Diversifying and Creating a Teacher Cohort: School-University Partnership Toward Licensure

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: Cultivating and Refining Partnerships (Table 7)

Abstract

As the current teacher pool dwindles, it is imperative to consider alternative ways to train and retain teachers as well as diversify the teaching workforce. In this project, 24 paraprofessionals have progressed through the second year of a three-year “grow your own” program, a collaborative project between a mid-Atlantic school system and neighboring university. Through a cohort structure, the participants maneuver the rigors of college while working full time and managing outside obligations toward becoming elementary education teachers with a culturally sustaining lens. Findings suggest successes in the program toward becoming certified teachers as well as challenges that have confronted participants as they progress toward certification and the ways in which they worked together as a learning community.

Authors

• Jacquelyn Sue Sweeney, Bowie State University
  Presenting Author

• Juliann M. Dibble, Howard County Public School System
  Presenting Author

• Corinne Gorzo, Howard County Public School System
  Presenting Author