The apprenticeship will meet the need for special education teachers in Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS). We have a steadily-increasing number of special education teacher vacancies, and an increase in vacant special education aides and paraprofessional positions (See table 1). The apprenticeship will help to recruit both aides and cultivate new special education teachers by creating a pathway with career advancement as a special educator.
The apprenticeship will also help us recruit a diverse group of teachers. Currently, our student population is more diverse than our teaching population. We have 11.2% Black, indigenous, and teachers of color and 41% Black, indigenous, and students of color (see table 2). Our TAs reflect the student population more accurately than our teachers do. We will recruit from our TA population to diversify our teaching staff.
- An apprenticeship program is an additional educational offering from schools requiring a paradigm shift in how we train teachers and view employees.
- Track progress through competency based objectives
- Creates opportunities for on the job learning (OJL)
- Integrates with related technical instruction (RTI)
- Includes a dedicated partnership with Educator Preparation Program (EPP)
- An apprenticeship program provides economic development for the community by fostering:
- Skill building
- A reduction in economic barriers to achieving higher education
- A decrease in economic barriers to entering the profession of teaching
- An increase in higher education degrees parallel to on the job learning while earning a living wage
- The Apprentice will be a new role in the division with unique requirements
- Apprenticeships have a progressive wage increase, as specified by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (VDOLI), comprising:
- Starting wages, two increases, and a final wage increase
- Increases based on percentage of skill acquisition and determined at APMEs
- Newly-created job descriptions will be reviewed and approved by the Albemarle County School Board
- Apprentices would be paid for student teaching, meetings, and planning time
- 2,000 hours of OJL for 2 years = 4,000 total hours
- Can include previous work experience to attain hours
- 144 - 400 RTI hours annually to meet state licensing and endorsement requirements
- The Mentor role creates career advancement and opportunities for Teacher Leadership
- Actively in a classroom with Apprentice
- Provides OJL experiences
- Receives stipend in addition to salary
- Teacher Leadership Graduate Certificate at JMU
- Apprenticeship Coordinator administers the program
- Evaluation of Apprentice and Mentor
- Provides release time for Mentor and Apprentice as needed
- Apprenticeship Program Monitoring
- Compliance such as reporting, transcripts, hour tracking
- Tracks recruitment and retention of program participants
- VDOE and VDOLI reporting
- Educator Preparation Program (EPP)
- ACPS will partner with James Madison University
- Related Technical Instruction (RTI) for Apprentices
- Teacher Leadership Graduate Certificate for Mentors
- Integration of RTI and OJL hours
- Alignment of Virginia Teaching Standards with Apprenticeship Professional Competencies
- Apprenticeship Program Monitoring Events (APME)
- Apprentice evaluations
- Mentor evaluations
- Program checkpoints
- Planning for integration of OJL, RTI, Competency attainment, and classroom curriculum
- Recruitment of future schools, mentors, and apprentices