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...who completed the alternative certification program, up to the time of this writing. All teachers participated in a fast track master's alternative certification degree program and received in-depth education coursework and mentoring. Results indicated that support (i.e., administrative, parents, mentors) and teachers' beliefs about their students' capabilities may affect their effectiveness in urban, low SES middle-level science classrooms.
Urban middle school science teaching presents a complexity of issues for the novice (beginning) teacher. First, the beginning teacher must learn to orchestrate effective teaching and learning strategies in urban school settings. Urban schools have often been characterized as places that have a number of inequities (Cardenas, 2000; Hoff & McCarty, 1985) and low levels of student interest and motivation to learn (Tobin, 2001). In addition, novice teachers may face challenges in teaching middle school learners. That is, teaching at the middle level can be daunting. The National Middle School Association (NMSA) states that "teachers should understand the developmental uniqueness of young adolescents and should be as knowledgeable about their students as they are about the subject they teach" (1995, p. 13). Beginning teachers must also learn how to effectively teach school science. A person who has had success applying academic knowledge, skills, and experiences using mathematics and science in the real world does not necessarily mean that he or she will translate the knowledge and experiences to a successful middle-level teaching career. Shulman (1986) argues that teachers also need "pedagogical content knowledge," which he describes as knowledge that goes beyond understanding of the content to understanding the dimension of the subject matter for teaching. Taken collectively, these challenges may seem almost insurmountable for even veteran middle-level teachers.
Improvements in middle school mathematics and science teaching are needed, and getting more qualified teachers into these schools is of the essence. Teachers without teacher preparation courses tend to feel inadequate to teach and are not sufficiently prepared to handle the details and intricacies of diverse student populations, classroom management, and student assessments (Darling-Hammond, Chung, & Frelow, 2002). Ball (2003) succinctly states, "We cannot afford to keep re-learning that improvement of students' learning depends on skillful teaching, and that skillful teaching depends on capable teachers and what they know and can do" (p. 1).
This article reports case study findings of three career change teachers in a fast-track (one-year) middle-level mathematics and science master's degree program, which provided the education academic coursework and internship experience as they transitioned from the business world to middle-level mathematics and/or science teaching and employment data for all science teachers who completed the program.
Theoretical Framework
There is increased interest in getting qualified teachers of mathematics and science into the K-12 classroom setting, and urban middle school science teaching has been an area of tremendous need for improved mathematics and science instruction. Jerald (2002), referring to an educational trust data analysis conducted by Richard Ingersoll, reports that out-of-field teaching is too pervasive and the impact on middle schools is detrimental. Prospective teachers at the middle school level need to understand the unique nature of middle school teaching. Brand and Glasson (2004) have reported that there are various areas of tension that have complicated middle-level teaching, among them, and probably most important, is understanding the characteristics of the young adolescents and their educational needs. Research by Laczko-Kerr and Berliner (2003) suggests that subject matter knowledge is important but not the only factor in a certified teacher's success with mathematics and science students in the upper grades. Teachers need to understand the developmental characteristics of the middle-level students they teach (NMSA, 1995). Couple the need to understand the developmental characteristics of the middle-level learner with the context of urban low SES schools, and the urban middle school science teacher must acquire substantial knowledge and skills to orchestrate effective teaching and learning experiences in these settings.
Most urban school settings have a large diverse student population, and many of the students are from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Hence, middle-level science teachers, in many cases, must orchestrate teaching and learning in an environment that is culturally and economically much different from their own. Connell (1994) makes the following observation: "Poor children are, generally speaking, the least successful by conventional measures and the hardest to teach by traditional methods" (p. 125). Atwater (1994) adds ...
Diversity in the classroom is both a challenge and an opportunity. It is a challenge because our knowledge and skills for effectively teaching diverse student populations has...
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