Educator Preparation Partnership Pathways
Recognizing the urgent need to strengthen pathways for future educators, US PREP is establishing regional collaboratives known as
Educator Preparation Partnership Pathways. This initiative aims to create collaborative structures between school districts, community colleges, and educator preparation programs.
Recognizing the urgent need to strengthen pathways for future educators, US PREP is establishing regional collaboratives known as Educator Preparation Partnership Pathways. This initiative aims to create collaborative structures between school districts, community colleges, and educator preparation programs.
Central to this effort is addressing the barriers that hinder students from accessing and progressing through clear pathways for those interested in education careers.
Educator Preparation Partnership Pathways aims to facilitate this by establishing coordinated articulation agreements, providing comprehensive information about education careers and programs, enhancing advising structures, and offering robust support systems to ensure candidates successfully complete their degrees and secure employment in schools where they trained. Moreover, as these organizations develop clear pathways, they are also laying the groundwork for implementing
Federal Teacher Apprenticeship models. These models have the potential to make high-quality preparation more accessible by allowing candidates to progress through certification by completing paid clinical experiences, including but not limited to yearlong residencies.
Educator Preparation Partnership Pathways is committed to addressing these challenges through various strategic initiatives, including:
- Establishing sustainable partnerships between community colleges and universities to ensure seamless transfer processes and provide support systems for transfer students.
- Establishing clear articulation agreements between community colleges and universities for smooth credit transfers.
- Promoting credentials and certifications in the education field, such as the Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT), to encourage community college transfers.
- Improving advising structures for transfer students in order to streamline the transfer process and ensure students are well-informed about their options.
- Understanding legislative initiatives such as House Bill 8, focusing on outcomes-based funding for community colleges, to help programs maximize resources and align with state priorities.
- Promoting structured paid apprenticeship and residency programs to enhance accessibility and readiness of aspiring educators for the classroom. Most students need to work and they are working jobs that are not in the education field. Apprenticeship helps to solve for this to augment the financial burden candidates face.
- Providing affordability and accessibility, ensuring candidates have extensive paid clinical experiences throughout their teacher preparation program that culminate in a yearlong residency, through affordable, low cost tuition, financial support (Apprenticeship) and scholarships for transfer candidates.
- Increasing awareness and recruitment by actively promoting pathways for community college transfer candidates through targeted recruitment strategies.
- Highlighting success stories of educators who started in community colleges to inspire future transfer candidates.
