Nontraditional teacher preparation pathways were designed to offer different forms of preparation meant to attract different populations of teachers; however, prior literature suggests they may not provide as much of an alternative as initially intended. Drawing on surveys of nearly 800 preservice student teachers and their mentor teachers, we offer a descriptive overview comparing traditional, alternative, and residency pathways preparing teachers in Chicago Public Schools. Our study provides evidence that nontraditional forms of teacher preparation in Chicago do indeed provide unique routes of entry into the profession. We find substantive differences in the kinds of preparation that these pathways offer, including features of preparation such as program and student teaching duration and methods course load, which are often assumed to differ. We also find differences in features not historically studied including mentor characteristics and experiences, types of mentoring provided, and supports received by mentors.

非传统教师准备途径旨在提供不同形式的准备，旨在吸引不同的教师群体；然而，先前的文献表明，它们可能无法像最初预期的那样提供尽可能多的替代方案。根据对近 800 名职前学生教师及其导师教师的调查，我们提供了一个描述性概述，比较了芝加哥公立学校教师的传统、替代和住院医师培训途径。我们的研究提供的证据表明，芝加哥的非传统教师培训形式确实提供了进入该行业的独特途径。我们发现这些途径提供的准备类型存在实质性差异，包括准备的特征，例如课程和学生教学持续时间以及方法课程负荷，这些通常被认为是不同的。