Exciting new research praised by The Wall Street Journal editorial board suggests that states with robust alternative teaching routes—pathways that allow a seasoned industry professional, like an engineer or banker, to make an easy entry into the classroom—are making faster student achievement gains. Sounds a lot like a topic of much debate from earlier this year.

Out of the 47 states with alternative teacher certification routes, Harvard researchers Paul Peterson and Daniel Nadler found that the 21 states deemed to have “genuine” versus “symbolic” routes posted higher gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) between 2003 and 2007.  African-American test-score gains were also higher in the states with “genuine” alternative certification. All of these findings held up even after controlling for race, ethnicity, poverty, class size and per-pupil state spending.  

In addition to boosting student learning, alternative certification helps diversify the teaching corps and meet the rising demand for teachers. Washington, like many states, needs many more effective teachers—particularly for math and science—than our colleges of education are providing.  Nationwide, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics projects a shortfall of 280,000 qualified math and science teachers by 2015.  

While it is possible that some other education reform produced these “disproportionately large gains in test-score performance,” we agree with Peterson and Nadler’s argument that “the burden of proof” is now on alternative certification’s opponents to prove that traditional state certification is necessary to ensure teacher effectiveness.  

Along with the Harvard study, a new value-added study of teacher effectiveness in Louisiana has found that teachers certified under non-traditional programs, The New Teacher Project’s training program in particular, are more likely to be effective than other teachers with two years of classroom experience.  Upholding Louisiana’s alternative routes as a potential model for other states, the New York Times editorial board  “suggest[s] that high-quality programs like Teach for America and The New Teacher Project have a big role to play in the effort to improve teacher preparation nationally.”

With mounting evidence in favor of the positive impact of alternative routes and high-quality alternatively certified teachers, why shouldn’t states open the gates into the teaching profession as wide as possible, and then put in place performance-based evaluations enabling us to identify excellent teachers based on their track records of helping students learn?  We need to shift the teacher effectiveness conversation from one focused on inputs (e.g. credentials) to one that demands results. The next generation of students will thank us.