Filling the teacher gap: a quicker way for professionals to move into the classroom.

• Author: Skertic, Alison
• Position: Education

As many as 40 per cent of the country's teachers are nearing retirement age, according to educators at Earlham College in Richmond. That leaves schools facing the possibility of a huge shortage of qualified teachers in coming years.

To help fill that anticipated gap, the state of Indiana has created the "Transition to Teaching" program, providing a streamlined method to get qualified individuals into the teaching ranks. "Transition to Teaching began as a way to help get qualified career changers started out in shortage areas--especially math and science--to help fill high-need areas," explains Marie Theobald, executive director of the Indiana Professional Standards Board.

Transition to Teaching is an alternative route to licensing that allows prospective students with the proper content background to receive certification in secondary education after 18 credit hours of coursework, or certification for elementary education after 24 hours. Under the Transition to Teaching law that took effect during the summer, all Indiana colleges that offer teacher training are required to develop this kind of program, either on their own or in partnership with other institutions.

Colleges still set their own admission requirements and have much autonomy regarding how the programs are offered. As they often do with other programs that result in a teaching license, many schools require applicants to pass teacher licensing exams before being admitted into Transition to Teaching programs. And many require enrollees to take their coursework full-time in a particular sequence, and often in "cohorts," which are groups of students who are always in the same classes throughout the program.

Theobald says a major misconception about Transition to Teaching is that the state is letting "anyone" become a teacher after just 18 hours of classes. "The program is based on the premise that the person has the content knowledge," she stresses. "For instance, we had an interior designer who wanted to be a math teacher--at isn't going to happen.

The Transition to Teaching concept fits in well with a teaching degree program that Marian College in Indianapolis already was developing, through an initiative known as Project Bridge. According to Cheryl Hertzer, Project Bridge director, the program takes 13 months of full-time study, much of it in actual elementary classrooms. An unusual component of the program, Hertzer says, is its commitment to instruct all potential teachers in...