‘Pathway’ program addresses Gilbert Public Schools' teacher shortage
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It is incredibly intense in all the right ways. Everything I do for them, for my requirements, is for my classroom, it’s for my students.”
Susan Feldman, Pathway participant
Applying for 2023-24
Gilbert Public Schools has posted its openings for the 2023-24 school year, including in the Certification Pathway Program, on its website, www.gilbertschools.net.
Program requirements
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree from an accredited institution;
• Valid fingerprint card issued by the Arizona Department of Public Safety;
• Valid Alternative Teaching Certificate, obtained with GPS help after being admitted to the program;
• For secondary teachers, possess a bachelor’s or master’s degree in the specific content area for which they are applying;
• Also for secondary teachers, have passed and are able to provide unofficial results for the corresponding NES or AEPA certification exam.
Certification areas
• Elementary education, K-8 certification;
• Secondary education, 6-12 certification;
• Special education, mild/moderate disabilities, K-12 certification;
• Special education early childhood, birth through grade 3 certification.
Contract
• $52,000 base salary, benefits eligible;
• Runs July 10-May 30;
• Two work days during traditional fall, spring breaks.
After five years as a stay-at-home mom, Susan Feldman returned to work as a paraprofessional at Gilbert’s Oak Tree Elementary School, the neighborhood school that her daughter attends.
“I was in the classrooms everyday thinking, ‘this is kind of cool,’” said Feldman, who previously had worked as an academic counselor at the University of Phoenix. “And I started thinking, ‘all right, I need to figure out how to make more of this.’”
The same week she started thinking about it, her district, Gilbert Public Schools, sent an email to its employees recruiting for a new teacher-in-residence program it would offer for the 2022-23 school year, the GPS Certification Pathway Program.
“It was really perfect because it was an opportunity to do something that I had a great interest in,” Feldman said. “But I didn’t have to go to school at night. I didn’t have to go to school on Saturdays and find a way to make it fit into a full-time job and a full-time family. It was all in one.”
The Pathway program is a GPS response to the teacher shortage, a way for the district to recruit new people into the profession and train them to be the kind of teachers the district would like to have.
The best part for the participants, who all must have their bachelor’s degree already, is that it is a tuition-free way to earn their 12-year certification on a two-year time frame. Rather, they are being paid as full-time, benefits-eligible district employees.
The participants also must have their fingerprint-clearance card and either an emergency or alternative certification to teach in the classroom right away.
“What’s so great about this program is I’m in the classroom, I’m teaching and I’m learning at the same time,” said Feldman, who is teaching fifth grade at Oak Tree.
The district covers three areas for certification: elementary education, special education (K-12) and early childhood education (birth-grade 3). The district plans to add secondary education for next school year. The district has 32 participants at present, 17 for elementary education and the remaining split in special education.
Getting started
GPS’ program is not the first such teacher-in-residence program in the state. The Washington Elementary School District and Deer Valley Unified District, both of which serve schools in Glendale and Phoenix, previously had programs. Mesa Public Schools is among some other districts that started in the same time frame as GPS.
Each has a different twist on how to do their program, but all have received approval from the Arizona Board of Education to run a program that would result in certification for the teacher.
The idea for GPS to do such a program came when Talent Management Assistant Superintendent Shawn McIntosh went to an Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association conference where the state and Washington ESD presented on the topic. McIntosh then formed a committee at GPS to explore addressing the teacher shortage with the district’s own program.
GPS applied last spring to the Arizona Department of Education for the opportunity to run its own teacher-certification program. Spearheading that application was Mary Longnion, the program administrator who was then principal at Greenfield Elementary School.
Arizona DOE had created the teacher-in-residence program a few years back, and some of the state’s universities and community colleges had such programs that allowed their students to work at schools while attending college and earning their certification. As a principal, Longnion had seen some of those students come through her school’s doors.
“They were going to either classes at night or classes online and teaching all day long,” she said. “And what we were finding was because it was a traditional university-type or college-type program, that their courses were semester-long and a lot of theoretical things.
So they would be reading articles at night and writing papers about them, but they weren’t necessarily as applicable to, “OK, well, how do I write a lesson plan and what is expected of me in the day throughout the two years?”
It got Longnion to thinking about how she would like to better support those students, and she talked to McIntosh about that. Not long after, she was at a meeting of principals when McIntosh asked if anyone was interested in learning more or volunteering for a teacher prep program.
“And I was like, ‘pick me, pick me,’” Longnion said. “And then the rest of the principals were laughing, not nearly as interested as I am. But I said, ‘I have passionate feelings about this.’”
That turned into more than sharing opinions about it, but leading the charge for the district. After putting the application in and receiving approval, Longnion had to quickly assemble a cohort of participants, recruit coaches and build a curriculum with the coaches.
The two coaches are veterans Tiffany Bodemann for the elementary side and Connie LaPrise for special education. Between them, they have 57 years teaching experience, and Longnion said the three work well together and balance each other’s strengths.
Bordemann said the three worked together in building the curriculum by looking at the Arizona proficiency standards teachers need to have and then looking at the foundational features in GPS’ instructional framework. LaPrise said that framework is student-centered and looks at the whole child.
Application process
For participants, the district started by recruiting from its own employees, hoping to encourage paraprofessionals like Feldmann, flex substitute teachers and sports staff to come aboard in larger roles, Longnion said.
“One of the benefits to a program like this for communities all throughout Arizona is that you really are able to grow your own from your own community, which is really great, so that kids have teachers who understand them and where they come from,” Longnion said.
“So if you take that to any neighborhood in Arizona, it’s a really good opportunity.”
After the employees, the district advertised to the parents in its community, and then people also found the program from the Arizona Department of Education website.
The district had an extensive application process with a test, and supervisor vetting also was included.
Some people when they found out what was involved chose not to go forward.
“Going in on your own in a classroom all day long is not necessarily the fit for everybody,” Longnion said. “Some people, it really is better to go through and be able to observe and do a traditional teaching program.”
How it works
Participants started in the program July 11 — a week before other new teachers started, 10 days before the remaining staff and 15 days before school started.
That gave them two weeks of boot camp to get prepared for the school year.
“One of our goals, unofficial goals, was to make sure that all of these teachers felt prepared enough that the first day they met kids at open house and the first time they met parents that nobody thought they were brand new,” she said. “And so that first week was how do we communicate with our families?
“What do we get set up? What does the classroom look like? What needs to be on the walls? How are we going to interact with kids on the first day of school or on open house? Those kind of things.”
The participants meet as a class once a month, plus two days each during fall and spring break and for three days after other teachers finish their school year. They cover topics that are appropriate for the time of year they are in, but also what is most important in the development a teacher needs to go through, Longnion said.
The district team also ensures they are meeting appropriate state and national standards.
Feldman said the work she does for her class fits in with what she needs to do to prepare for teaching class.
“It is incredibly intense in all the right ways,” she said. “Everything I do for them, for my requirements, is for my classroom, it’s for my students.
“So for example, our next upcoming assignment is a lesson plan following a specific format that hits all the requirements and approaches learning in an appropriate way, the way the brain wants to get and retain information. That’s what they’re asking me to do. And that’s what I need to do anyway.”
The participants also get plenty of support between their classes. Bodemann and LaPrise come into evaluate on a regular basis, though Feldman said Bodemann’s visits are more like coaching with an open dialogue.
“She’s brilliant,” Bodemann said of Feldman. “And I love when I go to see her though, because her on-site instructional coach will pull me aside and tell me, ‘oh my gosh, this is the most amazing thing she’s done. We’re going to have so-and-so follow a similar plan to her.’ Here she is brand new, and we have other veteran teachers that are learning from her. And so it’s exciting.”
On-site instructional coaches are instrumental, too, as LaPrise attests.
“I’ve been able to work with them (the instructional coaches), and they have done wonders to be able to work with our new teachers,” she said. “And they from the very beginning knew which of our special ed teachers were in the Pathway program. My communication with them is constant, but what they can provide for these teachers is really incredible.”
Feldman said colleagues on campus also have been supportive.
As part of their being in the program, the participants agree to spend at least two years after completion teaching in GPS, helping address that teacher shortage.
“It’s an incredible investment, but it’s also a great payoff potential because our goal isn’t to just spend two years with Susan and her cohorts, but to have them until they want to retire,” Longnion said. “We’re not just creating teachers and helping them get certified, but we’re fostering a career-long relationship.”
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, ohn tis issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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