidiness that accompanied organizing and presenting
information on ledgers appealed to her sense of order, more than the analysis of the data.
And this continued in her work as an accountant. “I don’t care why revenue went up....I
don’t mind doing the plug and chug, putting in the numbers in the Excel spreadsheet, but
when it comes to actually thinking about it, I don’t have any interest in it at all” (Personal
Interview, 7June 2007). Still, her career inertia eventually resulted in an MBA.
Her failure to consider the implications of her career track led to a miserable

existence. Despite a very good salary and generous benefits, work as an accountant was a

246

miserable life for Melissa. She lamented the isolation of the work—she described it as a
“cubicle sea”—and her work’s impotence to directly impact anyone.

I just want to work with people andjust in 20 years I can look back and say, “I

really liked what I was doing and fell like I mad difference.” It’s very depressing

after a while when you’re just like, ‘Well, what’s the point? What’s the point of
getting up and going to work? I could easily call up sick and do the work
tomorrow, easily, and nothing bad would happen.” (Personal Interview, 7June

2007)

In contrast, to Melissa, teaching held the promise of making a perceptible influence on
students.

Reflecting on what she truly enjoyed about high school math, she recalls an
algebra teacher who had a talent for explaining the work. Melissa respected how he
clarified difficult concepts, now understanding that more than the discipline itself, she was
attracted to how to translate the material to allow others access to it. This is different
orientation to the discipline than seen in many other career changers. Similar to Nick,
but unlike many candidates from other portraits, Melissa was not motivated to by a desire
to reengage in her subject area. In fact, she was not particularly interested in math.
Rather she was attracted to the interaction with students. Math was simply the discipline
in which she had sufficient credits to earn her certification.

Melissa, her husband already a teacher, was also motivated by the potential the
academic calendar lent to a better family life.

[l]n the summertime I’m at work completely miserable and he’s home and I’m

just crying that, “I want to be home with you and I’m here and it sucks and I’m

miserable and I don’t want to sit here.. . .”It was more that if I was at a job and I

247

was happy it would be okay, but there was a complete imbalance in that I was just

unhappy and that was it. (Personal Interview, 7June 2007)

The combination of leaving her previous work, beginning to teach, and the
accompanying lifestyle changes were worth a nearly $15 ,000 pay cut to Melissa. Still,
these factors alone may have been an insufficient trigger for her to leave her previous
work.

Melissa had been enrolled in teacher preparation classes for nearly four years,
taking a class or two every other semester. Still despite twenty-six credits toward her
certification, she figured that it would have likely taken her another four years to
complete her program. In addition she would have had to quit her previous job to
complete her student teaching, an additional cost. Therefore, the ARC program allowed
her to accelerate her career and lifestyle change.

As I mentioned at the outset of this case, Melissa is not completely representative
of career seekers. She had a professional job, an MBA, and a stable career track had she
chosen to stay on it. Additionally, she took a pay cut to become a teacher and moved to a
less formal working environment. All of these factors are peculiar to Melissa within
Group B. Still, when focusing on her rationale for entering accounting and her
dedication to her previous work, she echoes her career seeking peers. After college she
simply applied for a job and received one. She readily admits that she lent her work the
minimum expected level of effort and demonstrated little dedication to her employers.
She neither viewed her accounting work as a career nor as contributing to the success of
the company stating, “I don’t feel like I made a difference at all. I just felt like I was
waking up everyday to go in to get a paycheck to go home” (Personal Interview, 7June

2007). Additionally, she maintains an exploring orientation to teaching. Although she is

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committed to teaching and currently plans to stay in the classroom for many years, she
was motivated to enter teaching in large part by external factors such as the academic
calendar and the quick transition it provided from her accounting position. Finally, she
expressed a great deal of apprehension in leading a class, openly wondering if teaching is
the right choice.
I really am anxious with student teaching, cause that’s when it’s going to be like
either I can’t do this or I can. Then I’ll have to make a decision, but I really want
to do it am I’m going to work hard at it. (Personal Interview, 7June 2007)
Melissa has no back-up plan if she finds teaching frustrating, neither has she embarked on
a path to teaching that demands an investment of (time or money from which she could
not recover. If teaching does not work for her, it is likely that she can create new options.
Portrait D—Classic Career Changers
jonathan Waxman
“Although on one side of the coin, I’m not looking to change the world, on the other side

of the coin I don’t want to be worth totally nothing.” (Personal Interview, 7June 2007)

Jonathan is a 33 year-old white male living in central Connecticut. like many in
the ARC program, for the past 7 years he has worked for a large insurance corporation,
first as an analyst and later as a project manager specializing in information technology
projects. A graduate of Washington University in Saint Louis, he earned his bachelor’s
degree in Earth Science and later a Master’s degree in Information Technology Systems
from George Washington University. like Tommy,Jonathan decision to enter teaching
was influenced by a similar confluence of factors: decreased enjoyment in his old job,

increased family commitments, and desire to do work that felt important. Also like

249

Tommy, there was an additional trigger-inJonathan’s case his wife’s income—that
made his yearning to change careers attainable.

Jonathan closely matches the characteristics of career changers assumed by their
proponents. He has an academic degree from a highly selective university. He
experienced success in his previous work, even though his job did not direct draw on his
academic credentials. And he is entering teaching so he feels his paycheck comes from
doing important work.

Jonathan enjoyed many aspects of his previous job, finding his projects drew on a
large set of skills and each project was a unique challenge. Despite enjoying the problem
solving demanded by individual projects, the longer he stayed at his previous work the
more he felt there was nothing

more unfulfilling than working as a project manager in a huge insurance

company... . [I]f I didn’t do my job, someone else would have done it. If someone

else didn’t do it, someone else would have done it and if someone else didn’t do it
and it didn’t get done, the company wouldn’t have lost a single cent on the bottom
line. Everything would have kept going as if nothing was ever wrong with it.

(Personal Interview, 7June 2007)

Teaching provided him with the opportunity to engage in work he felt was
important while also allowing him to engage in a subject area—Earth Science—for which
he had a passion. In part it is his interest in environmental studies that informs his belief
in the redeeming value of teaching. He relishes the chance to engage students in the
principal contemporary science topics, hoping to help them develop as scientific thinkers.
Although he had experienced success in his previous work, he longed to return to his

disciplinary subject. His work in the insurance industry may have both drawn on and

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honed the analytical skillsJonathan developed earning his bachelor’s degree, but they did
not tap into his zeal for Earth sciences—an enthusiasm that dominated his pleasure
reading and even influenced family vacation destinations.
Additionally,Jonathan’s first child was born just as he left his previous job last
February, serving as a
kind of a kick in the pants. . ..Your whole life is going to be tossed upside down
when you have the baby. Everything is going to change. It would be easier to just
stay at my job. But if everything is going to get tossed upside down anyway and
I’m going to start new, let’s really start new....Get up. Get going. You’ve talked
about making this change for two years, do it. Now is the time. Your life’s getting
tossed upside down anyways, so what does it matter. (Personal Interview, 7June
2007)
He was also attracted to teaching’s schedule allowing him to often get home earlier in the
day, saving money on childcare, yes, but more importantly “being able to spend more
time with her in the summer” (Personal Interview, 7June 2007) and after school.
Although his work experience was not directly transferable to the classroom and
his experience working with children was limited to his newborn daughter, he also .
stressed the important role his disabled sister played in teaching him understand how to
help others learn.
In one sense she’s a perpetual youth. So in one sense I’ve worked with youth my
whole life. She’s different than a 7‘h grader in my class, but the patience, the
trying something that didn’t work. “Okay let me try it this way. It didn’t work.

Let me try it this way it didn’t work. Try it this way. Oh it worked it clicked.”

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Trying something until it clicks, it makes an impact. In that way I think I’m a

little prepared. (Personal Interview, 7June 2007)

As with so many other candidates who gained soft skills for the classroom through
training new recruits, working in a day care, coaching, or being a parent,Jonathan
emphasizes the significance of these experiences in preparing him for the classroom. He
feels that he has learned both to be a better teacher and a more complete person through
caring for his sister.

Jonathan was generally positive about the ARC program, citing the ease with
which could earn his certification. He had briefly investigated other programs, finding
they required a much greater time commitment that translated into greater costs both in
terms of tuition and income lost while enrolled in the program. Although the additional
expense and time commitment did not completely rule out other programs, when
compared to ARC, he did not see a greater value in longer preparation.

like Tommy, the pushes of unrewarding work along’with the pulls of potential
social impact in the classroom and growing family demands primed him for a change.
Still, he admits that his wife’s income was the ultimate factor allowing him to pursue the
change.

Frankly, she earns a lot of money, so I can afford to take a little time off and then

make less without it really hurting our lifestyle. So that’s actually an important

part of it. If she were making a lot less. money, I don’t know that I would even

consider this. (Personal Interview, 7June 2007)

ForJonathan, the desire and opportunity to make a change alone were insufficient. The
security provided by his wife’s income served as the trigger.

Portrait E—Primary Caregivers

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Karen Davis
Karen Davis is a forty-seven year old white woman living in central Montana.
The mother of two teenage boys, Karen has spent the past eighteen years largely out of
i the regular workforce, but deeply engaged in community activism, including political
organizing and youth advocacy. Most recently she ended her nine-year term on the local
school board—the last five as president. And she speaks with the confidence and
authority of person accustomed to the public eye. She describes her desire to engage in
community work as a lifestyle choice, not an economic one.
If anything, I would say my version of my career track is being a mother and
doing a lot of community service. And that’s not to say that I’m in a situation
economically that allowed me. . .it’s a choice that my husband and I made. Not a
choice based on our economic situation as much as what we feel strongly about.
And so we’ve made a lot of choices about living more modestly and doing
things. . .We have a lot of faith in the democratic process. We have a lot of belief
in grassroots work. We have a lot core values about what it means to maintain a
democracy. (Personal Interview, 28January 2008)
As a stay-at-home parent, she was able to engage in this work her family deemed as
essential, while still being to chaperone her children’s fieldtrips.

The design of NPTT expects candidates to find a full-time placement as the teacher
of record after completing the initial nine-credit sequence. Karen, however, sought and
received special dispensation to work as a student teacher this year instead of as the
teacher of record. She managed to create a student teaching experience allowing
placements in multiple classrooms over the course of the school year. Holding a

bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in French, she will student teach in a high

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school French class for a full semester, and for a approximately a quarter each in a middle
school social studies and a middle school gifted and talented classroom. like many career
changers, and especially common among primary caregivers, Karen is somewhat a
“prisoner of geography.” However, as the student handbook explains, “[i]t is not unlikely
for participants to move to a new town to accept their first teaching position”(Montana
State University, 2006). Returning to work after living in the community for nearly two
decades, she lacks the mobility of a typical starting teacher. Her husband’s job is well
established, as are her children’s schooling and friends. She is not able to pack up the
family to follow available jobs. That she lives in Montana exacerbates her limitations.
Here, the next district is not five miles down the road, but thirty, and that road traverses a
mountain. Therefore, despite her dedication to teaching, she has resigned herself to
waiting until a job opens in her hometown. In the meantime, she is hedging her bets by
seeking certification—or in the case of gifted education where there is no Montana
certification—and experience in as many fields as possible, therefore making her eligible
for multiple openings.

This does not mean that she lacks a dedication to her subject area. In fact
Karen’s work and life experiences suggest a deep and continuing dedication to her
disciplines. Upon graduation from Stanford University, she converted a specific interest
in Asian history, and a dabbling inJapanese language, into work inJapan. Early in her
work career she served as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill. She has likewise sought to
. ways to engage in French culture in language, including “running the business end of a
French pastry shop for a while” (Personal Interview, 28January 2008). Consistent with

the stay-at-home parents and echoing many proponents of career changers, Karen cites

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the relevance of her experience as a mother in preparing her for the classroom.
However, her relevant employment experience occurred many years ago.

Karen’s most immediately applicable experience is her years on the local school
board. Her service the board is unique among the career changers in my study and
demonstrates similar levels of systemic and policy knowledge, as well as dedication to
public education. In our conversation she spoke smartly about contracts—sitting through
the last five negotiation sessions—qualities of good administrators, and the role of the
state legislature, suggesting a broader perspective than typical of student teachers.
However, in Karen’s school board tenure also lays the genesis of her decision to enter the
classroom.

The more engaged she became in her work with the board, the further she drifted
from the realities of practice.

[A] lthough the work is very valuable especially on the policy end of things, the

longer you’re there the farther away from the kids you get. Just because there are

so many obligations that you have in your duties as school board member you

can’t get down to the place where you’re really connected with students again. I

mean you’re going an testifying at the legislature about funding and you’re trying

to set the budget and you’re talking about policies and try to figure out how all
those things relate to the kids, but you don’t get to see the kids as much as I’d like

to see the kids. (Personal Interview, 28January 2008)

As her term came to an end, NPTT provided a path to engage in the daily work of

2“

teaching. It was also fortuitous that her boys schedules are such now in high school that
I can go back and do something like this and it doesn’t impact them the same way it

would have. But I really wouldn’t have done it sooner” (Personal Interview, 28 January

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2008). This confluence of events—the end of her school board term, her children
entering high school, and the chance NPTT provided—made this the opportune time to
enter teaching.

like so many candidates, Karen cited NPTT’s design as integral to both her
choice of program and her final decision to teach. Karen investigated a local college’s
preparation program only to find the length andcost untenable. She explains that with
NPTT, “you’re able to do the certification coursework and not start over with freshmen
math which they were going have me take, and a public speaking class after I’d been the
president of the school board for five years” (Personal Interview, 28January 2008). In
contrast, through NPTT her undergraduate studies provided sufficient coursework to
earn certification in both French and history. Additionally, the asynchronous on-line
design was family-friendly, allowing her to complete her coursework according to her
availability—mt 8:30 am some days and 10:00 pm on others. Additionally, she felt that
the on-line structure provided a good scaffold for the realities of classrooms. like Karen,
her classmates had capricious schedules creating conversations that were iterative. Karen
would return multiple times to the same discussion thread as additional classmates
responded, each time refocusing her thinking and leading to more considered responses.
As she entered the classroom, she found a similar strategy useful in responding to student
work.

Already in the classroom I can see that when I’m going through the papers in

French or I’m grading the kids work, I need to loop back on some stuff that they

didn’t get. And if I never look back at the stuff, if I’m just correcting for, “Did

they complete everything.” That’s not going tell me what they didn’t get the first

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time that needs another go through and I just think the coursework has made that

part of the practice (Personal Interview, 28January 2008).

Whether this was intended by the design, she is not sure. She has, however, internalized
the practice. ’
judy Randazzo

Judy is a fifty-two year old white woman teaching high school English in rural
northern Wyoming. Over the course of her adult lifeJudy has worked in several fields
from sales to banking to not-for-profit management—jobs that she claims are more
similar than at first blush; “you’re begging people for money” (Personal Interview, 28
January 2008). With the birth of her daughter eighteen years ago,Judy chose to stay
home. Quickly she found that she “need[ed] to get out of the house” and began her
undergraduate studies, which she completed seven years later with a bachelor’s in
English. During those years, and for several years after she completed her degree,Judy
was out of the workforce and only returned after she and her husband divorced. For the
past five years she has been working steadily first selling cell phones and later “selling
more loans and more credit cards to people. . . [who] don’t really need these things”
(Personal Interview, 28January 2008). Frustrated with her jobs she began to look for
something where she could be of help to people, eventually landing in her high school
English classroom.

Judy’s passion for English is immediately evident. Although teaching was not her
expected career path—her love of literature harbored a dream to be a librarian—she
expressed the fortune she felt to be able ‘to turn a hobby into a career. More evidence of
her dedication to her discipline was clear from her frustration of being in a tiny town in

the mountains with a poor high school library and that, “every single book on my want

257

read list I have to interlibrary loan. It’s a pretty sad little place” (Personal Interview, 28
January 2008). In fact she consistently distinguished herself from the residents of
Wyoming who she felt showed no appreciation for education. Finding her way to the
classroom through. NPTT she felt was clearly some sort of sign. “I have stupid degree in
English. There’s nobody in Wyoming that gives a rip if you have a degree in English.
They don’t care if you can read and write and spell” (Personal Interview, 28January
2008). The opportunity to instill youth with a subject she loved was a very attractive.
Despite her love for education in general and literature more specifically, she was
not a traditional undergraduate student. She did not begin college until she was in her
mid-30$ and then attended a commuter college and was limited to enrolling in largely
night classes after her husband returned home from work. While in contrast to many
primary caregivers, it is far from a unique path among the parents in the study. It is
worth highlighting that, although the birth of her child pulled her from the workforce for
many years, it is also that birth that presented her with the opportunity to go back to
school, eventually presenting her with broader and more lucrative employment choices.
like many primary caregivers,Judy cites both her age and her experience as a
parent as central to her initial success in the classroom.
Not with me, but last year there was a brand new teacher just fresh out of college,
a young man, and they made his life really miserable last year. But I’m older, and
you know what, I don’t really care. There’s not a lot they can do to me. (Personal
Interview, 28January 2008)
She continues by explaining that although it has been tough to adjust to and be accepted

in a small, “insular” town—she has to drive an hour to do her grocery shoppingh—she has

258

little concern for making friends. Besides, the demands of her coursework in conjunction
with the stress of being a first year teacher provide little chance to socialize.

Judy is quick to note that her previous work experience has little direct link to
teaching outside that she has always enjoyed working with people. Frustrations in her
previous job led her to seek a new career. She tired of selling of credit to people who
“don’t really need these things. They need to quit borrowing money, not borrow more
money” (Personal Interview, 28January 2008). She quite soberly shared that her
frustration led her literally to pray—including at least once an Indian sweat lodge—to
God to find work where she would feel of service to others. A little while later, she came
across a newspaper advertisement promoting the NPTT program. She quickly applied,
and when she was accepted she took it as a sign from God that she was doing the right
thing. Teaching provided her a way to center her life around English and be'of help,
“because who needs more help than teenagers” (Personal Interview, 28January 2008).
Still, despite teaching’s attractions,Judy was hesitant. Findinga job in Wyoming
provided a salary that she estimates is double that of starting teachers just across the
boarder into Montana. Therefore, teaching provided essentially a lateral move in terms
of income. She feared her ability to live off $25,000 salary she foresaw to the north.

Althouthudy voices some minor concerns with NPTT, mostly around
inconsistent grading, she adamantly credits the program with getting her into teaching.
Unlike many career changers, and unlike the prevailing assumptions,Judy had not
longed for the classroom for years. In fact, she first considered teaching that day she
came across the advertisement in the newspaper. Not only did NPTT sow the idea of
teaching in her head, but the even then the classroom could not have been realized

without the fast-tracked path provided by the program. “I never would have even

259

considered it, well, because there would have been no way for me to do it without going
totally back to school and starting all over and, nah, I wouldn’t have done that” (Personal
Interview, 28January 2008). Years earlier, she had considered returning to gradUate
school for a degree in library sciences. However, her marriage ended, rendering her a
single parent without the financial flexibility to return to school. likewise, taking on two
years of full-time coursework and associated student loans, while having to leave a full-
time job would have been similarly unfeasible. Through NPTT, the on-line courses
provided the flexibility to continue her job until her school year started, and the relatively
low tuition” ($5,000) was within her means.
Portrait F—j’ob Seekers

jean Ludlow

Jean is a forty-three year old white woman living in Connecticut. A former
research scientist,Jean holds both a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in biochemistry.
After working as a research associate and managing laboratories in a university for several
years, she spent five years working for a pharmaceutical start-up before the research unit
was eventually dismantled. Although she flourished in the wdrk and it was very lucrative,
Jean’s experience in industry left her dubious of what she perceived as a vicious desire to
make money. When I spoke with her in the summer of 2007 she had been unemployed
for more than a year, only recently seriously considering the benefits teaching provided as
a career option.

Jean has deep knowledge of biochemistry. Both her degrees and practice
demanded theoretical and applied knowledge of her discipline. For several years her
main job responsibility was to produce and analyze peptides for use in drug research.

This, coupled with her years running a large university research facility, developed her

260

extensive skill in the laboratory, likely skills in high demand in a high school science class.

Yet, despite her experience she expressed discomfort with the appropriateness of her

subject area knowledge.
I took AP biology in high school in the early 803 and that was the last general
biology course I had in my life. And so I started studying for this state Praxis
exam and I was like. . .no way even in college would I have seen that much in a
general bio as on the Praxis exam and certainly in AP bio it’s never going to get
that level of coverage. I was a chem. major as an undergrad, almost to the bitter
end. I changed to biochem really late, so I don’t have a lot of biology. (Personal
Interview, 8June 2007)

Still her reticence masked her deep understanding of how knowledge is created in biology

and her insights on how to make biology relevant to the experience of students.
I’m a biology thinker. I used my biochem to solve biology projects. I didn’t use
my biochem to solve chemistry projects. When I think about teaching biology, I
think of things about biology, or I think about cool things I’d love the kids to think
about. When I think about chemistry it’s very static. There’s a big gaping hole
there. It’s easier to see biology in our lives. If nothing else we’re biological
entities. So if you’re trying to make that connection that this is important because
you actually live this, it’s so much easier in biology. (Personal Interview, 8June
2007)

Jean’s comments reveal a depth of disciplinary knowledge that was only rarely expressed

by her peers, reflecting her deep engagement with the discipline in her previous work.
Although not facing the same dire financial decisions as other job seekers,Jean’s

severance and unemployment benefits expired leaving her and her husband to “liv[e] on

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my husband’s paycheck, which is doable, but. . .a really frugal existence” (Personal
Interview, 8June 2007). Still,Jean consistently voiced ambivalence toward returning to
industry. She enjoyed the work a great deal, finding the challenges rewarding. However,
she was disaffected by the relentless drive for profits and the implications that drive raised
for job security. She described the industry as continually searching for a “home run”
drug that will reap great financial gain, with health and wellness a secondary concern, at
best. This led to constant job turnover where'a three-year stint in a single company is
considered very stable. Yet, only two-weeks before beginning her ARC preparation,Jean
submitted to an interview with another drug company.

Teaching’s job security, then, became the single greatest draw forJean, who
“wanted life to be simpler.” While offering job-security, teaching brought a pay cut in
excess of fifty percent, a trade-off she was very willing to accept to keep from worrying
whether “when I’m 52 will I get laid-off?” (Personal Interview, 8June 2007). AndJean
was not optimistic about her other employment options her doctorate opened. She had
not published, limiting university opportunities and was not willing to work as an adjunct.

The whole point is I don’t want to be hunting for a job every semester. I want to

have something consistent. So were getting down to teaching. Unless I want to

take my whole career and go, “Whoop! We’re going to go over here.” (Personal

Interview, 8June 2008)

With industry’s luster worn, high school teaching seemed the best remaining alternative.
The relative speed and limited cost of ARC, then, allowedJean to pursue teaching her
family’s budget restrictions

Teaching does not instill the same passion inJean as it does for some candidates

who have long aspired to the classroom. ButJean expressed confidence in her decision,

262

nonetheless, describing herself as “not one of those people that gets my self-value out of
my work” (Personal Interview, 8June 2007).

This is not the same as saying that teaching is unattractive work orJean does not
think she can be a good teacher. She has had experience teaching as a graduate student
and found the work to be hard, but she enjoyed the challenge.

I think a lot of grad students, it’s like, “How can I make this the most trivial thing

in my life?” And I always took I very seriously. I always felt like I owed those

students really the top percent of me. This was something I was doing and it was
important and if you have lab notebooks you’d better get them done and ready for

the next lab. At cost to my own research. (Personal Interview, 8June 2007)

Jean describes the accomplishment that her lab work and other teaching situations
supplied.

[I]n a lot of my jobs I’ve had to train people, which is teaching in the end. And I

think I’ve always felt a certain level of satisfaction getting people so they’re

comfortable with something... .It’s almost a bigger check mark on my day to do

that than to produce peptides. (Personal Interview, 8June 2007)

Jean is honest that teaching, although not a last resort, neither is it first. In contrast to
many career changers who are attracted to teaching by its promise of community impact,
Jean assumes a more pragmatic stance toward the classroom: a job she believes she can
abide and do well. In part this reflects her experience teaching at the university. Her
experience tells her that teaching can be physically and emotionally enervating. It also
tells her that most of the time the rewards—forJean, helping students learning, engaging
in her discipline, and having job security—compensate for the more distasteful elements

of the work.

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APPENDIX F

INSTRUMENTS

Program Directors/ Coordinators Survgr

1.

2.

3.

4.

Name

 

Institution

 

Position

 

Years associated with the program

 

Proggam Desigg

5.

How many students earn certification through your program annually?

 

Approximately how long does it take for a typical candidate to move from the
start of your program to becoming in charge of a class as the teacher of record?
0 Less than 6 weeks

0 6 weeks to 6 months

0 More than 6 months to 1 year

0 More than 1 year to 2 years

0 More than 2 years

Approximately how long does it take a typical candidate to earn certification
through your program?

Less than 6 weeks

6 weeks to 6 months

More than 6 months to 1 year

More than 1 year to 2 years

More than 2 years

00000

What is the minimum degree necessary for entry into your program?
Some undergraduate credits

Associate’s Degree

Bachelor’s Degree

Bachelor’s Degree, plus some credits toward a Master’s degree
Master’s Degree

C 00000

oes your program offer required courses on-line?
There are no on-line course options

Some classes are offered On-line

Most courses are offered on-line

All courses are offered on-line

0000

264

10.

11.

12.

Is there a stipend available for students to help defray the costs of your program?
All students receive a stipend

Students are eligible for a stipend based on merit

Students are eligible for a stipend based on need

Students are eligible for a stipend based on location of their initial teaching
placement ’

There are no stipends available for students

t what level of certification do candidates enter the classroom?
Teacher of record on a temporary/ provisional certificate
Teacher of record on a full certificate

Other

0003’ O 0000

According to your best estimate, in which subject areas does your program
prepare the most candidates (select no more than three)?
General Elementary

Specific Elementary subject

Middle/ Secondary Math

Middle/ Secondary Science

Middle/ Secondary Social Studies

Middle/ Secondary English Language Arts/ Reading
Special Education

English as a Second Language

Foreign Language

Physical Education

Art/ Music

Industrial Arts

Technology

Other

Other

 

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Histog!

l3.

14.

Other than this program, what other options does your college/ organization offer
to candidates entering teaching from other careers (select all that apply)?

This program is the only option.

Undergraduate teacher education

Post-Baccalaureate program

Master’s degree

“Fast-track” certification program

Other

000000

 

Which of the following were significant motivations for the development of your
program (select all that apply)?

0 Legislative mandate
0 Student demand

265

Perceived market of students for such a program
Potential supplementary revenue sources
Lack of other colleges/ universities in the region developing similar

000

programs
Competition with other colleges/ universities in the region developing
similar programs ’

O Philosophical desire to draw different and/ or underserved clientele into
teaching
0 Other

 

Local/ Regional Context
For questions 15-19, consider “local” to refer to the area immediately surrounding your

institution. Consider “regional” to refer to a radius of a couple hundred miles from your
institution.

15. For each level, please indicate the availability of teaching jobs locally.

Elementary Schools

Rare/ Scarce ’ Not widely available Widely Available
Abundant
O O O 0
Middle Schools
Rare/ Scarce Not widely available Widely Available
Abundant
0 O O 0
High Schools
Rare/ Scarce Not widely available Widely Available
Abundant
O O O O
16. In which subject areas are teaching jobs most available locally (select no more
than three)?
0 General Elementary
0 Specific Elementary subject
0 Middle/ Secondary Math
0 Middle/ Secondary Science
0 Middle/ Secondary Social Studies
0 Middle/ Secondary English Language Arts/ Reading
0 Special Education
0 English as a Second Language
0 - Foreign Language

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Physical Education
Art/ Music
Industrial Arts
Technology

Other

Other

 

OOOOOO

 

17. For each level, please indicate the availability of teaching jobs regionally.

Elementary Schools

 

 

Rare/ Scarce Not widely available Widely Available
Abundant
O O O 0
Middle Schools
Rare/ Scarce Not widely available Widely Available
Abundant
O O O 0
High Schools
Rare/ Scarce Not widely available Widely Available
Abundant
O O O, O
18. In which subject areas are teaching jobs most available reg'onally (select no more
than three)?
0 General Elementary
0 Specific Elementary subject
0 Middle/ Secondary Math
0 Middle/ Secondary Science
0 Middle/ Secondary Social Studies
0 Middle/ Secondary English Language Arts/ Reading
0 Special Education
0 English as a Second Language
0 Foreign Language
0 Physical Education
0 Art/ Music
0 Industrial Arts
0 Technology
0 Other
0 Other
19. How would you best characterize the options available for preparing non-

traditional teaching candidates in your region?

267

There are many options available to potential candidates.
There are some other options available to potential candidates.
There are limited options available to potential candidates.
There are no other options available to potential candidates.

0000

Recruitment

20. Which of the following statements best reflects the recruitment challenges of your

program?

0 We would not have sufficient numbers of students without the recruitment
efforts we undertake.

0 We take recruitment seriously, but attract a high number of candidates
through word of mouth or other informal methods.

0 Even with minimal recruitment we would attract sufficient numbers of
quality candidates.

Questions 21-26 relate to the selectivity of your program. Please answer them with your
best approximation. We understand that you might not have this data readily available,
so please indicate how confident you are in your responses to these questions.

21. What would you ESTIMATE the average undergraduate GPA of candidates
enrolled in your program to be?

3.8 or higher

3.3-3.8

2.8-3.3

2.3-2 .8

1.8-2.3

Not Applicable

E 000000

22. ow confident are you in the accuracy of your answer?
Not very confident
Somewhat confident
Very confident

It is precise

0000

23. What would you ESTIMATE the average scores on the SAT for candidates
enrolled in your program to be?

Greater than 1400

1400-1200

1200-1000

1000-800

Less than 800

Don’t know

Information not collected

0000000

24. How confident are you in the accuracy of your answer?

268

25.

26.

Skills
27.

28.

29.

250/0

Not very confident
Somewhat confident
Very confident

It is precise

0000

What would you ESTIMATE the average c0mbined score on the ACT for
candidates enrolled 1n your program to be?

Greater than 32

32-28

27-24

23-20

19-16

Less than 16

Don’t know

Information not collected

ow confident are you in the accuracy of your answer?
Not very confident

Somewhat confident

Very confident

It is precise

00003 00000000

In percentages, please estimate the highest degree candidates have attained when
they enter your program.

 

Degree Status Percentage
No degree

Associate’s degree

Bachelor’s degree

Some credits toward a Master’s degree
A Master’s degree
M.D./J.D./Ph.D/Ed.D or similar

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please estimate what percentage of candidates earned an undergraduate or
graduate degree from institutions in each of the categories of selectivity listed
below?

0 No degree upon entering program
0 Not very selective institutions

0 Moderately selective institutions
0 Highly selective institutions

 

 

 

 

 

Approximately what percentage of applicants to your program is accepted into
the program?
More than 75% 50%-75% 25%-50% Fewer than

269

0 0 0 0

30. Approximately what percentage of applicants accepted into your program enroll

in the program?

More than 75% 50%-75% 25%-50% Fewer than
250/0 '

0 0 0 0

Candidates
Knowledge
31. Approximately what percentage of candidates is seeking certification in a subject

area directly related to their undergraduate or graduate field of study?

More than 75% 50%-75% 25%-50% Fewer than 25% Don’t
Know
0 0 0 0 0
Experience
32. Approximately what percentage of candidates is seeking certification in a subject

area directly related to their previous work experience?

More than 75% 50%-75% 25%-50% Fewer than 25% Don’t
Know
0 O 0 O 0

hdouvauon

33. Think about the jobs candidates held immediately before entering your program.
Please rate the following statements according to your impression of their
importance in contributing to candidates’ decisions TO LEAVE their previous

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wdrk.
.Not at all Somewhat Important . Very Don’t
important important important Know
a. Retirement Q) ® ® @ (5)
b. Sought greater CD ® ® - @ ©
autonomy
c. Sought greater pay @ ® ® @ @
d. Sought work schedule
more compatible with ® ® ® @ ' ©
personal life (e.g., family '
responsibilities)
e. Sought work that
contributed to broader 0) ® ® © 6)
community
f. Sought work with CD ® ® @ ©
personal connections

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

270

 

with peers and clients

 

g. Lost job through

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

downsizing/ lay-off/ firing ® ® ® @ ©
b. Other (Please specify)

0) ® ® @ 6)
i. Other (Please specify) ® C3) @ C5)

 

34. Rate the following statements according to your impression of their importance in
contributing to candidates’ decisions TO BECOME a teacher.

 

Not at all
important

Somewhat
important

Important

Very
important

Don’t
Know

 

a. Teaching will provide
an Opportunity to impact
the broader community.

(D

®

GB

GD

@

 

b. like working with

children

CD

(2)

®

@

 

c. Have valuable subject-
area knowledge they will
be able share with
students

 

d. Comparatively few
barriers to entering
teaching

 

e. Want a new challenge.

 

f. Daily/ annual
academic schedule is
compatible with personal
life (e.g., family
responsibilities, hobbies)

 

g. Prospect of tenure will
limit the threat of
firin g/ lay-offs/ downsizing

 

h. Need a job quickly

 

i. Fringe benefits (health,

retirement, etc) are good

 

j. Salary is good, based

on a nine month contract

@966

@®®®

@@@@

@@®@

@@@@

 

k. Other (Please specify)

9

®

®

(9

@

 

1. Other (Please specify)

 

 

 

 

 

 

271

 

 

35. In percentages, what is the approximate age distribution of the candidates in your
program?
Age Percentage
Under 25
26-35
36-45
46-55
Over 55

 

 

 

 

 

36. In percentages, what is the approximate overall distribution of the following
categories in your program?

Category Percentage
Female

Male
African-American
Asian/ Pacific Islander
Hispanic

Native American
White

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job Placemeg;

37. To the best of your knowledge, how successful are candidates from your program
in finding teaching jobs?

More than 75% 50%-75% find 25%-50% find Fewer than 25% We have no records

find teaching positions teaching positions teaching positions teaching positions tracking candidate placement
0 0 0 0 0

38. How confident are you in the accuracy of your answer?

0 It is precise

0 Very confident

0 Somewhat confident
0 Not very confident

39. The following table seeks to learn about the initial teaching placement of your
candidates. Please indicate the percentage who found placement in the following settings.

 

More Fewer Don’t
than 75-50% 50-25% 0 know
75% than 25 /o

 

Traditional Public School

 

Parochial/ Independent
School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charter School

 

272

 

 

Urban School

 

Suburban School

 

Rural School

 

“Majority Minority”
School

 

 

“High Needs” School (a
school with a high
percentage of students
from limited economic
means)

 

 

 

 

 

 

39. Please use the space below to share any additional information on what makes
your program distinctive.

273

 

Candidate Survg)

Part I:

1.

Reasons for Leaving Previous Employment

 

7 Think about the job you currently hold (or held immediately before entering the
ARC program). Please rate the following statements according to their

importance in contributing to your decision to leave your previous work.

 

Not at all
important

Somewhat
important

Important

Very
important

 

a. Retirement

(D

®

®

@

 

b. Sought personal

connection with clients

 

c. Sought more autonomy

 

d. Sought greater pay

 

e. Sought interaction with
other colleagues

 

f. Sought greater employer
loyalty to employees

9 @999

® @®©®

@ @@@@

(‘9 @@®@

 

g. Sought work schedule
more compatible with
personal life (e.g., family
responsibilities)

9

®

@

(*9

 

h. Sought work that
contributed to broader
community

 

i. Sought active work

 

j. Lost job through
downsizing/ lay-off/ firing

 

k. Change in nature of work
responsibilities

@999

©®®®

@@@@

@@@@

 

1. Job ended after a set
term/ Intended for job to be
short term

9

®

@

@

 

m. Other (Please specify)

G)

 

n. Other (Please specify)

 

CD

 

 

 

 

Part II:

2.

Reasons for Choosing Teaching

When did you first seriously consider a position in teaching?

0 Last six months
0 6-24 months
0 2-5 years

274

 

0 5-10 years

0 More than 10 years/ Have always wanted to teach

Rate the following statements according to their importance in contributing to
your decision TO BECOME a teacher.

 

Not at all
importance

' Somewhat
important

Important

Very
important

 

a. Experience/ knowledge
gained in previous job
provided skills to teach

CD

C2)

®

GD

 

b. Teaching will provide
me with an opportunity to
impact the broader
community that was lacking
in my previous work

 

c. I like working with
children

 

d. Teaching will present
opportunities to forge close
relationships with colleagues

 

e. I have valuable subject-
area knowledge I will be
able share with students

 

f. Compared to other
professions, there are
relatively few barriers to
keep me from entering
teaching

 

g. The daily academic
schedule will be compatible
with my life situation

 

h. The yearly academic
calendar will be compatible
with my life situation

 

i. I want a new challenge.

 

j. I welcome the creative
challenge of preparing
engaging lessons.

 

k. The academic calendar
will provide opportunities to
pursue other hobbies and
interests.

 

l. The prospect of tenure
will ensure constant
employment, limiting the
threat of firing/lay-

 

 

 

 

 

275

 

 

 

offs/ downsizing.

 

m. I need ajob and will be

able to find one relatively (D ® ® @

easily in teaching.

 

n. Based on my past

experiences, I’m confident I Q) ' ® ® @

can succeed in teaching

 

o. The fringe benefits

 

(health, retirement, etc) are" CD ® ® @
good.
p. The salary 18 good, based ® ® ® @

on a nine month salary

 

q. Other (Please specify)

 

r. Other (Please specify)

 

 

 

 

 

a. Would you have left your previous employment anyway if a position in
teaching

had not been an option?

0 Yes

0 No (If NO, please go to question 5.)
b. If you answered YES to question 4a., what other work did you consider

outside of teaching?

 

How much did acceptance into the Connecticut ARC program impact your
decision to enter teaching?

0000

Not at all (I would have sought another route into teaching)

A little bit (I would have likely sought another route into teaching)

A good deal (I likely would not have sought another route into teaching)
Completely (If not for acceptance into the ARC program, I would not
become a teacher)

What paths to teaching did you consider in addition to the Connecticut ARC
program? (Select all that apply)

0000

None

Teaching in an independent or parochial school

Certification program through a Connecticut college or university
Certification program at a college or university in another state

276

 

0 Certification program through a private or not-for-profit organization

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which state
Which program
7. Rate the following factors’ importance for choosing the Connecticut ARC
program.
_Not at all Somewhat Important . Very
important important important
a. Proximity/ .
convenience to where I O ® ® @
live
b. Selectivity and ® ® ® @
status of program
0. Speed with which I ® ® @
can earn certification
d. Quality of ® ® ® @
gpreparation
e. Success in the
classroom of previous CD ® (3) (9
ARC graduates
f. Received financial ® ® ® @
support to attend
g. Program’s -
reputation for help in O (2) - ® GD

securing teaching jobs

 

h. My values are
compatible with O ® (3 GD

program’s themes

 

i. Other (please
specify) (D ® ® @

 

j. Other (please

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPCCifY) @ o o @
Part III: Expectations of Teaching Practice
8. a. How long do you expect to be a practicing teacher?
0 Fewer than 3 years
0 3-5 years

277

0 6-10 years
0 10-15 years
0 More than 15 years

b. If you plan on teaching fewer than 10 years, please select the choice below
that BEST describes why you expect‘to leave the classroom?

Age/ Retirement

Teaching meets just a current employment need

Personal/ Family considerations (e.g., spouse retiring or relocating

for work) , '

Move to other education positions (e.g., administration, university

teaching, consulting)

Do not expect to be able to sustain my enthusiasm over an

extended period

Leave to take better job in another field

Other (please specify)

00 0 0 000

 

c. What is your approximate expected income for you first year teaching?
3 , -Q Q

9. The following questions relate to the setting in which you hope to teach. For
each, select the option that BEST describes your expectations.

a. I plan to teach in a:
0 Public School
0 Independent School
0 Religious/ Parochial School
0 Charter School
0 Uncertain

b. I plan to teach:
0 K-2nd Grade
0 3'd-5th Grade
0 Middle School/Junior High
0 High School

c. I plan to teach in a(n):
0 Urban Setting
0 Suburban Setting
0 Rural Setting
0 Uncertain

d. How important is it to you to teach in a “high needs” school (a school with
large percentages of students from limited economic means)?
0 I will teach in a “high needs” school
0 I hope to teach in a “high needs” school

278

I plan to teach in a(n):

0 Urban Setting

0 Suburban Setting
0 Rural Setting

0 Uncertain

How important is it to you to teach in a “high needs” school (a school with
large percentages of students from limited economic means)?

I will teach in a “high needs” school

I hope to teach in a “high needs” school

It does not matter to me if I teach in a “high needs” school

I hope not to teach in a “high needs” school

I will not teach in a “high needs” school

00000

How important is it to you to teach in a “majority minority” school (a
school where more than half of students classify themselves as a

racial/ ethnic minority)?

I will teach in a “majority minority” school

I hope to teach in a “majority minority” school

It does not matter to me if I teach in a “majority minority” school
I hope not to teach in a “majority minority” school

I will not teach in a “majority minority” school

00000

279

Part IV:

General Information

College EdLmtion

10.

a.

What is the highest level of education you have attained? (Select only one)
Bachelor’s Degree '

Some graduate hours

Master’s Degree

Fewer than 15 hours beyond a Master’s Degree

15-35 hours beyond a Master’s Degree

More than 35 hours beyond a Master’s Degree

Ph.D/ Ed.D

0000000

In what year did you receive your bachelor’s degree?

Year

 

What was your major field of study?

 

Major
Did you have a second major field of study?
0 Yes
0 No

(If no, please go to Question 101)

What was your second major field of study?

 

Major
Did you have a minor field of study?
0 Yes
0 No
(If no, please go to Question 10h)
What was your minor field of study?
Minor

 

What was your grade point average for your undergraduate studies?
3.80 or higher

3.8-3.3

3.3-2.8

2.8-2.3

2.3-1.8

Lower than 1.8

000000

280

Sample

11.

To the best of your recollection, please provide your scores to any of the
standardized tests listed below that you have taken.

 

 

 

SAT ( ) —_ __
Year taken Verbal Math Writing Sample
ACT ( )
Year taken Combined
GRE ( ) __ __ __
Year taken Verbal Quantitative Analytical Writing
What is the name of the college or university where you earned your bachelor’s
degree?
a. Name of college or university

b.

 

In what city and state is it located?

 

Answer Question 12 only if you have completed a graduate degree

12.

 

 

 

a. What is the nature of your graduate degree?
0 M.A./ MS.
0 M.F.A.
0 JD.
0 Ed.D.
0 Ph.D.
0 Other (Please Specify)
b. In what year did you receive your graduate degree?
Year
c. What is the name of the college or university where you earned this
degree?
1. Name of college or university
2. In what city and state is it located?

281

 

d. What was your field of study?

 

Demographic questions

13.

14.

15.

16.

Check whether you are male or female.

0 Male

0 Female

Check whether you are of Hispanic or Latino origin.

0 Yes

0 No

What is your race?

° Mark one or more races to indicate what you consider yourself to be.
0 White
0 Black or African-American
0 Asian
0 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
0 American Indian or Alaska Native
0 Other

What is your year of birth?

19

282

Previous work experience

17. Briefly list all of the significant jobs you have held in the past 30 years, beginning
with your most recent job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place of Approximate Approximate Position(s) Responsibilities Salary in
employment start date ending date held last year at
- 'ob

e494 Fall/1986 5W PM PM J4O,XXX
Bambof 1992 CW Planning
Amerécw
18. What previous experience do you have working with children? (Please select all
that apply)

0 Parent

0 Worked directly with children in previous employment

0 Worked indirectly with children in previous employment (e.g., advocacy
work)

0 Volunteered with youth (e.g., scouts, religious youth group)

0 Had significant experience working with children when I was younger

(e.g., tutoring, babysitting, camp counselor)
0 Other (Please specify)

 

283

 

19. Please use the space below to add any additional information you would like to
share that has not been adequately addressed through the above questions.

284

Candidate Intemiew Protocol

Thank you for sharing your time and agreeing to talk with us. We know your time is
valuable and have every intention of keeping this discussion under 30 minutes. Please
remember that all data we are collecting is strictly confidential. We will be
audiorecording this conversation and I will be transcribing the conversation. This is only
for research purposes. If at any time you would like us to stop the tape, please say so and
we will glad stop recording. Additionally, if there are questions you are uncomfortable
answering, simply indicate that you do not wish to answer that question and we will
proceed to the next item. If after we have finished our discussion or anytime in the future
you decide that you do not want your interview used, please contact us and we will not
include it in our data.

Are you ready to begin? I am going to turn on the recorder now.

1. Please describe your previous job before beginning this program. What were your
responsibilities?

2. What did you like about the work? What did you dislike?

3. What were the factors that led to your leaving your previous work? Was there
one central factor?

4. (Look at survey question 3+ask for clarification as to why this best describes your
previous work.)

5. Describe other significant work experience? (Be specific in the actual phrasing of
' this question. Use the response to survey question 30 to frame the question.)

6. Other than teaching, what other careers did you consider when deciding to leave
your current job?

7. Why did you choose teaching? Why didn’t you choose the others?

8. When did you first start thinking about a career in teaching? How long after you
first considered a career in teaching did you begin to pursue a career?

9. Why did you choose this program? Which programmatic factors were important
to your decision?

10. How satisfied have you been with the program? Is there anything the program
does not offer that you wish it did? --

1 1. (Look at survey question l4—are there any responses that need more
explanation.)

285

12.

l3.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

(Look at survey question 15b—if answer either of the first two options, ask for
clarification).

What about teaching is most attractive to you?

What about teaching is least attractive to you?

What about teaching is makes you most apprehensive?

(Look at survey question l7—ask for clarification of any responses in the “strongly
agree” or “strongly disagree category)

(Look at survey question l8—ask for clarification as to why this best describes
your decision to teach)

What previous experience do you have working with children?

286

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