Ford, TimothyDennis, Nicolette2024-08-142024-08-142024-07-25https://hdl.handle.net/11244/340576Only a few studies have compared traditionally and nontraditionally certified teachers. This exploratory study examined the differences among emergency, alternative, and traditionally trained teachers who were new to an urban Midwestern school district. Hiring alternative and emergency certified teachers has become a standard solution for districts and school leaders in all 50 states to address significant teacher shortages. The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in background, personality, and job-related characteristics such as teaching knowledge, grit, self-efficacy, and job satisfaction by certification type, as well as the moderation of the relationship between these characteristics and job satisfaction by certification type. Following approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), a survey was distributed to the email addresses of 58,733 certified teachers employed in public schools within Oklahoma. After removing duplicates and excluding responses from non-teachers and those with more than three years of experience, the final data set comprised 556 responses from teachers with one to three years of classroom experience, gathered in the summer of 2022. Many of the participants began their careers in the Fall of 2019, with many most likely having spent their first two years teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis revealed that emergency and alternative certification pathways showed significant moderation of the relationship of job satisfaction with teaching knowledge, with emergency pathways being highly significant (p < .01) and alternative pathways moderately significant (p < .05). Job satisfaction for alternatively certified teachers was significantly lower than the other two certification types (p < .05). Grit was significantly higher for alternatively certified teachers (p < .05). At the same time, Big 5 Emotional Stability demonstrated a highly significant positive connection for emergency certified teachers (p < .01). Self-efficacy in student engagement showed a positive correlation for alternatively certified teachers (p < .01). In contrast, self-efficacy in classroom management was positively correlated for both traditionally (p < .05) and alternatively (p < .01) trained teachers. FIT-Choice Perceived Ability and Job Transferability showed positive correlations for traditionally trained teachers (p < .05 and p < .01, respectively). FIT-Choice Social Equity and Job Transferability showed positive connections for alternatively trained teachers (p < .05 and p < .01, respectively). FIT-Choice Fallback Career had a negative correlation for emergency certified teachers (p < .05). One of the most intriguing findings was the relationship between job satisfaction and familial obligations, such as parenting or caregiving. This study's findings offer numerous paths for further research into the factors influencing teacher job satisfaction and effectiveness based on certification pathways.Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationalcertification and pathway and background and characteristicsjob related characteristicscertification pathwayspersonalityjob satisfaction