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While juggling their work and school load, teacher candidates are also taking a series of tests required by the state to get certified. Students must first have an associate degree before starting the program. Statewide, 50% of Washington students are people of color, while 87% of classroom teachers are white.Īt Yakima Valley College, like other Washington community colleges, teacher candidates are assigned a residency at a partner school for the second half of the two-year program. They’re seen as a way to buffer the teacher shortage and to grow a workforce more representative of the student body. Some are run by schools, others by colleges.
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The state in recent years has encouraged “Grow Your Own” programs, or alternative pathways to classroom certification.
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The number of waivers granted for staff who had not completed certification requirements rose to 8,080 in the 2019-2020 school year, from less than 2,800 a decade prior, according to a 2021 report from the state’s Professional Educator Standards Board. To fill gaps in staffing, schools in Washington state have had to turn to underqualified employees.
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In 2018, 57,000 fewer students nationwide earned education degrees than in 2011. For years, the number of people graduating from teacher education programs has fallen short of demand. It’s likely she wouldn’t have pursued a classroom career otherwise.
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In all, 51 community college-based teaching programs have launched across the country since the early 2000s.Īnd they’re attracting students like Nuñez Ardon, who became certified to run a K-8 classroom in June, at the age of 36. More community colleges around the country are starting to offer teacher education, said CCBA President Angela Kersenbrock. The number of people completing a teacher-education program declined by almost a third between the 2008-19 academic years, according to a report in March from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. The expansion comes at a good time: Teacher shortages have worsened in the past decade, and fewer undergraduates are going into teacher training programs. Six other states - Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada and New Mexico - have community colleges that offer degrees related to K-12 education, according to Community College Baccalaureate Association data. All of the programs started within the last decade.Īround the country, education programs remain far more common at four-year institutions. In Washington state, nine community colleges offer education degrees for teaching grade school and up. They can dramatically cut the cost and raise the convenience of earning a teaching degree, while making a job in education accessible to a wider diversity of people. Nuñez Ardon took an unusual path to the classroom: She earned her teaching degree through evening classes at a community college, while living at home and raising her four children.Ĭommunity college-based teaching programs like this are rare, but growing. in middle school speaking very little English, came to be a teacher. One day, for example, she talked about Salvadoran American NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio and his journey to the International Space Station.Īnother day, she told them her own life story - how she, an El Salvadoran immigrant who arrived in the U.S. In her second-grade classroom outside Seattle, Fatima Nuñez Ardon often tells her students stories about everyday people realizing their dreams. Domain menu for The Greenwood Commonwealth (main - mobile)
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