Teacher academies that make a difference NOW

Many students who enter CTE programs for future educators do not actually go on to study education. This Arizona high school redesigned its teacher academy to have value for students and schools, no matter what career path students ultimately choose.

Over the past 10 years, national enrollment in teacher academies — career and technical education (CTE) programs designed to generate and sustain high school students’ interest in the education profession — has grown substantially. According to the Perkins Data Explorer (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.), in 2010, more than 84,000 high school students were concentrators (completing at least two courses in a single career pathway) in a CTE education and training program. In 2018, more than 160,000 high school students were concentrators in a teacher academy program, exploring education careers serving learners from birth through 12th grade (Audrain & Googins, 2022). At first glance, the growing enrollment seems to signal a promising future for the education workforce. It could indicate that high schoolers are interested in pursuing education careers, which is encouraging in light of substantial teacher shortages (García & Weiss, 2019).

Although enrollment in these programs is substantial and growing, other data tell a different story. Fewer than 90,000 undergraduate degrees in education were awarded in 2018-19, down from a peak of almost 200,000 in the early 1970s (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 2022). And the number of high school students interested in pursuing education careers, such as teaching, administration, and counseling or other student services, has been declining (ACT, 2016).

In addition, enrollment in teacher academies may not be the solid indicator of future growth in the education profession that we hope for. For example, only 36% of high school students who completed a South Carolina teacher academy program in 2020-21 say they want to pursue teaching as their college major (Teacher Cadets, n.d.). Simply put, while teacher academy enrollment is increasing, most high school students — including those completing the programs — aren’t interested in education careers. With this in mind, teacher academy programs should set sail in a new direction under the assumption that a majority of program participants will not become teachers.

Skyline High School in Mesa, Arizona, has been rethinking its teacher academy program, called Education Professions, in light of these realities. Skyline High is a Title 1 urban high school with more than 2,300 students. There are 80 students in the Education Professions program. Most students in the program identify as female and as students of color and do not plan on pursuing education as their postsecondary career.

In summer 2022, we revised the Education Professions mission and vision as well as its curriculum, clinical internship experiences, and industry credential offerings. While this redesign was prompted in part by the general trend of high schoolers’ disinterest in becoming teachers, another factor was Skyline’s partnership with Arizona State University’s Next Education Workforce initiative. One focus of the Next Education Workforce initiative is to consider how high schoolers might assume meaningful roles in the education workforce (Maddin & Mahlerwein, 2022). While recruiting and preparing the future education workforce is still a primary goal of Skyline’s Education Professions program, another goal is to mobilize high school students in meaningful, role-based ways that are mutually beneficial to the teacher academy students, preK-12 students, and the education workforce.

Refocusing the curriculum

Like many teacher academies across the country, Skyline’s teacher academy curriculum covers the major categories of teacher knowledge — pedagogical knowledge and skills, cultural diversity in education, and the structures of schools and school systems (Shulman, 1987). Most programs take a broad and general approach to this knowledge, and teacher academy students are unsure how to translate this generalized knowledge into lesson planning or their clinical internship experiences.

Rather than focusing on developing students’ general pedagogical knowledge and skill, Skyline’s teacher academy program focuses on developing their pedagogical content knowledge — “the special amalgam of content and pedagogy” (Shulman, 1987, p. 8) — about research-based reading instruction. Students learn about the fundamentals of reading instruction — letter-sound correspondence, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics — and how to teach these fundamentals to early learners.

This benefits high school students in two ways. First, it may address gaps in high school students’ own reading knowledge and skills. Second, it provides a service-learning opportunity. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, 2022) revealed that a little more than a third of 4th graders didn’t meet the basic benchmark in reading performance. Having high school students learn about reading instruction enables them to respond to a current need as part of their clinical internship experience.

For those students who do want to pursue education careers, whether as a teacher, a student services professional, or another role, knowing how to support development of the most fundamental literacy skills will be beneficial, even if reading instruction is not a primary focus of their career. Literacy skills help students acquire knowledge and skills in any discipline.

Redesigning clinical internship experiences

Students in teacher preparation programs cannot merely learn about teaching (Ball & Forzani, 2009). They must engage in hands-on experiences, often through clinical internship experiences (CIEs). CIEs enable teacher academy students to bridge theory and practice so that their “knowledge and skills are seamlessly and gradually developed and internalized” (Benedict et al., 2016, p. 2). The structure of the typical teacher academy CIE, however, is rather nebulous and not clearly connected to the generalized pedagogical knowledge covered in academy classes. Teacher academy students may observe or assist a teacher in their classroom but have little guidance about the actual activities they should be engaging in and how they connect to what they’re learning in their academy classes. Further, teacher academy students often receive little direction or opportunities for coaching or feedback.

One way to develop knowledge and skills in a seamless, coherent, and gradual way is by building specific roles that teacher academy students are preparing to fulfill, such as serving as tutors. Engaging in tutoring as a structured CIE enables students to apply their pedagogical and instructional knowledge and skills in a controlled setting (Benedict et al., 2016). Interestingly, researchers have noted that high school students can serve as effective cross-age tutors, enabling schools to scale up post-pandemic efforts to improve student outcomes (Kraft & Falken, 2021). Thus, a teacher academy can become a crucial element not only in preparing future educators but also in meeting present needs.

As much research on the components of effective tutoring notes, training of tutors is essential (Kraft & Falken, 2021). Skyline’s teacher academy students learn about the fundamentals of reading instruction as part of their coursework. This serves as training for their roles as “community educators” — cross-age reading tutors to K-6 students at a local elementary school, Stevenson Elementary School, two to four days a week.

The district’s commitment to team-based staffing models enables us to think differently about roles and responsibilities for students who want to be educators and those who may want to work in part-time roles with learners.

Stevenson employs a team-based staffing model, where educators share a common roster of students and redistribute their roles and responsibilities based on their areas of expertise (Maddin & Mahlerwein, 2022). As part of the educator team, community educators assist in deepening and personalizing learning for students. All teacher academy students, regardless of their desired career path, are able to serve on the team as community educators.

Teacher academy students who want to be educators get experience working with students in a classroom, and this team-based staffing model enables them to see the power in teacher coordination and collaboration. Teacher academy students who do not want to be educators have the rewarding experience of helping students learn, see how they might work with learners in schools or the community as volunteers, and gain subject-specific knowledge and skills they can use in their families and communities.

Reconsidering credentials

Teacher academies face a conundrum. Their primary goal has been to prepare students for teaching careers that require bachelor’s degrees. At the same time, they often offer an industry credential with no clear pathway to a career as a full-time teacher.

One of the most common industry credentials that teacher academy programs offer is the paraprofessional certification. The credential is achieved by passing the Praxis Parapro examination, which measures candidates’ knowledge of basic reading, writing, and math and how to apply them in instruction (www.ets.org/parapro/test-takers/about.html). This is one of the few K-12 credentials in education that does not require at least a bachelor’s degree to obtain.

Industry credentials are important signals of specialized and acquired knowledge and skills, and this may be why the paraprofessional credential is popular for high school teacher academies. It enables students to leave the program with evidence that they are ready to begin a career in education. However, the credential’s value is limited for those who wish to become teachers.

Teacher academies must seize the opportunity to mobilize 160,000 high school students in practice-based ways that benefit teacher academy students, preK-12 learners, and the education workforce.

Other fields, such as health care, offer ample work-based bridges from one credential to the next (e.g., certified nursing assistants can become licensed practical nurses who can become registered nurses). But education has been described as an unstaged occupation (Lortie, 1975) with relatively few ways to enter, specialize, and advance in the profession. Indeed, there are few established pathways from paraprofessional to certified teacher, and the scheduling and clinical requirements of teacher preparation programs often are incompatible with work as a paraprofessional. Some teacher academies attempt to build a pathway to a bachelor’s degree by offering dual enrollment credit for common education coursework (e.g., introduction to education), but these credits are only meaningful for students who want to become teachers.

It is not the onus of teacher academy programs to entirely redesign the entry, specialization, and advancement opportunities in the education profession. But by working with district human resource departments, colleges of education, and other stakeholders, teacher academies might help build some initial opportunities. Skyline’s teacher academy is working with its district’s human resources department and Arizona State University to build new roles for high school and college students (e.g., community educator “reading tutor” roles); consider the creation of new credentials to complement these roles (e.g., a reading tutor credential); and translate these offerings into college credit (e.g., methods of teaching reading course) for those who want to enter a postsecondary teacher preparation program. While this has been the most challenging component to shift in Skyline’s redesign of its teacher academy program, the district’s commitment to team-based staffing models enables us to think differently about roles and responsibilities for students who want to be educators and those who may want to work in part-time roles with learners.

The opportunity before us

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided school systems with an opportunity to experiment with innovative solutions to remedy instructional loss. Teacher academies present one such solution. They can develop students’ pedagogical content knowledge in areas of the greatest need and mobilize high school students to help meet those needs. We also need to consider how to create new entry, specialization, and advancement pathways.

Even if a majority of teacher academy students do not end up as full-time educators, teacher academy programs still have value to our students and our schools. Teacher academies must seize the opportunity to mobilize 160,000 high school students in practice-based ways that benefit teacher academy students, preK-12 learners, and the education workforce.

References

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. (2022). Colleges of education: A national portrait.

ACT. (2016). The condition of future educators 2015.

Audrain, R.L. & Googins, J. (2022). Beyond teaching teddy bears: Generating and sustaining high school students’ interest in the teaching profession through clinical practice. In D. Polly (Ed), Preparing quality teachers: Advances in clinical practice. Information Age Press.

Ball, D.L. & Forzani, F. M. (2009). The work of teaching and the challenge for teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 60 (5), 497–511.

Benedict, A., Holdheide, L., Brownell, M., & Marshall Foley, A. (2016). Learning to teach: Practice-based preparation in teacher education (Special Issues Brief). Center on Great Teachers and Leaders.

García, E. & Weiss, E. (2019). Low relative pay and high incidence of moonlighting play a role in the teacher shortage, particularly in high-poverty schools. Economic Policy Institute.

Kraft M.A. & Falken, G. (2021). A blueprint for scaling tutoring across public schools (Ed Working Paper No. 20-335). Annenberg Institute at Brown University.

Lortie, D.C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. University of Chicago Press.

Maddin, B.W. & Mahlerwein, R.L. (2022). Empowering educators through team-based staffing models. Phi Delta Kappan, 104 (1), 33-37.

National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2022). Scores decline in NAEP reading at grades 4 and 8 compared to 2019. National Center for Education Statistics.

Shulman, L.S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.

Teacher Cadets. (n.d.). Research. www.teachercadets.com/research.html

U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Perkins data explorer. https://perkins.ed.gov/pims/DataExplorer.

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This article appears in the March 2023 issue of Kappan, Vol. 104, No. 6, pp. 24-28.