number of students and to replace current teachers
who will retire or leave the profession.
(2) There are highly qualified individuals who
serve in other occupations that are interested in pur-
suing a teaching career; in 1996, ten percent of all
teachers at the elementary or secondary level worked
in an occupation outside of education in the previous
year.
(3) Schools are having trouble recruiting quali-
fied teachers. Nearly three-quarters of physical
science students and one-third of English students
in high-poverty schools take classes from unqualified
teachers. Urban and rural areas face significant
challenges in finding highly qualified teachers.
(4) In addition, while one-third of American
students in 1998 are members of minority groups,
members of racial and ethnic minorities make up
only 13 percent of the teaching force. In 1988, only
eight percent of teacher education students enrolled
in a national representative sample of college pro-
grams were minorities, while one study indicates
that more than one third of the alternative route
candidates were minorities.
(5) The same study found that 69 percent of
alternatively certified teacher interns that are being
trained to teach mathematics would prefer to teach
in an urban or city setting, while only 14 percent of
university-certified teacher candidates in mathe-
matics chose an urban or city setting.
(6) Bringing distinctive life experiences and
perspectives into the classroom can enrich the in-
structional curriculum and school climate, and en-
hance the quality of American education. Alternative
routes to certification programs help open the teach-
ing profession to individuals with high subject
knowledge and diverse life and professional experi-
ences.
(7) Alternative routes to certification partner-
ships will target Federal dollars directly to local
school districts that desire to create a program that
will attract qualified teachers to areas of high need,
which would include a shortage of teachers in a sub-
ject-content area.
(8) Alternative routes to certification programs
should help states develop new teacher-licensing poli-
cies based on subject-matter knowledge, teaching
knowledge, teaching skills, and other performance-
based examinations.
SEC. 3. ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO TEACHER CERTIFI-
CATION.
Title V of the Higher Education Act of 1965 is
amended by adding the end the following new part:
‘‘PART G—ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO TEACHER
CERTIFICATION
‘‘SEC. 599A. PURPOSE; PARTNERSHIP FUNCTIONS; AUTHOR-
IZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this part is to im-
prove the supply of well-qualified elementary school and
secondary school teachers—
‘‘(1) by authorizing support for partnerships
that will have a significant impact on increasing the
pool of qualified teachers for the purpose of develop-
ing alternative routes for preparing and certifying
teachers in elementary and secondary schools; and
‘‘(2) by awarding grants to innovative programs
that recruit, prepare, and retain high quality individ-
uals who plan to enter teaching from another occu-
pational field and seek to become licensed teachers.
‘‘(b) PARTNERSHIP
FUNCTIONS.—A partnership
under this part shall—
‘‘(1) recruit highly qualified individuals who
hold postsecondary degrees in the academic subject
area in which they plan to teach or a closely related
field and who—
‘‘(A) plan to enter teaching from another
occupational field and seek to become licensed
teachers, which may include paraprofessionals
seeking to achieve full teacher certification;
teachers whom the partner local educational
agencies have hired under ‘emergency certifi-
cation’ procedures; or former military person-
nel, mid-career professionals, or AmeriCorps or
Peace Corps volunteers who desire to enter
teaching; or
‘‘(B) recent college graduates who (i) have
a record of academic distinction, and (ii) hold
a bachelor of arts degree in the academic sub-
ject area in which they plan to teach or a close-
ly related field;
‘‘(2) meet the needs of participating schools in
addressing high demand areas; and
‘‘(3) encourage States to develop new teacher-
licensing policies based on subject-matter knowledge,
teaching knowledge, teaching skills, and other per-
formance-based examinations.
‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this part
$15,000,000 for fiscal year 1999, and such sums as nec-
essary for 4 succeeding fiscal years.
‘‘SEC. 599B. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.
‘‘(a) GRANTS BY THE SECRETARY.—The Secretary is
authorized to award grants, on a competitive basis, to eli-
gible applicants for the purposes of recruiting, preparing,
and retaining high quality individuals who plan to enter
teaching from another occupational field.
‘‘(b) GRANTS DURATION; CONTINUATION.—The Sec-
retary shall make competitive grants to partnerships, sub-
ject to the availability of appropriations, for a period not
to exceed 5 years, including no more than 1 year to be
used for planning and preparation. The Secretary may
make continuation awards only after determining satisfac-
tory progress. The Secretary shall conduct an extensive
review of progress, with the assistance of outside experts,
before making a continuation award for the 4th year.
‘‘SEC. 599C. GRANT APPLICATIONS AND CONTRACTS.
‘‘To receive an award under this subpart, an eligible
applicant shall submit to the Secretary an application
that—
‘‘(1) designates a fiscal agent for the partner-
ship;
‘‘(2) contains a description of how the partner-
ships will develop an alternative route to a certifi-
cation program that leads to an increased pool of
highly qualified individuals entering the teaching
profession;
‘‘(3) contains information on the quality of the
program, and how the applicants will ensure that
high quality applicants will be recruited and pre-
pared;
‘‘(4) contains a description of the assessment
that the partnership has undertaken to determine
the critical teacher recruitment needs of the local
educational agency;
‘‘(5) contains a description of recruitment and
outreach efforts; number and types of students that
will be served under the program, which may include
paraprofessionals, ‘emergency certification’ hires;
former military personnel, mid-career professionals
or returned Peace Corps or AmeriCorps volunteers;
‘‘(6) contains a description of—
‘‘(A) how the partnership will use funds to
increase the number of recruits with high po-
tential to be effective teachers that participate
in its alternative certification program;
‘‘(B) the criteria applicant will use to se-
lect students;
‘‘(C) how the partnership will develop and
implement performance criteria for program
and candidate evaluation;
‘‘(2) a comparison of student achievement out-
comes between teachers certified through grant al-
ternative program and teachers certified through
traditional programs; and
‘‘(3) an assessment of increases in the pool of
qualified applicants to alleviate teacher shortage in
underserved areas, including minority individuals.
‘‘SEC. 599F. DEFINITIONS.
‘‘(a) For purposes of this part:
‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE APPLICANT.—The term ‘eligible
applicant’ means a partnership of—
‘‘(A) the State agency responsible for cer-
tification of teachers;
‘‘(B) 1 or more local education agencies
that—
‘‘(i) are eligible for assistance for title
I of the Elementary and Secondary Edu-
cation Act of 1965; and
‘‘(ii) have an enrollment of children
counted under section 1124(c) of that Act
that exceeds 30 percent of the total enroll-
ment of the district; and
‘‘(C) 1 or more nonprofit organizations, in-
cluding institutions of higher education, that
prepare teachers for their initial entry into the
teaching profession.
Partnerships may also include 2-year colleges, other
public and private, nonprofit agencies and organiza-
tions that serve, or are located in, communities
served by the local education agencies in the part-
nership, and that have a record of training teachers.
‘‘(2) 
ALTERNATIVE
ROUTE
TO
CERTIFI-
CATION.—The term ‘alternative route to certifi-
cation’ means a program, specifically for individuals
who have at least a bachelor’s degree, to obtain ini-
tial teacher licensure and to teach in elementary and
secondary schools, and in which the awarded licenses
are equal to licenses issued to teachers who complete
a traditional teacher education program route.
‘‘(3) HIGHLY
QUALIFIED
INDIVIDUALS.—The
term ‘highly qualified individuals’ means individuals
who have demonstrated the subject matter knowl-
edge, the ability to attain teaching knowledge, and
teaching skills necessary to teach effectively in the
content area or areas in which he or she will provide
instruction.
‘‘(b) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—The Federal share
of the cost of activities carried out under a grant shall
not exceed 75 percent. The non-Federal share of activities
may be provided in cash or in kind, and may be obtained
from any non-Federal public or private source.’’.
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