Building Stronger Teacher Pipelines Through University-District Partnerships

CGLR and Deans for Impact (DFI) were thrilled to bring this critical topic to the foreground as communities across the country grapple with new teacher attrition amidst ongoing shortages. We heard from two strong, long-standing partnerships in Ohio and Virginia on how to successfully work together across recruitment, preparation and mentoring, and what it takes on both sides to come to the table in service of students.

Moderator Valerie Sakimura of DFI opened the discussion by providing a brief overview of the current landscape and ways DFI is supporting partnerships of teacher-preparation programs and school districts to make instructional improvement a priority across all pathways into teaching:

Brilliance is equally distributed, but quality instruction is not….We know students of color, for example, are more likely to be in the classroom of a novice teacher….And so we are working with teacher-preparation programs both within and outside of universities to make sure every new teacher is ready to engage students in rigorous and affirming learning experiences.

Sakimura asked Principal Zeb Kellough of Crim Elementary School at Bowling Green City Schools andTracy Huziak-Clark from Bowling Green State University to share how they’re working together to mobilize aspiring teachers at BGSU as high-dosage tutors at Crim. This effort has both strengthened aspiring teachers’ preparation and provided valuable extra support for current teachers. Kellough and Huziak-Clark had similar sentiments about the impact, with Kellough stating:

Some of the most enriching conversations happen whenever those BGSU tutors were able to sit with [our] team of teachers…to discuss data, to talk about what they think the next steps are, to have those BGSU tutors be the problem-solving individuals to figure out what needs to happen next.

Next, Superintendent Melody Hackney, of Hopewell City Public Schools and Willis Walter of Virginia State University unearthed the details of launching and sustaining a registered apprenticeship program, which has created an affordable pathway for Hopewell’s teaching assistants and paraprofessionals to become licensed teachers. Walter shared:

It was about making sure we didn’t take any shortcuts…that we were giving them the same quality education that our traditional pathway provided….We were able to make this even more special through partnering with Deans for Impact [offering] the professional development, because that also gives them some quality skills that they can immediately use on day one in their classrooms.

Panelists offered policy solutions that would help strengthen relationships between teacher-preparation programs and school districts, including providing compensation, investing in more out-of-school academic support for students and prioritizing both access and quality. Thank you again for your interest in this learning opportunity. We hope you found it enlightening and that you will plan to join us again for future opportunities. 

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