This article by Golden Apple President Alan Mather appears in the December 2021/January 2022 issue of Kappan, Vol. 103, No. 4, p. 69.
Who will teach? That’s a question school administrators across the country have been asking, as urban, rural, and suburban districts face a worsening teacher shortage. And it was the subject of Kappan’s November 2021 issue, in which multiple authors discussed how districts are looking to their own communities for teachers, launching grow-your-own programs that recruit paraeducators, teaching assistants, and students into preparation programs and provide support as they enter the classroom.
For more than 30 years, Golden Apple Foundation has been engaged in a similar effort through our Scholars program, where we prepare undergraduates to teach in schools of need across Illinois. We provide tuition assistance; academic, social, and emotional support; placement help; and mentoring, from college through those challenging early years of teaching, to ensure teachers spend at least five years in schools that need them the most.
In the fall of 2019, Illinois had 1,800 vacant teaching positions in both urban and rural communities throughout the state. Around this time, I got in my car to travel to rural communities to spread the word about our Scholars program in the hopes of attracting more applicants from these areas who would commit to teaching in their hometowns. However, when I met with superintendents and principals, their response was almost always the same: They loved the idea of the program, but they needed teachers now.
In just about every community I visited, the answers were identical, the only difference being whether they needed a physics teacher or a physical education teacher or an art teacher. Illinois schools were struggling especially in key areas like special education, bilingual education, and STEM. How could we address these needs quickly, without sacrificing quality? Our solution was the Golden Apple Accelerators program, a 15-month intensive teacher licensure and residency program to place qualified, prepared teachers in classrooms in southern, central, and western Illinois, where the need was greatest.
Accelerator participants begin post-baccalaureate coursework through a partner college to receive a teaching license in the early summer and then enter the classroom for their residency in the fall to gain teaching experience with a mentor teacher in the community where they will eventually become a full-time teacher. Golden Apple provides a $25,000 stipend to each participant to use toward coursework or living expenses while completing the program.
One of the most important elements of the Accelerators program is whom we invite to apply. Instead of focusing on current high school students, we invite career changers and college seniors not on an education track. The Accelerators program has brought us applicants like Nikki, who, despite having an established career in marketing, wanted to do something more fulfilling, so she started working as a paraprofessional in a school. As a wife and mother in the middle of raising her son and saving for his college, she couldn’t afford the time and money it would take to get a teaching degree. Through the Accelerators program, Nikki was able to pursue her dream of becoming a full-time teacher and fill a crucial vacancy in her community.
While the Accelerators program is still in its first years, we have already seen some incredible successes. When we first launched the program at the end of 2019, we received more than 300 applications. Almost all applicants were career changers, and more than half were already working in schools as special education classroom assistants. Our first cohort of 30 Accelerators, who entered the program in summer 2020, began teaching this fall in schools across the state, and they are already becoming beloved and invaluable members of their school communities. Each of our Accelerators has their own, unique story, but they all have one thing in common: Time and financial barriers stood in the way of them pursuing a teaching career. As an organization, Golden Apple is proud to continue finding creative solutions to help people like Nikki and others see that there is a way for them to be the solution to teacher shortages.
Career changers and those not currently on a teaching path who have found their passion for teaching are a huge untapped resource in the fight against teacher shortages, not only in Illinois but nationwide. States across the country have their own alternative licensure pathways, and the National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) helps bring together state organizations working to address this critical issue. We need all hands on deck to address the teacher shortage crisis, and if we offer highly motivated and dedicated individuals a path to teach, we can give our students the education they deserve.