ATCP

The vision of the Alternative Teacher Certification Program is to assist in providing a new resource for the development of quality teaching in a community of learning that attends to the special cultural diversity needs of the area's children.

While the mission of the College of Education is to prepare effective teachers, counselors, diagnosticians, and school administrators, who successfully address the problems of schools and other youth service agencies, ATCP focuses specifically on teachers and their needs. In line with this vision, the Alternative Teacher Certification Program was developed in an effort to provide a high quality alternative route to teaching for adults in transition, thus providing a new and untapped human resource to community; our emphasis is on creating learning communities who realize the need to attract and retain teachers.

Through our On-Campus program, and now our Online program, our mission encompasses small rural districts in need of bilingual, math, and science teachers and other areas of documented need. The duality of delivery methods provides accessability to all interested students. (The online program is made possible by grants from The University of Texas TeleCampus and the United States Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement's; Transition to Teaching Grant: Connecting Teaching to Learning.)

General Requirements

The University of Texas at El Paso offers Career and Technology Education certification in four different areas: Business Education, Marketing Education, Trade and Industrial Education and Health Science Technology Education. Listed below are the GENERAL requirements for all certification areas

• Holding the appropriate post-secondary degree as specified on your CATE Certification Plan.
• Passing the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) as specified on your CATE Certification Plan.
• Professional Teaching Courses
• The course work requirement varies for each certification area
• 2 – 5 years of approved work experience depending on your certification area (utilizing skills that will be taught in a future classroom).
• This work experience is approved through a Statement of Qualification (SOQ) form
• The SOQ is approved by CATE Certification Officer.
• Attend and complete the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Trade and Industrial New Teachers Workshop and/or the TEA Professional Development Conference as specified on your CATE Certification Plan.
• Attend a minimum of three Pedagogy and Professional Responsibility (PPR) Examination review sessions and passing The University of Texas at El Paso’s College of Education Qualifying Examination with a score of 80 percent or higher.
• Passing the TExES PPR and/or content examinations as specified on your CATE Certification Plan.

Education is not the filling of the pail, but the lighting of a fire...