An alternate route to the head of the classroom

Princeton High teachers recount their unconventional career paths.

By: Jeff Milgram
   Students aren’t the only ones to get the jitters before the first day of school. New teachers get nervous, too.
   "Of course," Princeton High School French teacher Sheila M. MacRae said Thursday. "Until I got into class, then I was fine."
   She wasn’t alone. PHS chemistry teacher Carol Lee said she’s been waking up at 4 a.m. every day this week with nightmares about forgetting something for her class lesson.
   But not everyone was nervous. Calculus and algebra teacher Sara Soffer laughed off the question.
   "I was teaching for many years," Ms. Soffer said.
   Of course, it didn’t hurt that she trained tank crews for the Israeli Defense Force.
   "I’m very tough," Ms. Soffer said.
   Nervous or not, these three teachers share one thing in common: They each became teachers through alternate-route licensing.
   Through this route, college graduates who did not major in education can become licensed teachers if they successfully complete a program that combines training with on-the-job teaching experience.
   In 1985, the state Board of Education introduced the nation’s first "alternate route" to licensure for qualified liberal-arts graduates who had not completed professional education in a traditional teacher-training program.
   Now about 40 states have some kind of alternate route program. According to the National Center for Education Information, more than 125,000 teachers have been certified through alternate route. In 1998-1999, more than 24,000 teachers were certified through alternate routes in the 28 states that keep these data.
   "What we are seeing are market forces in action," said Emily Feistritzer, president of the center. "People from all walks of life are stepping forward to meet the projected demand for teachers. Many of these individuals already have at least a bachelor’s degree, so the old model of training teachers in undergraduate-education programs does not work. States are aggressively meeting the challenge by creating new training and licensing avenues for people to enter teaching."
   Former New Jersey Education Commissioner Saul Cooperman, in a Jan. 26, 2000 article in Education Week, said the alternate-route program was first proposed in 1982.
   "Our shortage of teachers was so severe that a majority of new math and science teachers in the state had their certification in other subjects," he said. "They were pressed into service in these critical fields because ‘bodies’ were needed to fill the classrooms."
   Since the alternate route was begun, the state has had no new teachers teaching out of their fields of certification and New Jersey has not hired one uncertified teacher in math, science, English, social studies and foreign languages.
   "We thought that a history teacher should be a history major, a math teacher should have majored in mathematics and so on," said Mr. Cooperman. "We required that all prospective teachers take and pass a test in the fields they were going to teach. This seemed to make common sense to us, even though it somehow eluded schools of education."
   The Princeton Regional School District seems to agree. Out of the 33 new teachers hired this year, nine have come through the alternate route, according to Human Resources Director Lewis Goldstein. Last year, he said, the district hired only about four alternate-route teachers.
   Alternate-route teachers help fill traditional teacher shortages in several subjects, such as math, science and languages, Superintendent Claire Sheff Kohn said.
   All new teachers, including alternate-route teachers, are paired with a mentor — an experienced teacher who shows them the ropes and provides professional and emotional support.
   "We like all teachers to succeed," Mr. Goldstein said.
   He said he believes alternate-route teachers bring life skills to the classroom.
   Both Ms. MacRae and Ms. Soffer have college-level experience teaching their subjects. Dr. Lee spent 23 years in research, research management and marketing for Mobil Oil.
   Ms. MacRae, who spent eight years living in France, has taught at Westminster Choir College, Rutgers University and the University of Toronto.
   "I felt I wanted to make a commitment to teaching," Ms. MacRae said. "I’m very interested in sharing my skills with young people."
   Dr. Lee got a taste of what it’s like to work in a high school classroom when she worked as a substitute teacher in Princeton and Hopewell last year.
   "I really enjoy science," she said. "I like to demystify science, to teach that it’s really part of your everyday life."
   She laughs when reminded of the old saying, "Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach."
Dr. Lee said teaching has changed from the time she graduated from college.
   "You really have to know your subject," she said. "You have to be really creative about how you present it to capture their interest. You just can’t stand there and ask questions."
   Ms. MacRae’s begins her class by asking everyone, in French, to introduce himself or herself. She spells out everything the class will be doing and what she expects of students.
   "Today I had to tell them how the class will work. Tomorrow, we’ll speak French," Ms. MacRae said. "I want to make the class an immersion class, as much as possible."
   A lecturer in mathematics at Rutgers, California Institute of Technology, Drexel and other colleges, Ms. Soffer is teaching courses that are almost college-level. And that is one of the reasons she decided to teach at PHS.
   "I’d rather teach at a good high school, rather than a lousy college," she said.
   Community ties are strong for Dr. Lee and Ms. MacRae. Dr. Lee sent her two children through the Princeton Regional School District.
   "I very much want to work in Princeton because I feel part of the community," said Ms. MacRae.
   And teaching is in their blood.
   "I will always be a teacher," Ms. MacRae said.
   "I’m hoping to do it as long as I have the energy," Dr. Lee said.