Teach Now Program: Preparing Non-Traditional Educators for the Classroom

Teach Now Program: Preparing Non-Traditional Educators for the Classroom

By: Dr. Andrea Anthony, Assistant Superintendent of HR and Student Services, Rutherford County Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

Teacher shortages directly impact K-12 student success. To support student learning, we depend heavily on educated and inspiring educators to lead our classrooms. Due to the national teacher shortage, public school districts cannot wait for teachers to find them and apply. We must urgently act and utilize a combination of recruitment strategies and timely trainings through mentorship and support.

The decrease in the number of new teaching candidates entering the profession suggest that graduates are pursuing other career choices. We must leverage our recruitment strategies to entice potential educators to teach. This is where the strategy to use a high-volume job board specific to K-12 comes into play. The job boards can also connect with social media accounts. Also, our state required primary partnership agreements allow us to develop timely relationships with universities to speak one-on-one with soon-to-begraduates (i.e., job fairs). So, what would it look like to create your own Educational Preparation Program (EPP) within your district? What start-up leadership positions would you need to help new employees to obtain a license to teach in your district? What would the Primary Partnership (PP) and Quality Assurance Systems (QAS) team roles and responsibilities look like in a large district. This article outlines the conception and implementation of such a program. 

GOAL STATEMENT

The primary goal of the collaborative partnership between Rutherford Teach Now (RTN - EPP) and Rutherford County Schools (RCS - LEA), herein after referred to as “the partnership,” is for the district-supported EPP to produce a high-quality pool of candidates, improving teacher recruitment and retention in the following hard-to-staff, high-need content areas: math, science, English, social studies, world languages, special education, English as a second language and Career and Technical Education. That overarching goal is supported smaller sub-goals outlined in the following plan of action. 

ACTION PLAN

 The first step in the successful implementation of the partnership is to identify personnel needs and the appropriate placement of key players. An EPP Head Administrator would be a member of the primary partnership and QAS team. This person would oversee all facets of the program including licensure, partnership agreements, data collection, analysis and reporting.

There would need to be Clinical Practice Supervisors which would be called the Teach Now Specialists. These specialists would be in the areas of 1) math and science, 2) career and technical, 3) humanities and 4) special populations. Members of primary partnership and QAS team, specialists report to the Teach Now Head Administrator and are main members (Teach Now faculty) that oversee the implementation of the Teach Now Program with responsibilities that include the following: plan and facilitate classes, conduct one-on-one non-evaluative observations of candidates, plan and facilitate clinical educator (supervising teacher) training, collect qualitative and quantitative feedback data for program monitoring and help report data findings to district partners.

There must be LEA Partners such as the Chief Personnel and Student Services Officer to provide a district lens regarding hiring needs and a Chief Academic Officer to provide a district lens regarding instructional needs. An Assessment and Accountability Coordinator who is a member of QAS team, provides district and control group data, supplies candidate growth and achievement data for analysis. Adjunct Education Providers which we would call our District Specialists would assist Teach Now faculty with delivering instruction on topics, observe candidates and provide a well-rounded curriculum. Clinical Educators (Supervising Teachers) who are members of QAS team would meet biweekly with candidates, provide additional insight into program effectiveness through meetings with Teach Now faculty and complete program and candidate evaluations. 

How would the partnership work to provide hard to fill subject area teachers right now? First, we must recruit high-quality candidates from a broad range of backgrounds and diverse populations. Additionally, we must clarify how evidence will be collected, shared and used to increase the education pipeline.

For all approved content areas, recruitment efforts will focus on first-year teachers, RCS Teacher Fair attendees, community partners and classified staff. For the CTE clusters, focus will be given to Allied Health, Advanced Manufacturing and Information Technology as these pathways have been identified as industry areas of high need in Middle Tennessee. Other recruitment strategies include, but are not limited to, targeted social media marketing campaigns and informational open houses to attract community members interested in teaching but unaware of the available pathways to licensure.

As agreed upon by the partnership, candidates are eligible for program selection based on RCS hiring requirements for teacher certification, Rutherford Teach Now program enrollment requirements, TDOE requirements for teacher education and TDOE CCTE Division’s Occupational and Academic Licensure Requirements.

Our second area of discussion would be in describing the strategies and actions in place to co-select clinical support high-quality clinical educators, both provider and school based, who demonstrate a positive impact on candidates’ development and outcomes for PK-12 students. The following would represent the collaborative efforts from LEA and EPP representatives of the participants’ support teams. Support teams will communicate regularly and meet as necessary to support participant goals and address areas of concern.

1. Teach Now Coordinator and Specialist will train clinical educators to provide resources and strategies for effective mentoring with specific attention given to program overview and requirements for math/science and CTE. Prepare clinical educator expectations guidelines. Provide clinical educator reflection forms to serve as accountability logs. Meet with clinical educators to revisit expectations and troubleshoot problems. Analyze survey data to determine clinical educator effectiveness.

2. Clinical educators will meet eligibility requirements as mutually agreed upon by the partnership (have 4-5 Level of Effectiveness score), 3+ years endorsement classroom experience. Meet regularly with teacher participant for one-on-one support. Complete monthly clinical educator meeting logs and be assessed through participant surveys.

Our third area of discussion would be to describe the design and implementation of clinical experiences, utilizing various modalities of sufficient depth, breadth,  educators and collaborate to prepare, evaluate and diversity, coherence and duration to ensure candidates demonstrate their developing effectiveness and positive impact on K-12 students. Through ongoing collaboration, the partnership will ensure that participants possess the appropriate knowledge, skills and dispositions required for effective teaching and learning in the current educational environment. The partnership will annually review coherency between district practices and the EPP’s conceptual framework and program curriculum to ensure appropriate alignment to district needs. Rutherford Teach Now is an 18-month cohort job-embedded program consisting of 151 hours of teacher education coursework and full-time clinical experience as the teacher of record.

The fourth area of discussion is to describe the process partners use in the program design, evaluation and decision-making for continuous improvement. RCS and Rutherford County Schools Teach Now developed a partnership committee that meets each semester to review the program design, evaluate effectiveness and to discuss necessary decisions for improvement. These meetings bring together Teach Now faculty with RCS district representatives including Human Resources leadership, Curriculum and Instruction leadership, middle and high school principals, grade band coordinators, content specialists, instructional technology leadership and assessment leadership. This team meets once per semester with smaller groups or informal meetings with key staff to supplement as needed. 

These partnership committee meetings are an opportunity to review updates, share data reports and discuss potential policy changes. The program’s format and structure are assessed to ensure continued feasibility. Data updates are shared at each meeting to provide guidance on the program’s effectiveness and identify areas of concern or successes. These meetings allow for collaborative EPP and LEA decision making and goal setting by providing all committee members the opportunity to share suggestions for continuous improvement.

The fifth area of discussion is describing how partners will collaborate and make decisions to ensure candidate preparation is inclusive of LEA curricular content and materials. The RCS and Rutherford County Schools Teach Now Partnership Committee meetings serve as an opportunity to gain experience about curriculum updates, resources, initiatives and any necessary changes that Teach Now faculty needs to be aware of to provide effective participant support specific to the content area. Additionally, Teach Now faculty is included in district meetings and trainings when appropriate to stay informed about current curricular updates such as new textbook adoptions, software or other supplemental resources. 

The teacher preparation curriculum to be used is designed specifically for the different content groups and we supplement this by frequently inviting district leaders to present in their areas of expertise. The RCS ELA, math and science middle and high school specialists present and help co-teach lessons designed around cross-curricular integration. This provides opportunities for continual evaluation of the material presented to ensure participants are getting the most up to date information and resources available. We also utilize the expertise of special education and ESL district leaders to share proven strategies that are aligned with district goals to assist teachers in meeting their responsibilities for students in these subgroups.

Data Compliance would consist of the following: three cycles of TEAM evaluation & LOE data by subgroup; three cycles comparison of Rutherford County Schools Teach Now candidates to traditionally prepared educators of similar experience; two cycles of TVAAS cohort comparison for growth; tandem observation with instructional coaches for validity/reliability of evaluation alignment; competency rubric and tracking with GroweLab software system; three cycles of a self-efficacy disposition survey; evidence of authentic artifacts thru portfolio assignments; three points of program and participant data; final administration approval; and mid-year and final instructional coach participant and program data.

Once implemented successfully, the utility of the Teach Now program is universally beneficial for all stakeholders involved. The district-supported EPP would improve teacher recruitment and retention in hard-to-staff , high need areas while simultaneously decreasing the associated costs for job-embedded educators advancing their license and reduce attrition rates. In doing so, we would continue to equip students with well trained, qualified teachers who will nurture foundational skills necessary for career and post-secondary success. In collaboration with Rutherford County Schools, our Teach Now Program would hope to expand to more approved content areas to provide increased opportunities for potential job embedded teachers to fill district hiring needs.