An Innovative Apprenticeship Program for Teachers

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-generated

Annie (00:03):

We want our educators to look like their communities, which means we should also want our program, faculty, mentors to look like their community. And so that's part of it. I'm excited for what we're trying to do.

Natieka (00:17):

Hello and welcome to School Me, the National Education Association's podcast dedicated to helping educators thrive at every stage of their careers. I'm your host, Natieka Samuels. Today we're talking about a groundbreaking program that's reshaping how we train and support new educators. The Washington Education Association's apprenticeship, residency and teaching, which is the nation's first union-led teacher preparation program. Joining me today are Jim Meadows, who's the dean of the program. And Annie Lamberto, who is a program specialist with WEA. Thank you so much for joining us, Jim and Annie. Let's get started with a little bit of information about each of you. So let's start with you, Jim. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and the work that you do with WEA?

Jim (01:02):

Thanks, Natieka. I'm Jim Meadows. I'm the dean of WEA's Educator Career Pathways Center. We are a new center that is really focused on supporting career pathways for educators, specifically our WEA Apprenticeship Residency and teaching program. It's the first union-run teacher preparation program in the nation. We recently transitioned into an apprenticeship model. I've been a staffer with WEA for over 20 years. I'm a former high school teacher. And have really spent my career working in the space of educator preparation and educator quality.

Natieka (01:35):

And Annie.

Annie (01:36):

Very happy to be with you today. I am Annie Lamberto. I am a program specialist at WEA. And I work with Jim in the Educator career Pathway department. My background, I was a special education teacher for something like 25 years. And then I left the classroom and was a special education director at a district level position for several years before coming to WEA. And when I came to WEA my work was centered around supporting educators working with kids with disabilities, which really is all of our educators. And then got the opportunity as the teacher residency program and apprenticeship program launched, I got the opportunity to lead that design with our members.

Natieka (02:25):

Jim, why did you decide that you wanted to work in education first as a teacher and now continuing your career with WEA?

Jim (02:33):

Educators were really pivotal in my life in helping me to see possibilities and to achieve goals that I didn't necessarily see available to me. So after I graduated from my bachelor's degree I really had a sense of just the power of public education and knew it was a space I could thrive in. What I have learned about myself and figured out at that time is I just have an inherent drive of doing practical work that makes an impact. And public education is exactly that. And regardless of what I've done in my career, whether it's teaching students or having been a substitute teacher or the work I currently do for the union, I always know that it has a positive impact. And you can see that impact almost daily in the work that we do, which is really exciting and validating and rewarding at the same time.

Natieka (03:25):

And Annie, how about your path?

Annie (03:26):

Some similarities and some differences from Jim? I was not a, quote unquote, "Good school kid." I have always been very open about having a pretty traumatic and dysfunctional childhood. And school was my safe place, but I wasn't good at it and didn't really do the appropriate school behaviors that we see. And it was teachers, it was educators that really wrapped around me and gave me some of my first relationships with adults who care and who believed in my success. So I started out with the idea that I wanted to be that for somebody else. I wanted to do that for somebody else.

Natieka (04:08):

I want to get into the meat of our conversation, which is about the Washington Education Association apprenticeship residency in teaching. So Annie, could you briefly tell us a bit about what this program is?

Annie (04:23):

Our residency apprenticeship is designed specifically for special education certification in the state of Washington. So our apprentices are people who have a bachelor's degree that want to earn a teaching certificate with the endorsement of special education. When you look at our model and what that looks like it is an 18 month program that really immerses our apprentices in the work of being a special education teacher. One of the things that was significant for us as we built this model was first of all making sure that it was our practitioners, our educators that designed it understanding what is needed to be classroom ready as a special education teacher. And then along with that really looking at practical application of skills. And so our apprentices actually go through a variety of experiences and opportunities in various special education programs day in and day out, including general education.

(05:33):

So every day they're reporting to work as an apprentice and they're in classrooms with mentors side by side really learning about the application of pedagogy and strategy and theory. And then they're living it day in. So they are right away having IEP meetings. They are right away participating in open houses and they're doing that for extended periods of time over the course of that 18 months. So it is very different. That alignment of an apprenticeship and a residency model is very different. And not just different than other student teaching types of models, but I would say also different within the world of special education because of the significant range. And in Washington State certification is kindergarten through age 22 right now. And so making sure that they have all of those opportunities to practice the skills and find their niche or find their passions that also align with the work.

Natieka (06:40):

I wanted to ask what each of your roles were within the program. So Jim, can you talk a bit about your role here?

Jim (06:47):

As Dean of the Educator Career Pathways Center, I'm the center manager and support a fantastic team of eight staff who are really leading both this program and another program focused on supporting emergency substitute teachers. We are a new center at WEA, so my role is really ensuring we have the systems in place to run these grant funded programs. That also includes looking forward toward program sustainability as we lean down from grant funds, what does it look like for us to braid funding streams in a variety of ways and through a variety of sources to help us keep our program going and also expand into new partnerships and such. So much of what I do is really the systems level and also currently a fair amount of work with our legislative action coming up in the 2025 legislative session. And that really is under the purview of our sustainability work. And doing work and building legislative relations so we can secure ongoing stable state funding as a really important braid of our funding strategy going forward.

Natieka (08:01):

And Annie.

Annie (08:01):

So I have been in charge of the program design and leading that work on the content level. So I had the pleasure of working with initially about ten of our members all across the state and really started with that small team to look at how do we build a program from scratch. And we did the, "We're going to dream big. High in the sky. What would it take?" And so that has then over the course of two-ish years we've been refining and adapting based on what we need. So I have been in charge of recruiting those members and really overseeing them to do the actual work. And that includes faculty and our mentors and our field supervisors. And then also on the content side developing the actual coursework and activities and calendars and modeling what the program actually looks like.

Natieka (08:58):

So I want to talk about the origins of the program. So why did this program get created? What was the need that you were seeing that needed to be addressed in order to start such a innovative program?

Jim (09:12):

Let me respond at a systems level and I'd really like Annie to respond at the practical level. I think they're two different and super complementary answers there. In a practical sense, it was the height of Omicron in our state when our state department, the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction identified a really large number of emergency substitute teachers out in Washington schools. There is no requirement in Washington for emergency substitutes to have a degree or any training in teaching prior to stepping into that role. At that point, there were roughly 16,000 emergency subs out in Washington schools during Omicron to really bridged the gap of shortages in small rural all the way to large urban schools.

(09:57):

OSPI was concerned about that in a practical sense that these individuals did not have the support or training needed for the role. And they really wanted us to build out supports and career coaching for those interested to find a pathway into teaching and full certification. Second piece of the request that they made to us was that WEA step into the space to become an approved teacher preparation program. Through our professional Educator standards board policy allowed already non-higher education institutions like nonprofits or unions to step into the space to become an approved educator preparation program. The invitation that came to WEA was ESSER funding. And it was a very quick timeline and turnaround. And we're talking really about January, February of 2022 that the request and the decision turned around really in about three weeks with our WEA board of directors approving acceptance of grant monies to do these two projects, the emergency substitute support and the development of a teacher residency.

(10:58):

We really had a two-year runway to accomplish the goals of the grant. And I'm really proud to say that our team, not only our staff team, but also our governance leaders around the state rose to the occasion in incredible ways that allowed us to develop the systems we needed of support for emergency subs which we continue to run now. And then also to get an approved as a teacher preparation program, which is a pretty arduous bureaucratic task. Our team received approval in a very quick period of time because of the high-quality work and the nature of the proposal we put together. So we were fully operational with our teacher residency by March of 2023 when we launched our first cohort one of residents. So we're really proud that we were able to meet those goals, really appreciative of the faith that our state department OSPI had in WEA to accomplish really important work at a really crucial time in our education system.

Annie (11:56):

The program level, it became pretty clear to WEA right away that the why in terms of need special education teachers is a significant shortage. It is always close to the very top if not the top of the list. And so I think that was one of the driving forces. And still Washington State has done some significant work over the last five years around inclusion specifically, so looking at our students with disabilities. And in Washington state we really needed to do better including our students with disabilities in the general education environment statewide. And then in addition to that there was this recognition that special education teachers are leaving the profession. It's not just recruitment and induction, but it's that retention piece.

(12:50):

And so when we started to focus on special education then we really had to look at, how do our WEA mission vision values, how do we align in terms of what does the why of this program really need to be?" And what really rose to the top is that we have an obligation and a desire and a passion to look at how do we create an educational system where we have high quality special education teachers that reflect their communities. And so we started to look at, "Okay, top values and purposes needs to be about diversifying the workforce." And again, as Jim said, our state department of education has been right there with us along the way.

(13:33):

The other piece was that retention, that classroom ready, "How do we make sure that we are having high quality classroom ready teachers on day one?" Which came around that practical application. So we have really leaned into in the program wanting to have student centered positive outcomes for kids with disabilities, but that sits in these communities and is challenging some of our institutional systems and pushing on those edges. We have lots of conversations around the connection between ableism and racism and classism and what do those things look like in our communities and how do we help lift the boat, so to speak, as we partner with our districts and all of our various partners and organizations.

Natieka (14:24):

So now that you've already had one cohort go fully through the program, which is really exciting, can you talk through what the experience of prospective teacher is going through maybe on the full 18 month or however long it was for cohort one throughout that whole experience, but also on more of a daily level what they can expect to experience in future cohorts?

Annie (14:49):

Our tagline is, "Rigor and joy." So I think that they would tell you that it is an incredible rigorous program. And now that we've completed that first cohort, we also recognize that we can do better as a program. But their experience from day one... So we had them for some in-person time during the summer before the school year started. And we spent that time not only engaging them in initial coursework, but we also really wanted to build the community. These are cohorts that are going to be kind of traveling through these programs together. And they're in these various communities with our partner districts. So we really went into depth around community and agreements. How are we going to operate as a community together? What do those pieces look like? What does rigor and joy mean? What does inclusion mean? Where is your current philosophy and belief about what you engage in a public school system?

(15:53):

So we did some of that self-work and that work as a community in person. And then once the school year started they had already gotten to meet their first mentor in the in-person time. So they were automatically working with a mentor in startup days. So it didn't wait until students came. They started when their mentor teacher started for those startup days, for all of those staff meetings, the professional development that they were able to get in their district prior to the actual start of student time. And then they were with their teacher once school started for students. And that was every single day. So we tell them, "Wherever your mentor teacher is, that's where you are." And that goes throughout the entire program. So they report every day to work. They do log their hours. And then in the evenings they have coursework. And primarily the coursework is done virtually, both synchronous and asynchronous virtually. And then the other kind of important piece is, I mentioned those variety of kind of settings.

(16:59):

So they stay in each of those rotations with a mentor for nine weeks. For the first nine weeks they might be in a program for students with behavioral challenges. Then the next nine weeks they shift. And maybe they are in a general education setting where there's co-teaching going on or there's what we call push-in going on. And then that next rotation in nine weeks they might be in a classroom for what we might call low incidence or students with high needs, either medical needs or cognitive needs. They have high intervention needs. And then that last one might be what we might call high incidence disability, like your learning disabilities or ADD or those types of things where there's a program that serves those students. So we try to give them that gamut and so they from there. In addition to that their day-to-day experience is once a month we do have them in person on a Saturday. And that is really trying to keep that connection making sure that we are continually building that community and connecting.

Jim (18:05):

Annie, could I ask you to delve into further aspects of the program? Number one, gradual release. And then number two, the learning explorations.

Annie (18:16):

So we have what we call gradual release. And it is a document. Basically it is designed to map out week by week what the classroom experience looks like and how it's connected to coursework.

(18:32):

So for example it will have week one, what is the responsibility of the resident apprentice? And for week one it really says, "Your job is to observe. Your job is to observe what's happening with your mentor teacher." And then it will say, "What's the responsibility of the mentor teacher?" And it spells out what they are expected to do during that first week. So during that first week for the mentor teacher it says, "You should be introducing your apprentice to the staff. To people in the building, administration." All those types of things. So from week one, then it goes through each week and at the end of those rotations each week that apprentice is taking on more and more responsibility. So by the end of that nine weeks it maps out that they should be teaching what we call a total teach. So they are a hundred percent of the time they are now managing and leading that classroom. That spells all of that out.

(19:35):

Really early on we also learned that we needed to help connect the dots between the coursework and the practical application. So that is also listed on the gradual release. So it will say things like, "Your resident is learning how to write a present level of performance in an IEP. They should be actually going to IEP meetings as well in their residency." And then it also follows those rotations and each rotation we push faster so that they're getting to that total teach portion quicker. And then our learning explorations, one of the things that our state board requires is to really look at how a teacher preparation program or how a resident, or in this case apprentice, can experience a program or district unlike themselves, unlike the one that they're in. And we really took that to say we wanted our community to both be within our districts, but also the larger community of our state partners in terms of districts.

(20:42):

And so what we did was build in what we call learning explorations. So resident apprentices we all visit another partner district. And they got to observe in those classrooms it's all guided and they got to experience what do programs and what does the culture look like. What does it look like in those other districts? So you had these residents that were in rural districts getting to go and visit pretty large districts and experiencing those different things. And then we have an entire debrief session around it and what does that look like.

(21:18):

We also took that opportunity... And Jim is actually our driving force behind this, but took the opportunity to build in our sense time and memorial content into those learning explorations. So not only did we go visit districts, but we also went and visited indigenous museums and sites locally within that and had guides and experts really walk us through what does it mean in that community. And so it really turned out to be an incredible learning opportunity. And getting to experience as much as you can in districts that aren't yours gives you more information that you know that then enables you to advocate for students and your colleagues.

Natieka (22:06):

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(22:15):

Thank you, Annie for that. I think you gave a really wonderful overview of everything that happens within the program. But Jim, I wanted to ask you briefly what you think really sets this apprenticeship model apart from traditional teacher prep programs. It sounds like everything Annie said, it's pretty novel. But what do you think are the main one or two things that set it apart?

Jim (22:40):

One of the drivers by our state department and our Superintendent of Public Instruction was for us to step into the space of educator preparation as a new option as addition to the current architecture of this system. I really think we bring some different dimensions to educator preparation that complement our existing systems in Washington state. We are heavily focused on and we exist to remove barriers for individuals who could be very talented in teaching special education, but for whom for a variety of reasons may not be able to access a traditional teacher preparation pathway. So we really actively work to identify and then to the degree possible deconstruct those barriers for individuals. What we hear from a fair amount of our resident apprentices is that they had just been waiting for a program like ours. They had perhaps been a paraeducator for a large number of years and no other program structure could really be viable for them.

(23:47):

So we're really proud that we have created that space where they can earn a teaching certificate through a really high quality and rigorous program and also be able to do it financially and in terms of an extensive support system. Some of the unique things about our program in comparison to others is through generous grant funding have been able to provide the types of supports every educator preparation student should have. We have high quality mentors who are compensated professionally. We believe given the magnitude of the work and the responsibility that our mentors, our field supervisors and our coaches be compensated professionally for the work that they do. I think that is an ongoing opportunity for the rest of educator preparation to do that. It has not been invested in systemically. Another unique element of our program, which was essential for our ongoing program sustainability, is that our school district partners fund the paid residency apprenticeship portion of the training. So we from WEA provide the high quality program, all the support systems for that future teacher.

(25:00):

Our school districts are responsible for the salary and benefits for the second step of our apprenticeship. That's the year long three instructional round part of the training that Annie referenced. That is a sizable financial commitment, but we also see that as an investment with great returns. And our districts are paying at least a $40,000 salary for the apprentice plus benefits. And the commitment is that that individual will remain in the school district for at least three years. Our thinking though is when you're drawing from paraeducators and other emergency substitutes and individuals with a deep commitment in that community, that done right you could have a career-long special educator. Another piece I'll mention that is unique of our program is through the apprenticeship model there is a deeply aligned approach in our work with school district partners to identify what their specific staffing shortages are. And for us as an apprenticeship in a one-on-one sense prepare exactly to the demand that they have. And that's really unique in educator preparation. Typically programs prepare a large number or a number of teachers and then they send them out the universe and they land where they land.

(26:17):

What that systemically does is that typically our poorer, our more rural, and our more diverse communities, and of course the intersectionality of all those plays out, they typically receive fewer fully certificated, fully qualified teachers. So for us as a union that's a social justice issue that needs to be addressed. And we feel really proud through our program in an apprenticeship model that we can partner deeply with school districts and other local union partners to help prepare special educators who could stay with them career-long. What we know of a good number of our small rural communities is that they are more likely to have an emergency substitute teacher covering special education classes given that gap in finding fully educators. So what does it look like for us to partner with a community to grow their own capacity of paraeducators of others to achieve full certification and then ideally stay in that school community going forward.

(27:21):

Last innovation I will add. We have leaned heavily into the opportunity presented by artificial intelligence, which is of course impacting all aspects of our work as humans in whatever industry or modality we engage with technology. But there are incredible opportunities in teacher preparation. Of course, some cautions along the way as well. And I think our work with special education presents a unique opportunity. Just given the role that assistive technologies play in equalizing access for students with disabilities leaning heavily into AI both in terms of helping our future certificated teachers understand how it plays out in society and in work with students. Also, there's possibilities to rethink the use of technologies to streamline their daily work allowing them to invest their time more strategically and impactfully to work with students and their families. So we're really in a design sense and in our work with our practicing members trying to figure out how we utilize those technologies. And also to shape emerging technologies to really be impactful for both our program and preparation and for students with disabilities.

Natieka (28:40):

I'm glad you mentioned AI. We actually recently did a episode with Adam Aguilera, one of your WEA friends who very passionate about AI. So anyone listening can also check out that episode that we've recently done. Back to the apprenticeship. I heard that one of the goals was to increase diversity in the classrooms in Washington. And it sounds like part of the way that you're able to do that is to get some non-traditional students and also help with the affordability and accessibility of this program in addition to actually having people be paid for the work that they're doing over the course of this time. How do you feel like the program is tackling the question of diversity in the classroom? Helping with retaining educators of color or different points of view and different backgrounds? And how can that continue into the future?

Jim (29:38):

We really do value diversification the workforce as one of our core reasons we exist. Our system is currently getting the outcomes it is set up to achieve. That means in Washington state that over 50% of our student population are students of color, yet our teaching workforce is much lower than that. It has increased in Washington state in recent years from just a couple years ago being at 13%. But we have a lot of work to do for our certificated teaching staff to really reflect the diversity of our students. So that is a driver in our program and our work with our partner school districts and local associations to really think differently about outreach and what that looks like. And so that is an important part of our growth as a program is working with diverse districts to really think about community connections, authentic relationships with individuals including current staff paraeducators and emergency substitutes in creating that pathway that leads toward application in our program. And I think there's much we can really leverage from those effective practices in our larger community of now nine school districts on our program.

(30:54):

So I think really creating that learning community across school district and local association partners is going to elevate all of our practices in doing things differently leading toward more diverse educators in our program. I think one other unique aspect of diversity in our program that we see as relatively underdeveloped in the educator preparation scene is really leaning into disability and ableism as some of the barriers that result in our system getting outcomes with less diversity of individuals with disabilities. So I think that is really one of the powers of leaning into special education is that it has allowed us to also lean into ableism and to create new approaches that have not existed in other programs. And we think that will result in different outcomes in terms of a workforce that through disability has maybe not had access to becoming a certificated teacher, but overall regardless of disability status that our resident apprentices completing our program have the mindsets and the dispositions to really see disability as an asset and an opportunity and work with children and families.

Annie (32:12):

I will add from the design level right from the beginning, we said we needed to empower all perspectives, all voices to be at the table. Even our initial design team we all were very open about our identities. So our first conversations were about our identities, whether we identify as someone is having a disability, do we identify as a person of color, do we identify as LGBTQIA plus? And what did that mean to design a program?

(32:42):

And we had probably some of our largest conversations around design has been individualism versus collectivism. And the needing to learn and explore and tell stories and get down into the person, the human outside of those systems. Really getting down into who we are as people together and who we are as a program was going to help us invite. For me the thread is always being able to have very vulnerable, honest conversations and relationships around what's happening, what people are experiencing. We want our educators to look like their communities, which means we should also want our program, faculty, mentors to look like their community. And so that's part of it. I'm excited for what we're trying to do.

Natieka (33:39):

Annie, you've worked pretty closely with the mentors in the program. So what kind of effect does this program have on the people who are actually giving their extra labor and time to work with the soon to be educators in this program?

Annie (33:54):

Our program staff, which for us is our mentors, field supervisors and instructional coaches and our faculty are all practicing educators. We have general education teachers, special education teachers. They're all serving in our program. It has been amazing to watch in our field I don't think it would be a stretch to say that educator morale is low, special educator morale has been low. Going through the pandemic we tend to just keep moving on and day in. But I don't know that we have fully recognized the impact in our communities that the pandemic and COVID has had.

(34:36):

So it has initially been incredibly hard to ask people that are giving their all every single day in a classroom to their communities to then ask them, "Hey, would you please do more?" And that's in essence what we've asked. And that is absolutely what we've asked. And they have responded with, "Yes." And they have responded with such passion and such rejuvenation being a part of this. It is empowering. We have created something that empowers our practitioners to not only do their day job but also have this larger impact on the things that matter to them. And so it's giving them an opportunity to also affect and make change in their systems. And they are thriving on that. They will tell you they do not want to give this work up. And most of them would tell you they would do it for free, in which case I say, "Well, we're a union. We don't do that."

Natieka (35:38):

Yeah. So for anyone who's listening who thinks, "Wow, this is amazing. I want to either be supportive of your program in Washington." If they happen to be nearby or if they think that this could be really valuable in their district or their state, what are some of the advice that you might give them for either of those situations?

Jim (36:00):

One of the exciting things about being in the space we are as the first union run teacher preparation program and teaching apprenticeship in the country is that it's opened us up to conversations with other NEA affiliates and partners about this work. And it's been this exciting new community that we've stepped into. So I would say for other unions, other NEA affiliates interested in this work is there are so many possibilities. Just looking at the teaching apprenticeship space there are now 46 states and territories that have teaching apprenticeships in place in varying degrees of implementation. So I think there are opportunities for unions to be involved in a variety of capacities, including with the mentoring side of apprenticeships. All the way to what we're doing, which is to be the full provider, the educator preparation program or the apprenticeship, so to speak.

(36:54):

So I think there's really a lot of ways that involvement can look that could be meaningful. Any affiliates really can vary in their size, their staffing capacity, their ability to delve deeply into educator quality initiatives. So that is a real consideration. Developing a program like this was a significant lift for WEA. And entering into that space, we had a large number of talented members who've been engaged in previous special education work through an inclusionary practices grant that Annie ran. And then before that decades of deep involvement in leading in special education in the states. We were well poised content-wise to step into this space. And we had a good track record of delivering high quality professional development and achieving grant expectations leading up to that. So we were positioned for this work. Yet the work was and still is really challenging for us. So places considering doing what we're doing, it's a significant investment in addition to the resources to get everything off the ground.

(37:59):

I really think the power of community of us to together working on this is really exciting. And so the other any affiliates that are starting to step into apprenticeship as an example. I think there is some shared work we can do together that is really impactful. And the National Education Association, NEA has been so supportive of the work we've been doing in terms of intellectual expertise, policy guidance. And that is really big part of our success in the program. So I think there's opportunity going forward for all of us to come together, NEA affiliates, NEA, other labor allies to really do new, innovative, and impactful work together.

Natieka (38:38):

Thank you so much, Jim and Annie for joining us today and letting us know all about this program. It sounds really amazing. And I can't wait to hear more as the years go by.

Annie (38:47):

Thank you for having me.

Jim (38:49):

Thanks for the opportunity.

Natieka (38:50):

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