UF program prepares career changers to teach in crisis schools

Quitting a private-sector job to teach in a high-poverty school may sound like an admirable thing to do, but when people actually make the leap from the cubicle to the urban classroom, they often find themselves overwhelmed. UF’s new Lastinger Apprenticeship gives career-changers a chance to learn the skills they need to thrive in a Title I school.

“This program offers the most extensive field experience of any alternative certification program we’ve reviewed,” said Associate Professor Diane Yendol-Hoppey, who directs the program. “We’re giving pre-service teachers a genuinely job-embedded program with coaching support, which is different from anything being done elsewhere.”

A pilot program funded through Duval County’s Transition to Teaching Program, the Lastinger Apprenticeship is a year-long, on-the-job training program for career changers hoping to become elementary school teachers. Sixteen second-career teachers are working under the supervision of mentor teachers in Duval County elementary schools and their on-site UF Coaches.

Lastinger Apprentice participants must have a bachelor’s degree in a field other than education, and they must commit to three years of work in a Title I school, where a high percentage of students come from low-income families. Lastinger Apprentices receive a wage of roughly $12 per hour, and take on-site courses in pedagogy led by faculty from UF’s College of Education.

The apprenticeship is not a master’s degree program – it’s focused on preparing teachers for certification and the classroom – but apprentices can get graduate credit for their courses.

The apprenticeships take place in schools served by UF’s Lastinger Center for Learning, which provides professional development and other support to schools with an exceptionally high percentage of low-income students. Yendol-Hoppey says the apprenticeship program is one of very few alternative certification efforts dedicated to preparing teachers specifically for work in Title I schools.

“The fact is that education researchers (collectively) don’t really know a lot about how to prepare good teacher for low-income schools,” Yendol-Hoppey said. “We’re teaching what we know from the research, but we are researching the topic as well in order to deepen our understanding of teacher preparation with this context. This makes this program different from any other.”

This year’s Lastinger Apprentices come to teaching from a wide variety of backgrounds – including an architect, a nurse and a number of businesspeople, said UF doctoral student Lissa Dunn, who directs Duval County’s Transition to Teaching Program.

But they all share a common desire.

“Over and over we keep hearing people say their previous job was not fulfilling,” Dunn said. “They say they wanted to find a career that was meaningful.”

Whatever their reasons for making the switch to the classroom, many second-career teachers who start their teaching careers in high-poverty schools often don’t stay. According to Yendol-Hoppey, those teachers often they don’t feel like they get adequate coaching and support.

“Without support, they get burned out and decide they’d rather go back to brokering mortgages, or they escape to the suburbs where teaching appears easier,” she said. “We’re trying to change that by giving pre-service teachers the preparation they need to feel successful within this environment and feel like they can make a difference.”