Alternative and Traditional Certified Elementary Teachers: A Cross-sectional Analysis of Their First-year in the Classroom Environmen

First-year teachers have a significant importance to the learning community. Administrators have the difficult task of hiring highly qualified professionals for their schools. When interviewing first-year teachers, principals and hiring managers must decide the benefits of hiring either a traditionally certified teacher or an alternatively certified teacher. Research has shown that principals prefer to hire traditionally certified teachers and these individuals are more successful instructionally than alternatively certified teachers. However, when examining research related to the facilitation of the classroom environment, we find that there is limited research. This research examined two-years of classroom observations of first-year traditionally and alternatively certified elementary teachers using the Framework for Teaching Classroom Environment Rubric and found no difference between these two groups of teachers in how the classroom environment is facilitated and managed. More research is needed to conclude if this is exclusive to first-year teachers or if this is research to support the equal quality of the two certification groups in the facilitation of the classroom environment.