With the proliferation of alternative route (AR) special education teacher preparation programs, many teacher educators are likely to be involved in AR program design and implementation. Unfortunately, few resources have focused on best practices for program developers to prepare the nontraditional participants who typically populate their programs. In this article, the authors present a series of guidelines intended to assist teacher educators in the development of AR programs. These guidelines, presented within the context of best practices in teacher education, relate directly to what we know about the characteristics of successful AR programs as well as the participants who access these programs.
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