Alternate-Route Education Programs Target Mississippi's Teacher Shortage

Part 3 of the "Equity or Bust: Are Ontario's Public Schools a Model for Pennsylvania" Series: Ontario is widely lauded for its education system, celebrated for both high performance and relatively smaller achievement gaps between wealthy and poor students. One of the key factors to their success is rigorous preparation of and support for their teachers. Pennsylvania, meanwhile, struggles to find and retain educators.

The Phoenix School of Discovery is an alternative school designed for students with learning and social challenges, with roughly half of students on an individualized education plan, or IEP. The school prioritizes hands-on learning, has multiple teachers in each classroom, and offers accommodations like sensory-friendly lighting and a space for “quiet lunch” for students who find the traditional cafeteria over-stimulating.

In an attempt to combat pandemic-era drops in enrollment, the City University of New York network sent personalized letters to seniors graduating from public high schools in the city and waived application fees for these students for the month of October. The network saw its number of applicants jump 386 percent compared to the same month last year.

At CU Coventry, students take just one course at a time for four hours each day, which allows them to finish a bachelor’s degree within three years. The fixed schedule and “no frills” tuition is often more convenient for nontraditional students who may have children or full-time careers outside of school.

The Brazosport school district has a unique teacher apprenticeship program which covers the cost of aspiring teachers’ coursework and pays them to teach under a mentor educator for a full year. Twenty-five new teachers graduated from the program this year and will be required to work in the district for at least three years, and research shows that about 86 percent of educators who complete similar programs are still teaching in the same district after three years.

Medical schools and public health programs have shifted some of their practices in an effort to attract more Black students, such as by removing GRE requirements and recruiting more Black faculty, and these schools have seen an influx of applications during the pandemic. One example is Brown University's Health Equity Scholars program, which offers tuition support, a paid research assistantship, and formalized mentorship to a diverse cohort each year.

South Dakota State University's Expanding the Circle program provides online graduate courses and tuition support to help faculty at tribal colleges update their credentials in line with new accreditation requirements. Since the program was rolled out, the retention rate for online graduate coursework has risen by roughly 30 percent.

The founder of the Uncle Muhsin Education Support Initiative uses his own resources to offer in-person and virtual classes for free to young Nigerians who are out of school. He also offers classes for children in school who do not understand all of their subjects.

At Su Casa Preschool in Memphis students are taught the usual curriculum plus second language development. The program focuses on helping Spanish-speaking immigrant children access quality education.

The Mary Lyon School is a “full-inclusion school” designed to give students — especially those with special needs, including emotional and behavioral disabilities — the necessary resources and supports to see positive outcomes with their education. The Mary Lyon School uses community-based approaches and philosophies rooted in inclusion to stay connected with students and their families to help guide them toward their graduation day.