Alternate Route to Certification

The State Department of Idaho has asked Universities in Idaho to allow pre-service teacher candidates to be hired before student teaching to help alleviate the teacher shortage that Idaho is currently experiencing. BYUI has agreed to accommodate this ALT Route, but only when pre-service teachers are hired in Idaho School Districts.

Although BYUI does allow this, in general, candidates are not encouraged to pursue this path because it foregoes the final semester of professional development, foregoes the opportunity to co-teach, co-plan, and co-assess. Often times, even the best candidates struggle jumping in to their own classroom with little or no support and without the preparation that comes from a student teaching experience.

If a principal and candidate desire to move forward with the alternate route option, the following guidelines pertain:

• The principal wanting to hire the pre-service student must send a written request to the Student Teaching Services Office. The request should be initiated by a Principal who is interested in a specific candidate rather than from a candidate looking for an ALT Route opportunity. The Principal will also be required to submit to BYUI a written 14 week mentoring plan for the student teacher, proof of need to hire an education student before they completed their student teaching experience, and copies of classroom observations (as they become available).
• The Student Teaching Services Office will inform the candidate’s BYUI program area of the request and ask about any concerns that need to be passed on to the hiring principal.
• The candidate that is hired by a school district and placed on the ALT Route will not be required to complete all the regular student teaching assignments on I-Learn or attend weekly cohort meetings (they are invited to participate but not required to do so).
• The candidate is required to complete the assignments on I-Learn that correlate to their state of Idaho certification application and submission including the Idaho Professional Learning Plan.
• When a candidate is hired by a School District in Idaho, the Principal will be the first person in line to provide BYUI with copies of classroom observations (formative and summative). When the ALT Route placement happens in one of our current partner districts, then BYUI will assign a university supervisor to visit the classroom the appropriate amount of times to complete the required classroom observations and evaluations.

Approved by ECC on 11/9/2020