This paper describes an alternative certification program that was developed to address the shortage of certified special education teachers in West Virginia. The goal of the program is to provide students from a noneducational background with opportunities at the master's degree level to become special education teachers in one of three…

This report describes an alternative teacher certification program developed to address special education teacher shortages in rural West Virginia. For the past 9 years, one of every three educators in West Virginia assigned to special education has worked on some type of sub-standard license. The alternative certification program allows West…

The Education Department of Salem-Teikyo University (West Virginia) was chosen to develop a pilot assessment plan as part of the overall Institutional Student Outcomes Assessment Plan. The plan delineated in this paper includes the following criteria: (1) students majoring in education may enroll in the teacher education program to earn elementary…