Teacher Apprenticeships Are Booming in Wake of Shortages. Here’s What You
Need to Know
Corrected: A previous version of this story gave an incorrect
description of apprenticeship funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. Its
$100 million in grants is not exclusively for teacher apprenticeships.
The
number of states with federally registered apprenticeship programs for
teachers has doubled in just six months, as policymakers and school district
leaders look to the model as a promising solution to teacher pipeline
challenges.
An apprenticeship, or residency, program allows
prospective teachers to undergo training through a teacher preparation program
while they work in schools and earn a paycheck. Registering such a program
with the U.S. Department of Labor opens up federal funding to pay for tuition
assistance, wages, and other supportive services, such as textbooks and child
care assistance.
The goal, advocates say, is to reduce as many barriers as
possible so more people will become teachers, while still maintaining high
standards of quality. The programs are often meant for paraprofessionals or
high school students who have an interest in teaching, with the idea that
recruiting within a school community will develop teachers who stay
long-term.
Tennessee was the first state to get the stamp of
approval from the Department of Labor in January 2022. By October, seven
other states had gotten approval, and now a total of 16 states have at least
one registered apprenticeship program for teachers.
Many of those
states have more than one. Iowa, for instance, has 17 registered
apprenticeship programs hosted by school systems, part of a push by Gov. Kim
Reynolds and the state education department to train and educate current
high school students to become paraprofessionals, and paraprofessionals to
become teachers.
Just this month, the National Center for Grow
Your Own launched a network for school districts that are in various stages
of implementing the registered apprenticeship model. The network will allow
the district leaders to regularly meet and learn from one another about the
design and implementation of these programs.
So far, 16 districts
have signed on, but David Donaldson, the founder and managing partner of the
center, expects more to follow soon.
The national center also
manages a similar network for states, which launched last year with seven
states and now has 17. (Not all states with registered apprenticeships are
in the network. Some states in the network are still pursuing the model and
haven’t been approved by the Department of Labor yet.) Donaldson said he
expects about 30 states to ultimately join the network, which will run
through December.
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After
all, Donaldsonsaid, teacher shortages are plaguing districts across the
country. Teacher-preparation enrollment has fallen by at least one-third
over the past decade. Low pay is a deterrent for many of those considering
going into teaching, especially those from marginalized backgrounds.
Apprenticeship
programs represent a new path forward.
“Registered
apprenticeships can be used as a Trojan horse to have a different
conversation,” Donaldson said. “That conversation we’re trying to elevate
is, why can’t you become a teacher for free in America and get paid to do
so?”
Mentorship for teacher apprentices is key
Research on
teacher residency programs find that program graduates tend to stay in the
field longer than average. Residents are also more likely to be teachers of
color, who only comprise about 20 percent of the teacher workforce overall.
And some studies have found that students of teachers who participated in a
residency program outperform other teachers’ classes on state assessments,
although that research base is more limited.
The mentorship and
coaching that residents get over a prolonged period of time—versus a
semester, as is typical with most student-teaching experiences—is critical
for long-term success in the classroom, said Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, an
associate professor of graduate teacher education at Stonehill College in
Massachusetts who studies teacher preparation.
Residency programs
help “to make the connection between theory and practice,” said Stringer
Keefe, who developed a residency program at Stonehill. “That has long been a
criticism of the teaching profession—that [traditional] teacher preparation
is too theoretical, and [candidates] need practice.”
But right
now, higher-resourced districts are able to offer higher stipends and
salaries for residents than under-resourced districts, which are often the
ones that need well-trained teachers the most, she said. Having access to
new sources of funding could help close that gap.
Once
established, registered apprenticeship programs can access multiple streams
of workforce funding that previously weren’t available for education. The
exact amount programs receive will vary, but many states and the federal
government have prioritized this model in their budgets. For instance, the
Department of Labor has committed more than $100 million in grants for
apprenticeships programs, including teaching ones.
“This could be
a really wonderful opportunity for the teaching profession as long as there
are safeguards around the academic support,” Stringer Keefe said.
Donaldson
has echoed the call for quality control, saying that the registered
apprenticeship program could be an opportunity to increase the rigor of
teacher preparation. States and districts collaborating through this process
could help maintain a high bar.
Silhouette of a woman with her arms crossed and looming over a classroom watching the teacher instruct her classroom
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The networks that the National Center for Grow Your Own is running are designed for states and districts among the full spectrum of implementation—from the exploratory phase to approval from the federal government.
Both a state educational agency and a district can sponsor an apprenticeship program to register with the Department of Labor. The state or district has to partner with an education preparation provider approved to license teachers—typically a college or university, but it can also be a preparation program run by a school district.
While it’s often easier for state education departments to be the sponsor since they oversee teacher licensing requirements, there are some districts in the network that are taking the initiative, Donaldson said.
“Sometimes a district needs to show what’s possible in order to get the state to move” forward, he said.
District leaders who are participating in the network say they’re eager to share best practices and tips.
“I am a big believer in collective impact, and the teacher vacancy crisis is not just impacting Midland,” said Ashley Osborne, the associate superintendent of teaching and learning at the Midland Independent school district in west Texas. “To be able to network and thought partner with other districts across the country—we’ll be able to learn from them, and maybe they’ll learn from us, and [together we will] collectively mitigate some of the talent challenges we’re seeing in terms of teacher vacancies.”
The 26,000-student district has about 130 teaching positions vacant right now, which is about 7 percent of its teaching force, Osborne said. The vacancies are in all subjects and grade levels.
Beefing up existing programs
The Midland school district has already partnered with the University of Texas of the Permian Basin to run a residency program that is associated with the Opportunity Culture model, which puts strong teachers in charge of more students. Teachers who have demonstrated effectiveness with student learning are named “multi-classroom leaders,” meaning they lead a teaching team, provide on-the-job coaching to their teachers, and still do some teaching themselves.
The teacher residents, who are university students pursuing a traditional path into the profession, are paired with the multi-classroom teacher and work for a full school year as a paraprofessional. They receive a paycheck and health benefits, as well as coaching and support from the mentor teacher and a university supervisor.
“It’s not just removing barriers by getting them into the profession, it’s also providing them with high-quality preparation,” Osborne said.
But the Midland district struggles with obstacles common to teacher residencies: It’s not able to assist with the residents’ tuition. That’s one factor why the pipeline has not yet made a significant impact in the district’s vacancies, she said. Becoming a registered apprenticeship program would unlock additional funding to help with tuition or child care assistance, which would hopefully allow the program to recruit current paraprofessionals as well, Osborne said.
And once the district receives federal registration, it could “backwards design” the apprenticeship approach to include high school students who are interested in becoming teachers, Osborne said. (Currently, the district offers an education training pathway through career and technical education, so high school students can graduate with an associate’s degree.)
Building a pipeline for high schoolers who are interested in teaching is not going to be a short-term fix for shortages. “But we know that we have to grow our own and invest in our people who are from this area so that once they do go through the whole program, get their credentials, and start teaching with us, they’re more likely to stay,” Osborne said.
The Houston Independent school district also joined the national network to explore what an apprenticeship program could look like there, said Kaylan Connally, the executive officer of talent strategy for the district.
The 195,000-student district already runs an in-house
alternative certification program, and Connally said the district is
interested in developing a registered apprenticeship model to support
teaching assistants in earning their bachelor’s degree and teacher
certification, among other options.
Houston ISD’s priority is to
recruit more Hispanic teachers, as well as those who can teach the high
shortage areas of bilingual and special education, Connally said. About 60
percent of the district’s student body is Hispanic, compared to about 30
percent of its teachers.
Many people of color avoid the
profession because they would need to take on student debt and know that
their earning potential as a teacher is limited. Registered apprenticeship
programs can knock down that barrier, among others, Donaldson said.
“Registered
apprenticeships allowed us to unlock funding that wasn’t previously
available,” he said. “The talent has always been there—the opportunity
hasn’t.”
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