ACE: We are incredibly grateful for our partnership with Temple ISD! Tell us about your experience being an ACE partner.Ìý

Adrian Lopez (AL): Our experience has been very collaborative. Everyone I have interacted with has always been genuinely willing to listen, respond quickly and offer help. My contacts at ACE have made me feel very comfortable reaching out for anything, which has played a significant role in the success of our collaboration.

ACE: We share a mission to see teachers continue their education and advance their careers. How have Temple ISD teachers benefited from the program and ACE?

AL: The long-term effect of the partnership is still a matter of time, but so far, we have seen many teachers excited about the opportunity to advance their careers from paraprofessionals to licensed educators. There is a sense of pride within the cohort of teachers in the program, and it’s terrific to see that. They want to succeed and contribute to the district meaningfully because they’re profoundly grateful that we are willing to support their career goals.

ACE: The primarily originated due to a teacher shortage in Texas, which we’re seeing nationwide. How has the partnership contributed to resolving the shortage?

AL: The easy response is that we have been able to begin the last two years 100% staffed, which is unheard of in our area and across the state. The CATT program has not only played an integral role in our partnership with ACE but has also become a district recruiting tool. Many of our current paraprofessionals are asking to join the CATT program, and we have also received several phone calls from outside the district inquiring about the requirements to join TISD and the CATT program.

ACE: What advice would you give to a school district looking to create teacher development programs in collaboration with higher education institutions?

AL: I would recommend that a school district look at the relationship with the institution and the alternative certification program they plan to use. Additionally, it is essential to screen teacher candidates thoroughly to ensure the proper placement.

We include the CATT teachers in the new teacher mentor program, and they participate in all the new teacher professional development to ensure ample preparation. I would also suggest providing the participants with additional mentoring to work through the pedagogy of teaching and plenty of observations and feedback. This allows more one-on-one mentoring to close the gaps from not pursuing a traditional education program.

·¬ÇÑÊÓƵ is here to provide education solutions for your school district. Learn more about what ACE can do for you.

There are many reasons why employees leave and indicators of why they stay. Compensation isn’t always the reason. Leadership, lack of vision and feelings of isolation can lead an individual to move on. Awareness and intentionality can create a vision-focused, positive work environment that can be the difference between losing good people and growing an outstanding staff.

First, employees want to be a part of a vision-driven culture, know why they come to work and understand that they are working towards a shared purpose and goal. Good leaders understand this and make sure that their schools or districts are driven by a unifying vision and a strategy to achieve it. Exemplary employees won’t leave when they feel excited to be working with a team to make something important become a reality.

Second, employees and, actually, people in general crave connectedness. Help your employees feel like part of a team. Do that by promoting wellness. Use an employee newsletter to share good news, core values and positivity. Be present and visible in your classrooms; employees crave frequent feedback. Employees who receive more feedback are less likely to leave than those who receive limited feedback because they’ll be on a growing path set by leaders who believe in them.

Finally, run a professional organization. Do a thorough job with onboarding, making sure that new staff know how things work and what is valued. Follow that with frequent check-ins and create advancement pathways to keep staff engaged and growing. Provide recognition for initiative and success – it goes a long way! And, very importantly, do what you say that you’re going to do. Empty promises are so defeating; follow-through, on the other hand, is truly valued.

Working in education is hard but also rewarding. By emphasizing the positives and mitigating challenges, it’s possible to increase the likelihood that your team will choose to continue to show up for your students.

Employees who are engaged in meaningful work towards a shared vision, connected to their colleagues, and treated respectfully and professionally are much more likely to stick around, even when the going gets tough. When you create an environment that employees love, you won’t need to spend your time onboarding new folks because you’ll be investing in the ones you have. It will truly pay off!

·¬ÇÑÊÓƵ works with school and district leaders to create solutions for recruiting, retaining and developing quality educators. Learn more how we could work with you.

We can’t underestimate the consequences of a depleted teacher workforce. 

The scale and implications of this impending crisis can’t be overstated. Current estimates from the Learning Policy Institute¹ indicate an annual teacher shortage of over 300,000 by 2025 if current trends persist. This presents an alarming picture that transcends individual classrooms and schools, indicating a significant impact on the entire educational landscape and, by extension, our nation’s future. 

Imagine a classroom brimming with forty, fifty or even sixty students – a stark contrast to the once standard size of around twenty. This is one of the most palpable repercussions of a depleted teacher workforce: overcrowded classrooms. With each desk filled and students spilling over into makeshift seating arrangements, the classroom becomes an echo chamber of simultaneous questions, conversations and distractions. The teacher, an island in this sea of young minds, tries to maintain order all while attempting to deliver a lesson that meets each student’s individual learning needs. 

The role of a teacher in such an environment shifts from being a facilitator of personalized learning to a manager of large groups, aiming to maintain a robust educational environment. The quality of education inevitably suffers. Individualized attention, a cornerstone of effective teaching, becomes a rarity. Students who struggle to grasp concepts may be left behind, their difficulties unnoticed or unaddressed in the teacher’s challenge to keep the class moving forward. Advanced learners, too, may find their progress stunted and their thirst for deeper understanding unquenched due to lack of time and resources. The compromises made within the classroom walls echo into students’ academic outcomes and their readiness to compete in a globalized world where high-level skills and knowledge are increasingly important. 

This bleak picture is further darkened by the impact on teachers themselves. Managing oversized classrooms, struggling to maintain education quality and coping with the constant stress of trying to do more with less, teachers become vulnerable to burnout. Exhaustion, frustration and a sense of helplessness may drive some of the most passionate educators out of the profession, exacerbating the very shortage they were enlisted to combat. It’s a vicious cycle with teachers and students trapped in its whirl. 

As the education sector grapples with this impending crisis, the question becomes urgent and vital: How can we ensure a robust pipeline of qualified, committed teachers for the future? How do we prevent a crumbling educational landscape from becoming our reality? To navigate this challenge, we must look beyond temporary measures and devise sustainable, systemic strategies. The future of our students, teachers and indeed our nation’s socio-economic fabric depends on it. 

Current solutions are met with limitations.

Various attempts to resolve the teacher shortage crisis have largely focused on financial incentives, chiefly through salary increases. However, this approach is both unsustainable and, more importantly, fails to address the root cause of the issue. It’s like treating the symptoms without addressing the underlying disease. The teacher shortage crisis is fueled by complex socio-cultural dynamics: diminishing interest in the teaching profession and a decline in enrollments in teacher certification programs. Therefore, any solution needs to go beyond compensation to address these fundamental issues effectively by removing multiple barriers to entry and completion. 

Innovative partnerships pave a pathway forward. 

An effective way to address these issues lies in fostering innovative partnerships between public schools and university preparation programs. This strategy can help enhance the appeal of the teaching profession, bolster the pipeline of future educators and offer a sustainable solution to the teacher shortage crisis. 

1. Internship, Mentoring and Hands-on Learning: Providing real-world teaching experiences through creative certification programs can attract more education students. For instance, some universities are beginning to offer hands-on teaching experience in local classrooms to undergraduate students endeavoring to earn their degrees. 
2. Financial Accessibility: Addressing the financial barriers to teacher education is paramount. Traditional teacher preparation programs, which often include unpaid student-teaching internships, pose significant financial challenges for many aspiring educators. With tuition costs ever-increasing, this creates a monumental barrier for many. Scholarships, grants or innovative ‘earn-as-you-learn’ programs can help alleviate these burdens.
3. Hybrid Degree Programs: The development of hybrid degree programs that integrate the study of education with other disciplines can broaden the appeal of teaching. Such interdisciplinary programs enable students to explore their interests in various fields while gaining a solid foundation in education.
4. Advocacy for Policy Reforms: Partnerships between public schools and university preparation programs can extend joint advocacy for policy reforms that support teachers. Such reforms could include loan forgiveness for educators, enhanced working conditions and continuous professional development programs. A united front from public schools and university preparation programs can wield substantial influence on educational policy, helping to create a more sustainable and appealing teaching profession. 
5. Joint Research Initiatives: Collaborative research between public schools and university preparation programs can provide valuable insights into teacher recruitment, training and retention strategies. Such insights could then inform more effective practices and policies. For example, a joint research project between Michigan State University’s College of Education and several Michigan school districts . The insights from this research have shaped Michigan’s teacher recruitment and retention policies, resulting in more effective strategies to address the teacher shortage. 

While innovative partnerships can stand alone, there will be opportunities to combine these initiatives in a systemic and thoughtful way to reduce barriers for future students. A prime example is ·¬ÇÑÊÓƵ (ACE), as they work to combine 1, 2 and 4 into one cohesive program. By accepting prior learning experience as credits toward a degree program, students can save money and finish their program faster. Thus, partnering with a local education association (LEA, or school district) allows non-traditional students to earn their degrees and make the most of professional development. This remarkable ingenuity will likely become the industry standard in the near future.   

Initiatives like this can expose students to teaching, make teacher education financially accessible, provide interdisciplinary education, advocate for teacher-friendly policies and promote collaborative research. In fact, they are critical to addressing the teacher shortage crisis. As we stand at this educational crossroads, the choice before us is clear. We can proactively innovate to avoid a similar fate, or we can choose inaction and face the potential decline of our educational system. The time to choose innovation and action is now. 

¹ 

Learn more about partnerships at ·¬ÇÑÊÓƵ.