COLUMBUS, Ohio — When the 2023-2024 school year begins, some non-certified employees working with Columbus City Schools will embark on a new journey.
It’s part of a program developed to address the teacher shortage, teacher retention, and diversity within the district.
What You Need To Know
- The Capital City Teacher Residency Program is a partnership between Capital University and Columbus City Schools
- The program targets participants of color and those above 40-years-old
- Non-licensed employees enrolled in the program will complete a minimum of two years
- A grant from the Ohio Department of Higher Education is helping to fund the first year of the program
“This is what in business… they call it a disruption," said Bradley Conrad, co-founder of the program and an associate professor of education at Capital University
He explained that the disruption is a new way of doing business to get at a much larger problem.
“There are paraprofessionals, instructional assistants—there's library assistants, even there are secretaries who want to go back and become licensed teachers. They've been working. So that passion is there. They've been doing it for so long; but what they're finding is they can't take like two years off and go back to school and not get paid,” said Nisreen Daoud, director and co-founder of the program.
Daoud said she and her team were surprised to find out how many district employees were working as assistants of some sort, but couldn’t move up because of the barriers.
This is why they’ve created the program in a way that works to eliminate as many barriers as possible. Those who enroll will keep their current jobs, while taking classes online. They’ll also do student teaching.
The curriculum for the program was written in collaboration with CCS. As a part of it, students will prepare for the context they’re working in each day by learning about the community through projects they’ll complete.
Thaddeus Anderson is an intervention aide. He’s been in the district for more than a decade. He’s been accepted into the program and is excited about what’s ahead and the prospect of becoming a full-time teacher.
“You can see the impact you have, and it makes you feel excited about returning the next day," Anderson said. “If I succeed, this is going to be great for me and my family.”
This will also be a boost in pay so that Anderson can better support his family.
As students complete the program, the aim is to diversify the field.
“You're also seeing in Columbus City a really big, huge disconnect between what the teacher population looks like and what the student population looks like,” Daoud said.
Conrad said that while 8% of the teaching population is of color, more than 66% of the student population is of color.
While the differences are not unique to Columbus, they believe this program will start to chip away at it as the district works to promote from within.
While Conrad and Daoud know the program is not a full solution, they’re hopeful that it can be a great start to addressing it. That’s besides addressing the sub shortage. Those who are a part of the program will work as subs for a period of time and are guaranteed a district position for three years once they complete the program.
The hope is that as they iron out the kinks of the program, it can be a model that’s replicable in other places with the same challenges.