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Pathways to
Teaching Careers
Progress Report


DEWITT WALLACE-
READERS DIGEST
FUND


LOOK LOCAL FOR TEACHER CANDIDATES
by Anne C. Lewis for America Tomorrow



Some school districts already are scrambling to find enough teachers, and all districts will be in that position over the coming years. Within a decade experts predict the need for an additional 2 million teachers--to handle increased enrollments and to replace the bulge of teachers hired for the "baby boom" years who are now at retirement age.

The normal flow of potential teachers into preparation programs won't be able to meet the demand. However, one foundation's investment in recruiting from nontraditional groups appears to pay off.

The DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund's Pathways to Teaching Careers focuses on paraprofessionals, non certified teachers and returned Peace Corps volunteers. It is funding projects at 41 colleges and universities, which have recruited about 2,200 candidates into special preparation programs. Research on this group so far shows that:
  • The projects are retaining 90 percent of their students. Traditional teacher education programs lose, on average, about one-third of their enrollments before graduation. A report from the Fund notes that the Pathways success is especially noteworthy because almost all of its recruits are working at full-time jobs.
  • The students in the program are progressing steadily, if not rapidly, toward completion of their program. Most Peace Corps volunteers are working on master's degrees, and after two years 93 percent had completed at least half of their requirements for graduation; 78 percent are past the three- quarters mark. Among paraprofessionals and non certified teachers, about 72 percent are halfway through the program.
  • Those who have already entered classrooms (they agreed to teach in low-income urban and rural schools) receive a higher rating on a beginning teacher's assessment than what is considered "a strong performance for a beginning teacher."

    For a copy of the report, "Progress Report: Pathways to Teaching Careers," contact the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, 2 Park Ave., 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10016; dwrd@wallacefunds.org

    © 1998 America Tomorrow, Inc.
    Page created January 14, 1998