Pathways Into the Teaching Profession

To get more Latinx students into teaching, it is necessary to first explore how aspiring teachers are currently entering the profession.

The vast majority of teachers (78 percent) enter the profession through a traditional route—acquiring a bachelor’s degree in education at a four-year college that prepares candidates with instruction in pedagogy and a specific content area.¹

Historically, traditional teacher preparation programs at four-year institutions of higher education (IHE) have struggled to recruit and retain diverse teacher candidates.² An exception here in preparing Latinx teacher candidates is Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)—two- and four-year not-for-profit institutions whose undergraduate enrollment is at least 25 percent Latinx.³ Currently, there are over 500 HSIs, representing 17 percent of all IHEs. It is important to note that, by definition, Latinx students’ choices determine which colleges are HSIs, and research shows that Latinx students who enroll at HSIs choose them largely based on cost, proximity to home, and the perception of a welcoming environment.⁴ While HSIs do not prepare a large proportion of the nation's teachers overall, they do play an outsized role in preparing Latinx teachers. In 2016–2017, 12 percent of teacher candidates across all IHE-based teacher preparation programs were enrolled at an HSI, yet HSIs enrolled 39 percent of teacher candidates that identified as Latinx.⁵

All states also offer some form of alternative route(s) into the profession for people who do not hold an undergraduate degree in education. Alternative routes prepared approximately 22 percent of newly-minted teachers in 2016–2017.⁶ These programs vary by who runs them. Many are still housed in schools of education within IHEs; others are managed by school districts, or private non-profit or for-profit providers; and some are run by partnerships between these various entities. The common denominator is that alternative programs tend to be more practice-oriented, often allowing candidates to learn how to teach while acquiring experience in the classroom, although they vary by requirements for completion, level of training provided before candidates enter the classroom, and level of support given to them once in the classroom.⁷

Alternative route preparation programs tend to attract a broader and more diverse pool of teacher candidates, and Latinx candidates are no exception. In 2015–2016, they made up 15 percent of public school teachers who entered teaching through an alternative route, compared to 8 percent who had entered teaching through a traditional route.⁸ Alternative routes to certification can be more attractive to Latinx candidates for a variety of reasons, including that they tend to be less expensive and less time-consuming, and may also offer more personalized support than a traditional program.⁹

Alternative route programs have been criticized for often having less selective admissions criteria than traditional IHE-based preparation programs and for offering candidates less exposure to pedagogical coursework.¹⁰ That said, the lines between traditional and alternative route programs are blurring: 30 percent of teacher preparation program providers are alternative programs, but two-thirds of them are actually based at IHEs.¹¹ And even further blurring of these lines are Grow Your Own programs, which encompass both traditional and alternative routes to the profession, but are focused on developing and training teachers from and for the local community.¹²