The Juneau School District is reporting the highest rates of substitute shortages since 2012, a problem often resolved by teachers who double down and take on extra students or classes. A dean from the University of Alaska Southeast is proposing a new solution \u2014 train high school students for the role.<\/p>\n
A high school diploma is still required to work as a substitute, so roles wouldn\u2019t change quite that quickly. Instead, what dean Deborah Lo from the UAS School of Education put forward at a recent joint UAS and Juneau School District meeting was to launch Educators Rising, essentially a teaching degree that starts in high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all came together for me as we were talking,\u201d Lo said of a meeting she had with JSD Human Resources Manager Ted Van Bronkhorst. \u201cMy students have a need to earn money and they need substitutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposed program, Educators Rising, is a new approach to the older program Future Educators of Alaska. FTA operated like a club in Alaska schools, Juneau included, for students interested in learning about the teaching profession. The program faded out a couple years ago and now on the national scene is a rebooted version that would include dual credit opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the national level, Educators Rising supports the implementation of co-curricular high school programs in which students explore the teaching profession and gain authentic, hands-on teaching experience,\u201d according to the Educator Rising organization website.<\/p>\n
Lo said the program would give Juneau high school students access to a college-level course as juniors or seniors, education 122, an introduction to education. Students would also complete other math and English requirements as part of the Educators Rising program, but if successful they could enter college with three elective college credits for $75, a $549 value for enrolled college students \u2014 assuming they enrolled at UAS, which Lo said she hopes would be the natural path.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe (at UAS) graduate more teachers for Alaska than our sister institutions in either Anchorage or Fairbanks, which is remarkable given that we have the smallest faculty,\u201d Lo said. \u201cI\u2019d like us to start an Educators Rising in Juneau and start with your seniors and really get them interested in education.\u201d<\/p>\n
The payoff wouldn\u2019t come for JSD until a little later, although technically a high school graduate could apply to substitute day one after receiving a diploma.<\/p>\n
In the Educators Rising program, as proposed by Lo, students would enroll at UAS with their EDUC122 credit, go through substitute \u201cboot camp\u201d where they learn how to read lesson plans and handle large groups of students, then the university would recommend ready students for substitute positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter they substitute taught, hopefully they decided they want to be teachers,\u201d Lo said. \u201cI think it could work. Our students need to earn money, they need jobs, and I\u2019d much rather have them in a school district gaining some experience than waiting tables. It\u2019s better for them, it\u2019s probably better for you (the district) and it\u2019s better for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Typically, education majors aren\u2019t introduced to the classroom setting until their sophomore year and it\u2019s a limited experience at that. Subbing early on would give students a true beginning-to-end school day experience, Lo said.<\/p>\n
When Lo suggested the program at a Nov. 16 meeting, it was the first time members from JSD heard anything about it, but JSD Superintendent Mark Miller exhibited some enthusiasm for the program, even suggesting a higher starter rate for substitutes who were graduates of the program as a possible incentive.<\/p>\n
Currently a substitute is paid $10.67 to $16.67 an hour, depending on their level of experience and time on the job. Raising that starting rate is something Van Bronkhorst has mentioned in the past as a way of attracting more substitutes. Director of Administrative Services David Means said that rate hasn\u2019t moved since 2008.<\/p>\n
Lo said looking forward the next step is for district officials to examine their desire and budget for Educator Rising. If the program moved forward, an added teaching role would be required for the education courses.<\/p>\n
On Lo\u2019s side, if the district does decide to move forward she will designate faculty members to design modules for the teacher to utilize during the course, with additional guest lecture support.<\/p>\n
School board member Lisa Worl spoke in favor of the two institutions working together toward a common goal. She also suggested looking to UAS for further professional development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s seems like another natural place, in terms of saving dollars, if we\u2019re already here,\u201d Worl said. \u201cWe\u2019re picking up teachers and we need to continue training them. It would be nice to be able to do that here (at UAS).\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Bronkhorst said the possibility of extending substitute \u201cboot camp\u201d services to support other substitutes, including those taking on paraeducator roles, is something to consider as well as the district faces substitute fill-rates that have fallen as low as 62 percent this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t done very well in the past in terms of our prep for subs as they go into classrooms,\u201d Van Bronkhorst said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or at paula.solis@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Juneau School District is reporting the highest rates of substitute shortages since 2012, a problem often resolved by teachers who double down and take on extra students or classes. A dean from the University of Alaska Southeast is proposing a new solution \u2014 train high school students for the role. A high school diploma […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25448"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}