Alternative Certification Isn’t Alternative

Most alternative certification routes mimic typical college requirements, defeating the purpose of the alternative methods, say Chester Finn Jr. and Michael Petrilli in a report for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

“So alternative certification has been co-opted, compromised, and diluted,” they write. “Education schools—brilliantly turning a threat into an opportunity—have themselves come to dominate this enterprise, blurring the distinctions that once made it ‘alternative.’”