Leveraging Teacher Apprenticeship to Grow the ESL and Bilingual Teacher Workforce

By Amaya Garcia

Garcia begins with the note that “…federal data indicate an overall decline in the number of teachers certified to teach English learners.” To mitigate this problem, she proposes teacher apprenticeship as a solution.

She recommends “Dual endorsement” in both elementary education and ESL in teacher apprenticeship programs. Participants can be drawn from people in the community or from high school juniors and seniors, who could have the opportunity to gain classroom experience during the school day. They could also recruit students who have obtained the Seal of Biliteracy and bilingual paraeducators who are already in the classroom but need the credentials to become teachers.

If these recruits have their tuition covered and can keep getting paid for working while they are earning their degree, along with getting credit for their experience, there will be more teachers to fill the gaps.

You can read about it here.

Creative Solutions For Districts That Struggle To Fill Vacancies In ESL and Bilingual Classes

By Keith Perkins

Keith Perkins, the Supervisor of ESL, Bilingual, and World Language programs for The Irvington Public Schools, describes the Bilingual Teaching Assistant (BTA) position created in his district.

Teachers in the district often know local workers who qualify for this position because they have an associates degree and are fluent in Spanish or Haitian Creole. The job of a BTA is to collaborate with content teachers to help a group of students in their classes by making “highly academic content more comprehensible”. They are encouraged to obtain their substitute teaching certificates and additional training so they can work in a classroom independently. They also have benefits and a higher salary than per-diem substitutes. The district partners with Montclair State University so that they can complete a teaching degree with an ESL or Bilingual certificate paid for by the district once they have finished and then sign a contract to teach in the district for three years.

Here are the details.