ALTERNATIVE TEACHER PROGRAMS & LICENSURE

This is one of the four bills for which I am the prime sponsor. The bill is based on one of the recommendations of the P-20 Council, to combine the Alternative Licensure Program (ALP) with the Teacher in Residence (TIR) program, ensuring that there is adequate rigor and state oversight, but allowing some flexibility in implementation.

Alternative licensure allows people to go into teaching without having a teaching license; they take the necessary courses to gain the license at the same time as teaching – with a mentor at the school. The main reasons for combining the two programs are as follows: first, to eliminate confusion for people seeking an alternative teaching license, and second, to make the requirements the same. The original ALP was a one-year program that operated in conjunction with an institution of higher education, and the TIR program was a two-year program operated through a school district (or BOCES – Board of Cooperative Educational Services). With this bill, programs can be for one or two years and operated by either a college or school district (or BOCES). Previously, the Colorado Department of Education did not review the TIR programs after they were approved by the State Board of Education; the bill puts in a requirement that all alternative programs will be reviewed regularly.

The new costs associated with the bill are the visits that CDE will have to make to the sites in order to review them. The costs will be paid for out of the Teacher Licensure Cash Fund, which comes from the fees that teachers pay for their license.