RICHMOND, Va. -- Con la caída de la matrícula universitaria durante la pandemia, una nueva ley poco conocida en Virginia podría atraer a estudiantes de colegios comunitarios de regreso a las aulas.
Se trata de un programa gratuito para ayudar a las personas a obtener certificaciones para trabajar.
Conocido como G3, por "Capacitarse, conseguir trabajo y retribuir", el programa permite a los estudiantes obtener créditos para un título de asociado mientras trabajan en campos de alta demanda, incluidos I-T, ciberseguridad, enfermería, cuidado infantil y construcción.
La Dra. Janet Gullickson, presidenta de Germanna Community College en Fredericksburg, dice que el programa de 145 millones de dólares es ideal para miles de estudiantes de universidades comunitarias, quienes según ella, tienden a tardar un poco más en terminar la escuela.
"Nuestros estudiantes suelen trabajar 50 horas o más a la semana", resalta Gullickson, "Son padres o cuidadores de otros. Por lo tanto, esto es muy flexible para los estudiantes y también les permite ir a su propio ritmo".
G3 comienza el 1 de julio y Gullickson lo describe como la "beca del último dólar" que proporciona enseñanza, libros, cuotas y otras expensas para los estudiantes elegibles. Consulte con su colegio comunitario local para obtener más información.
Gullickson señala que G3 no es solo para estudiantes de bajos ingresos. Una familia de cuatro con un ingreso anual de 100 mil dólares podría calificar también. Ella señala que su escuela se está preparando para una afluencia de estudiantes al expandirse sus ofertas en línea y agregar asesores adicionales.
"No queremos que los estudiantes pierdan tiempo tomando cursos que no les importan o que no cuentan para sus objetivos", dice Gullickson. "La legislación nos permitió un poco de dinero para contratar personas que pueden ayudar a nuestros estudiantes a planificar el mejor camino para ellos".
La inscripción en el sistema de colegios comunitarios de Virginia se redujo de 158 mil estudiantes en el otoño de 2019 a 153 mil el año pasado.
El apoyo para este reportaje fue aportado por la Fundación Lumina.
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Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage.
Around 37% of schools nationwide report being short at least one teacher. The problem is worse at schools serving high-poverty neighborhoods where more than half report a vacancy.
Susan Kemper Patrick, a senior researcher on the Educator Quality team at the Learning Policy Institute, said those numbers are troublingly high.
"At least 314,000 teaching positions across the U.S. are either unfilled or filled with teachers who are not fully certified for their assignments," she said. "This means at least one in ten teaching positions nationally are either unfilled or not filled with a certified teacher."
Data from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing showed 10,000 teacher vacancies in the 2021-22 school year. The number of teacher credentials issued that year was down 16% from the previous year - but has now started to trend upward.
In 2023, California passed a bill to make it easier for retired teachers to return to the classroom.
Kemper Patrick noted that schools are resorting to desperate measures such as combining classes, relying on a virtual teacher or using a long-term substitute.
"The U.S. Department of Education School Pulse survey found that 36% of public schools across the U.S. reported that they had to increase class size due to teacher and staff vacancies," she said.
Kemper Patrick blamed the problem on low salaries, noting the average starting salary for a teacher nationwide is less than $43,000 a year. Congress is currently considering two bills, the Diversify Act and the Educators for America Act, which would double the amount of the Teach America grant from $4,000 to $8,000 per year.
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It's estimated that nearly half of all schools in the country don't have enough teachers. To help change that, the University of Texas in El Paso offers a residency program to help ensure that first-time teachers succeed.
The "Miner Teacher Residency" gives students in the College of Education an opportunity to work in elementary and middle schools alongside working teachers.
Clifton Tanabe, dean of the UTEP College of Education, was part of a recent national roundtable discussion on ways to solve the teacher shortage, and said the program gives future educators the skills they need to be ready for their first day of class.
"A third grader in a first-year teacher's classroom is only going to get to do third grade once, but that teacher will be able to do the third grade again and again," he explained. "So, we want them ready for that first group of third graders that they take on."
Tanabe added nearly half of the students enrolled in the program are first-generation college students and 70% are bilingual. He adds that mirrors the population of students in the public school system in El Paso, where 90% of the students are Hispanic. Most of the new teachers remain in the area, he said.
Many school districts have been forced to leave positions open, or fill them with teachers who are not fully certified. Some rural Texas districts have gone to a four-day school week. And some teachers are leaving the profession, citing increased workloads, low pay and concerns about safety.
According to Tanabe, teacher retention is directly related to being successful in the first two years on the job - and the UT program addresses this.
"So, folks who graduate from our residency model in their first and second years in teaching are set up with an instructional coach who's from the university, from the College of Education, to work with them on individualized instructional improvement," he continued.
The residency program is in its sixth year. It currently has 62 teachers working in five different school districts in the El Paso area.
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Ohio's Black students are more likely to face excessively harsh discipline practices such as expulsion and suspension, according to a recently released report from the Children's Defense Fund of Ohio.
The data show out-of-school suspensions and expulsions rose in every grade level from kindergarten through twelfth grade in the 2022-23 school year, compared with the previous academic year.
John Standford, state director for the Children's Defense Fund of Ohio, said economically disadvantaged students comprised 83% of all out-of-school suspensions.
"School districts really have to pay closer attention to the data and really screen the data, review the data, on a regular basis to really begin to address the issues of inequities," Standford urged.
Last year saw 174,000 cases of total suspension or expulsion among low-income students compared to 35,000 cases among students who do not qualify as economically disadvantaged. According to the report, Black females in Ohio were six times more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than their white female peers. Black males were also more than four times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white male peers.
Kim Eckhart, research manager for the fund, said she understands the difficulties teachers face. She hopes the report encourages districts across the state to support schools with the resources and time needed to address behavioral problems restoratively.
"We need schools to be supporting teachers with additional time and space," Eckhart contended. "So that there is capacity to address these things, rather than just kicking the student out of the class, kicking them out of the school."
School discipline practices are also linked to Ohio's alarmingly high chronic absenteeism rates. According to the report, missing as little as two days of school per month can lead to chronic absence. More than 26% of Ohio students -- more than 400,000 children -- were chronically absent from school in the 2022-2023 school year, up by nearly half from the 2018-19 school year.
Disclosure: The Children's Defense Fund of Ohio/KIDS COUNT contributes to our fund for reporting on Children's Issues, Education, Health Issues, and Hunger/Food/Nutrition. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
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