\u201cThis is an opportunity to work and continue to earn.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rebecca Kantor is the dean of the University of Colorado Denver School of Education & Human Development.<\/p>\n
The University of Colorado Denver has created and is expanding programs that support all three. It\u2019s CU Denver\u2019s way of addressing the state\u2019s growing teacher shortage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversation we had was to recognize that the intention to become a teacher is something developed different times in people lives,\u201d said CU Denver School of<\/p>\n
Education & Human Development Dean Rebecca Kantor, speaking of when she was appointed to the role in 2011.<\/p>\n
So she and her staff created programs such as its NxtGEN, which launched in 2014 with an $8.5 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education. NxtGEN is a partnership with Denver Public Schools that recruits from neighborhoods comprised of people of color and first- generation students.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir interest is returning to their home communities to teach,\u201d Kantor said.<\/p>\n
Students in the program, like all CU Denver\u2019s programs, also spend the last year of college in a residency program getting hands-on training.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s for students to develop an understanding of the life of a teacher,\u201d Kantor said, one thing that has been a challenge for first-year students who often leave the profession.<\/p>\n
CU Denver also has a 1.5 to 2-year master\u2019s program that ends in licensure for mind changers, those young students who return to school to become a teacher after obtaining a bachelor\u2019s in another field. And it supports career changers through a program where it assesses the careers of applicants and provides online courses to train them in teaching, as well as get feedback from other instructors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are these seasoned experienced professionals who … are full-on in their adult lives,\u201d Kantor said. \u201cThis is an opportunity to work and continue to earn.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
College:<\/strong> School of Education<\/p>\n
Top official:<\/strong> Rebecca Kantor, dean<\/p>\n
Current students:<\/strong> 1,366<\/p>\n
Change in education program grads from 2011-12 to 2016-17:<\/strong> + 21 Teachers placed\/hired into a Colorado school: 85% of 2013-14 graduates were employed in Colorado districts in 2014-15.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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