Teacher Certification, Self-Efficacy, and Retention in U.S. Schools

Introduction: The U.S. Teacher Shortage Crisis

At present, there are approximately 3.6 million public and private school teachers in the United States (About NTSA, 2018) responsible for about 50.7 million school children in elementary and secondary schools (Fast facts, 2018). The economic costs of public school education in the United States are staggering; the country currently spends an average of around $12,300 per elementary and secondary public school student each year, amounting to about $620 billion in federal and state spending annually (Pflaum, 2016). The vast majority (90%) of this funding is provided by the states, with the federal government contributing the remaining 10% (Pflaum, 2016). Indeed, the United States spends more than almost any other industrialized country in the world, trailing only Switzerland and Norway in per-student expenditures (Pflaum, 2016). Unfortunately, the return on these enormous investments of taxpayer resources has been mediocre at best and absolutely dismal at worst — an issue that forms the central problem of this study.

Today, the United States is in an education crisis due to the convergence of several trends that have combined to create a perfect storm of challenges. Depending on the source, between 20% and 50% of all new teachers in the United States leave the profession within five years — and a significant percentage leave within the first year — due in part to low pay and overcrowded classrooms, but also to a lack of preparedness for entering the profession (Fensterwald, 2015). These pronounced departure rates are far higher than for other professions, and the negative impact has been felt most acutely in already low-performing schools that face a steady parade of new teachers who do not stay long enough to make a substantive difference in their students' academic outcomes (Carroll & Fulton, 2009). Indeed, a seminal study by Darling-Hammond, Chung, and Frelow (2002) found that teachers who felt unprepared left the profession at fully twice the rate of teachers who felt prepared.

This lack of preparedness has further exacerbated the numerous difficulties that many new teachers experience when entering their classrooms for the first time. Far too many find themselves ill-equipped to provide the high-quality education that students need in order to compete in the 21st-century workplace. Furthermore, despite the monies being spent on education in America today, many new as well as seasoned teachers report that they lack the institutional support and material resources they need to teach effectively. Teacher-student ratios in public elementary and secondary schools have increased from 15.4 in 2007 to 16.1 in fall 2017, while corresponding ratios in private schools declined from 13.0 to 12.2 over the same period (Fast facts, 2018).

New and experienced teachers alike across the country report being forced to resort to the internet for reading materials because they lack textbooks, and many spend their own money on basic classroom supplies such as art materials, paper, and pencils. Teaching salaries are well documented as trailing many other professions that require a college degree, making such out-of-pocket spending especially burdensome.

These disturbing trends are occurring during an unprecedented shortage of qualified teachers. During the period from 2009 through 2014, there was a precipitous decline of 35% — from 610,000 to 451,000 — in new teacher enrollments in the country, and almost 8% of current teachers leave the profession before retirement (Strauss, 2017). Moreover, the United States is lagging behind many other countries in the vitally important areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM education), ranking a dismal 38th out of 71 countries in these subject areas (Desilver, 2017). This combination of high attrition during an already severe teacher shortage means that far too many students are being denied a high-quality education.

The overarching purpose of this study is to help educational leaders learn and determine best practices to help alternatively and traditionally certified teachers improve student outcomes and to assist with retention efforts. This study contains research supporting an interest in induction programs and teacher retention, and it includes details that helped determine the relationship between teacher certification, teaching skills, and content knowledge — components that are deeply intertwined in this research interest. Although no longer fully in place, the rationale behind the research initially involved the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, which required schools to hire "highly qualified" teachers. Since then, many alternative certification programs have been established. Whether or not these programs effectively produce teachers and help with retention was a central consideration in this study.

Many alternatively certified teachers work in the highest-need schools with inadequate and inconsistent support, which raises issues of basic fairness and concerns about alternative certification program designs. The data indicated that because of the difficulty of the first years of teaching under these conditions with so few coordinated supports, job satisfaction decreased with time on the job, and teacher retention remained a problem. These trends reinforce the need for additional research concerning strategies to help new teachers enter the classroom with a strong sense of self-efficacy grounded in actual preparedness.

Findings of studies on teachers' perspectives, perceptions, and beliefs have provided valuable insights into assessing teaching practices, linking teachers' beliefs to positive instructional practices including classroom management and student outcomes (Jones, 2006). In this context, teaching efficacy — defined as "teachers' beliefs about their own effectiveness" (Yilmaz, 2011, p. 92) — has been a critical construct in teacher education programs as they attempt to improve the quality of teacher candidates' skills, knowledge, and dispositions.

A teacher's sense of efficacy, or confidence about being able to influence students' learning, is one of the most well-documented aspects of effective teaching (Henson, Kogan, & Vacha-Haase, 2001). The concept of teacher efficacy is based on Bandura's (1977; 1986) theory that efficacy beliefs have a profound effect on human agency. Many people tend to avoid tasks and exert less effort where they do not feel confident in achieving successful outcomes. Efficacious beliefs therefore affect how teachers interact with students as well as the effort they are willing to devote to meeting academic objectives. Darling-Hammond et al. (2002) reported significant correspondence between feelings of preparedness and sense of efficacy, a finding consistent with other research on teacher efficacy. When teachers feel well prepared, they tend to have high self-efficacy in teaching.

The overarching research question guiding this study is: "What are teachers' perceptions, attitudes, knowledge, and their ability to improve student outcomes?" In support of this main question, the following subquestions must also be answered:

1. What are the perceptions and attitudinal differences between traditionally and alternatively certified teachers?
2. What is the relationship between teachers who are traditionally and alternatively certified and the teacher's perception of their knowledge of content?
3. What is the relationship between teachers who are traditionally and alternatively certified and the teacher's perception of their knowledge of teaching skills?
4. Where are the primary teaching assignments for alternatively certified teachers?
5. What is the relationship between teacher preparedness and self-efficacy?
6. How do educational leaders determine their recruitment and retention program practices?
7. How are effective recruitment and retention programs organized?
8. What are the costs associated with recruitment and retention programs?
9. How does recruitment and retention impact attrition, school culture, and teacher development?
10. Is the evaluation system set up as a process for compliance and judgment or for learning?
11. Do both certified and classified staff have multiple opportunities for ongoing dialogue and constructive feedback about their professional practice?
12. Who reviews the information generated by the evaluation system, and how is that information being used?
13. What is a mentor program, and how is it organized?
14. How is the learning environment determined to be conducive to teachers' success?

In order to develop informed and timely answers to the above research questions, this study examines prior research concerning teacher preparation and certification methods. Research has shown that traditionally certified teachers have a sense of being more prepared to provide high-quality instruction upon first entering the classroom. Alternatively certified teachers, when provided with a mentor teacher, feel equally prepared. Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence that a positive correlation exists between feeling prepared and self-efficacy for both groups. While alternatively certified teachers often possess extensive content knowledge, they lack the classroom experience that traditionally certified teachers gain during student teaching — a difference consistently cited as a main constraint to the effectiveness of alternative certification programs.

Review of the Literature

The significance of this study relates to the need to ensure that alternatively and traditionally certified teachers are fully prepared to improve student outcomes, because effective teaching is the foundation for improved educational results. Research has determined that individual teachers account for the largest differences in students' scores on large-scale standardized tests between students at the end of any given year, after controlling for differences that students bring to the classroom at the beginning of the year (Gordon, Kane, & Staiger, 2006; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2000; Rockoff, 2004; Rowan, Correnti, & Miller, 2002; Wright, Horn, & Sanders, 1997). Consequently, studies such as this one are significant because they help shed fresh insights into the ongoing controversy concerning the efficacy of alternative certification programs in helping alleviate the nation's teacher shortage and providing all public school students with the education they need to compete in the 21st-century marketplace.

There are two main ways that teachers currently receive preparation for obtaining a teaching certificate or license: (1) traditional university-based teacher education programs completed prior to a first year of teaching; and (2) alternative certification programs for university graduates who have not gone through a teacher education program while obtaining their degree (Linek & Sampson, 2012, p. 68).

There has been a severe shortage of qualified classroom teachers in the United States for a number of years, and alternative certification programs have been implemented across the country in response. For instance, Mitchell and Romero (2010) stated that "in California, close to a third of all new teachers enter the profession through the intern-based alternative certification route [and] this picture mirrors a nationwide trend. All 50 states currently offer some form of alternative certification" (p. 364). The U.S. Department of Education maintains that alternative certification strategies can help to increase both the quantity and quality of new classroom teachers during a period of critical educator shortage (Linek & Sampson, 2012).

There are some criticisms of the growing proliferation and acceptance of alternative certification programs that must also be taken into account. The National Education Association's (NEA) Committee on Instruction and Professional Development emphasizes that "what began in the early 1980s as a way to ward off projected shortages of teachers and replace emergency certification has rapidly evolved into an accepted model for recruiting, training, and certifying those who already have at least a bachelor's degree and want to become teachers" (Research spotlight on alternative routes to teacher certification, 2018, para. 2). The NEA has criticized alternative certification programs for lowering certification standards, which results in new teachers entering the classroom poorly prepared. Linek and Sampson (2012) report that the NEA believes "alternative certification programs reduce the amount of preparation teachers have before taking on full-time classroom responsibilities because research continues to document that the less preparation a teacher has, the less students achieve" (p. 69).

Conversely, proponents of alternative certification programs maintain that these programs attract nontraditional candidates who are generally older and who possess a non-education degree as well as significant experience in non-teaching fields. Linek and Sampson (2012) report that "some nontraditional candidates are minority males who are members of communities in need of teachers. Alternative certification supporters also point to the intense education sessions before and after a full day at school and two supervisors per candidate as sufficient to produce qualified teachers" (p. 70). Proponents argue that traditional university-based teacher education programs represent a fundamental "barrier" to entering the teaching field for these non-traditional candidates (Linek & Sampson, 2012).

A growing body of research confirms that when people transfer from one career field to another, they typically bring fresh skills to the new profession that are especially valuable (Scott, 2010). At the same time, Linek and Sampson (2012) note that "the current alternative teacher certification programs often put instructors in classrooms with little to no pedagogical training," and that support for this approach assumes "that anyone, even without pedagogical coursework, who has a subject matter degree and some type of professional support can begin teaching and that teaching abilities can be developed on the job" (p. 70).

On the other hand, the majority of studies conducted over the past several decades has consistently determined that teachers with traditional teacher education backgrounds who enter the classroom as fully certified teachers enjoy higher levels of professional success compared to their counterparts who receive their certification through alternative credentialing programs. Based on these findings, Linek and Sampson (2012) suggest that new teachers who lack a traditional university-based education should have restricted teaching responsibilities until they secure one, concluding that "it may not be in the best interest of students and society, in general, to give a new teacher in an alternative certification program sole responsibility for the day-to-day functions of a classroom prior to the completion of an educational training program" (p. 71).

Kennedy (2008) points out that "the volume of research on teachers' qualifications has grown to several hundred studies, but it has not settled arguments about the merits of teacher education programs" (p. 344). A review of the literature produced five distinctive patterns:

(1) There is a link between teachers feeling prepared and self-efficacy.
(2) Traditionally certified teachers expressed feeling more prepared than alternatively certified teachers.
(3) While on average alternatively certified teachers have a respectable understanding of content knowledge, it is generally not as strong as that of traditionally certified teachers.
(4) Self-efficacy is increased when alternatively certified teachers are assigned a mentor.
(5) Alternatively certified teachers lack classroom experience compared to traditionally certified teachers who gain student teaching experience.

These main patterns will be assessed to determine how best to support teachers in helping students become academically successful.

A clear theme emerging from the literature is that the provision of a mentor teacher to alternatively certified teachers results in increased self-efficacy. Rockoff, Jacob, Kane, and Staiger (2008) suggest that districts focus more on "performance in the early part of teachers' careers as opposed to spending more resources on recruitment and hiring" (p. 1), as alternatively certified teachers with a mentor are on par with traditionally certified teachers with respect to self-efficacy (Metzler & Blankenship, 2008).

Mentor Teachers, Self-Efficacy, and Retention

Evans (2011) found a significant increase in attitudes toward teaching and teacher self-efficacy when teachers were assigned a mentor. Alternatively certified teachers who felt less supported experienced a direct effect of feeling unsuccessful (Foote, Brantlinger, Haydar, Smith, & Gonzalez, 2010). This feeling of being unsuccessful can often be limited (Hung & Smith, 2012) or progressively minimized (Robinson & Edwards, 2012) when appropriate mentors are assigned to new teachers. Having a mentor allows teachers to be more confident in their own abilities to teach, particularly for alternatively certified teachers (Mouza, Karchmer-Klein, Nandakumar, Ozden, & Hu, 2014; Unruh & Holt, 2010). With teachers feeling more supported, they are more likely to remain in the field (Malow-Iroff, O'Connor, & Bisland, 2007).

Beyond these desirable outcomes, assigning mentors to new teachers also benefits the mentors themselves. Epstein and Willhite (2015) emphasize that "the professional skills of mentor teachers are also strengthened and a study addressing pre-service teacher preparation [found that] 85% of mentor teachers reported learning innovative teaching strategies, a stronger understanding of culturally responsive teaching as well as enhanced communication and collaboration skills" (p. 191). In sum, assigning mentors to new teachers represents a win-win strategy for school districts across the country.

Human resource departments are continuously recruiting new teaching talent because retaining highly qualified and successful teachers is becoming a major challenge. Siwatu (2011) expressed that "as evidenced by the numerous reports [from] international educational agencies as well as recent empirical studies, teacher attrition rates have become a significant international concern among educational administrators" (p. 357). For example, Ng and Thomas (2007) reported that "between 40% and 50% of all beginning teachers leave teaching within the first 5 years" (p. 3). It should therefore be a high priority for education researchers to determine why and to combat this statistic.

Teachers who feel inadequately supported are more likely to leave the education field, and those who feel strongly in their ability to educate young learners are generally more effective and more likely to continue in the profession (Foote et al., 2010; Mouza et al., 2014). In Malow-Iroff, O'Connor, and Bisland's (2007) study, 29% of first-year teachers intended to leave the field at the end of their first school year because they felt inadequately supported. There are higher retention rates for first-year teachers who are traditionally certified than for those who obtained alternative certification (Robinson & Edwards, 2012). A growing body of evidence indicates that the provision of a mentor serves to increase self-efficacy and a teacher's longevity in the field (Tournaki, Lyublinskaya, & Carolan, 2009).

Research indicates that there is a link between alternative certification and an increased understanding of content knowledge. First-year teachers who are alternatively certified have been shown to have a stronger knowledge and command of content than those traditionally certified (Boyd et al., 2010; Duncan & Ricketts, 2008). Alternatively certified teachers are most efficacious about their content knowledge (Duncan & Ricketts, 2008) — an often overlooked positive attribute of alternative certification programs.

Other attributes of alternative certification programs that support their increased use include the following:

— Recruiting bright and promising college graduates into teaching who do not follow traditional certification routes;
— Lessening reliance on emergency certifications;
— Breaking the monopoly of traditional teacher certification programs by allowing outsiders, such as foundations and corporations, to influence teacher preparation policy;
— Encouraging deregulation of teacher preparation; and
— Meeting the needs of urban schools and students that traditional teacher certification programs fail (Zhao, 2005, p. 2).

The objectives of alternative certification programs include:

— Diversifying the teaching force and increasing participation of under-represented teachers by recruiting more male and minority individuals;
— Reducing the teacher shortage and increasing the teaching pool in urban and rural school districts, and in subjects such as mathematics and science;
— Improving the quality of the teaching force by recruiting persons who have a broader range of experiences outside of teaching; and
— Decreasing the need for emergency credentialing to meet teacher shortages (Zhao, 2005, pp. 2–3).

As noted throughout, marginalized students in urban school settings are especially in need of highly qualified and capable teachers, meaning that alternative certification programs hold the potential to help alleviate the teacher shortage in these venues. However, it makes little sense to thrust new teachers into the classroom without adequate preparation for the rigors they will inevitably encounter.