The alternative teacher licensure programs at Metro State—Teacher In Residence, Colorado Accelerated Special Education Licensure and the Alternative Licensure Program— are seeing an upsurge in activity and enrollment this year.

The number of first-year participants in the three programs that offer an alternative path to obtaining teacher licensure has increased an average of 40 percent from last year at this time. The programs have also added new school districts and entered into a new partnership with Denver Public Schools.

Entering its ninth year, TIR hits its stride
Metro State initiated the Teacher in Residence (TIR) program in 2000, on the heels of 1999 legislation to address teacher shortages by enabling professionals with bachelor’s degrees and experience in other areas to earn their licensure to teach in Colorado public schools. The program, which takes two years to complete, provides an accelerated alternate route to licensure, in which participants teach full-time while completing licensure requirements.

The Colorado Accelerated Special Education Licensure (CASEL) program is similar to the TIR program but has a particular emphasis in special education; it was established in 2000 by the same enabling legislation. Its current director is Delia Armstrong.

The third program, the Alternative Licensure Program (ALP), was established at Metro State in 2004 for professionals who have taught previously (e.g., in private schools or in other states) but lack Colorado licensure; it takes one year to complete.

All participants in these programs teach full time while attending classes at Metro State toward earning their Colorado licensure.

Greg Reed, director of the Teacher in Residence and Alternative Licensing Programs, says, “These programs provide serious on-the-job training. Our students are teaching full-time while earning their license.”

Reed marvels at the range of backgrounds of his students. “This year we have, among others, a professional ballerina, a professional musician, a doctor and a lawyer in our program. They bring vast experience to the classroom. It’s a joy to work with them.”

Increased enrollment
First-year participants in Metro State’s TIR program number 81 this year, up from 51 last year; in CASEL that number is 85, up from last year’s 67. Enrollment in the ALP has increased from 6 to 10 this year.

Of the upsurge, Carol Svendsen, assistant vice president of Extended Campus Programs, who oversees the three programs, says, “People are starting to realize that we have high-quality programs with many more coaching hours than many models of teacher preparation.”

New partnerships and positive results
Reed came to Metro State in 2004 following a 30-year career in K-12 education; he’s been director of TIR and ALP since 2007. Currently, he’s overseeing a number of new initiatives.

This year, he says, TIR, CASEL and the ALP added three new school districts as members, bringing the total of member districts with which the programs work to 13. “We’ve also expanded our teaching staff,” he says, to accommodate the increase in enrollment in the programs.

Another new partnership begun this year is with the Denver Teaching Fellows, newly instituted in Denver Public Schools to recruit and train high-achieving individuals who do not have education backgrounds to become teachers for hard-to-staff schools in Denver. In this highly selective program, 300 applicants were interviewed and screened and 50 were selected to enroll and become DPS teachers. Of those, 34 are enrolled in Metro State’s TIR program. Participants in the teaching fellows program receive a stipend and are eligible for tuition awards.

In addition to increasing enrollment in the alternative licensure programs, Reed is interested in assessing how TIR graduates are faring in the world of teaching. So last spring, he says, “we sent surveys to everyone who’s gone through our program” to assess how TIR graduates were faring in the world of teaching.

Reed was pleased with the 50 percent response rate, but even more so with the survey results: 85 percent of respondents said they were still in the teaching profession in some capacity, either as a teacher or an administrator. And 75 percent were still in the same district they’d started with after leaving the program.

Reed attributes the successful retention rates to the maturity of his students. “Most of our participants have a number of years of experience in the working world. They’ve tested out other professions and they have a realistic, mature idea of what they’re getting into when they decide to go into teaching.”