Much research has been done concerning alternative teacher preparationprograms, most often comparing teachers who have completed alternative route programswith those completing 4-year baccalaureate teacher preparation programs. Variablesstudied in that research include retention and a wide range of factors that have thepotential to influence it, including job satisfaction and commitment to both school and theteaching profession. The results of those studies are mixed, and little of the research isspecific to Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers. The purpose of this causalcomparative study was to compare participants in two university-based alternative CTEteacher preparation programs (an in-service program and a pre-service program) onteaching status, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and professionalcommitment. In addition to preparation program, four other independent variables thathave been shown to affect the dependent variables were included: age, teaching tenure,non-teaching occupational experience, and the socioeconomic status (SES) of the school. A total of 37 individuals who had completed the pre-service program and 66 who hadcompleted the in-service program during the same 3-year period participated in this mailsurvey. A series of one-way analyses of variance and chi square analyses revealed nosignificant differences on any of the four dependent variables by preparation program,age, teaching tenure, or non-teaching occupational experience. School SES wassignificantly and positively related to job satisfaction. There were, however, nosignificant differences in professional commitment, organizational commitment, orteaching status based upon school SES. Retention levels among study participants wereextremely high, with about 88% still teaching. These findings suggest that in high qualityuniversity-based teacher preparation programs, pre-service and in-service approachesfunction equivalently in terms their effects upon the independent variables studied. However, there were differences across the two groups of teachers in terms of age andteaching tenure, suggesting that these preparation approaches may serve different types ofteachers. The findings of this study may help to guide both teacher preparation practicesand preparation research.
