Looking For A New Generation Of Early Childhood Educators? High Schoolers Might Fit The Bill
The St. Vrain Valley school district in Longmont developed the Pathways to Teaching program in the spring of 2018. School officials and early childhood educators knew there were huge shortages of both early education and K-12 educators. There was also a tremendous gap in how many teachers of color the district employed.
“They [district leaders] thought this would be a cool way to open up opportunities for those first-generation, second language learners, underrepresented high school students, to look at teaching as a viable career,” said Howenstein, who directs the P-TEACH program. “And at the same time create that pathway to fill a lot of early childhood openings in our district.”