As teacher apprenticeship programs gain popularity across the United States, REL Central is supporting evidence gathering and program implementation of Wyoming's newly created Teacher Apprenticeship Initiative. Wyoming, like many other states, faces challenges in finding, hiring, developing, and retaining teachers, particularly in rural districts or those with high living costs. To address these challenges, the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) and the Professional Teaching Standards Board (PTSB), which licenses teachers in the state of Wyoming, collaborated to develop the Teacher Apprenticeship Initiative. The initiative addresses position shortages by supporting paraprofessionals, already employed in school districts, who would like to become fully certified teachers.
The program supports these candidates with on-the-job training, mentoring, and free college tuition. Paraprofessionals continue working full time within their school districts, while also making progress towards their degree and teaching certification (including passing the Praxis II certification exam for teacher candidates in Elementary Education and Secondary Social Studies).
Throughout its pilot year, REL Central is collaborating with the WDE, PTSB, pilot school districts, community colleges, and the University of Wyoming to support formative evaluation of the program. Read more in the full blog here.
