Nevada Forward: A real solution to the teacher shortage
By Kenny Varner
Here’s what I hear on the frontlines of the teacher shortage, where educators — and students — are struggling with crowded classrooms and a lack of resources. “I am overwhelmed.” “I didn’t sign up to be a nurse, a doctor and a social worker.” “Our classes are too big.” “I’m burned out.”
I really feel for these educators, and I worry about the students who lose out because their teachers are stretched too thin. Yet even as this struggle continues, there are people already in the schools — custodians, office staff, food service workers, classroom aids, even parents — eager to jump in and help, if only they could gain the credentials to become teachers themselves. As a young person who was given an opportunity to climb out of poverty by becoming a teacher, and as a first-generation college student, I can relate to them, too.
That’s why I’m so passionate about the Nevada Forward Apprenticeship Program we started at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It is a real solution to the teacher shortage and to obstacles lower-income people face when they try to advance to the middle class.
What do you need?
It was 2021 when we began to see how critical the teacher shortage in Nevada had become. Our dean and president realized that if we didn’t do something to grow a workforce from within our own community, we were really missing an opportunity. So we tapped into that community to find out what barriers were keeping people from becoming teachers. We started small, with 36 people who were interested in the teaching profession, and we said, “we’re going to learn from you, not about you. We’re going to learn with you.”
One obvious barrier to pursuing a career in education is money; many people just can’t afford to go to school to earn a teaching degree. So we made that a part of the program. If someone has 60 credits or the equivalent of an associate degree, Nevada Forward puts them on an accelerated pathway to teacher certification: They complete the program in one year with no out-of-pocket cost and zero debt. And they can continue to work so they can still pay their bills and support their families.
But money wasn’t the only obstacle. We began to focus on who wasn’t at the table who had always wanted to be. We started with paraprofessionals, and then we expanded to school office workers, lunch folks, custodians and bus drivers. We went statewide to include people in the Indigenous, rural and frontier communities as well as the urban core around Las Vegas and Reno.
We began to focus on who wasn’t at the table who had always wanted to be.
Then we invited them to participate, taking into account who they are — and who they are not. For example, they are not 18-year-old students. They have years of life experience they can bring to the work. But many are single parents, and can’t afford to drop everything and come to class.
So we created flexible, online coursework that allows students to stay employed and continue to be active parents. We created supportive structures like our full concierge approach: someone to navigate bill-paying, registration and other logistics so busy students don’t have to.
One of the most important things our students told us was, “We don’t want to be alone when we’re on our own,” teaching for the first time. So we provide mentors they can call for advice during the first three years after they’ve completed our program.
This is what success looks like
Our efforts paid off. The program, which began in 2021, boasts a 96 percent graduation rate over the last three years. We’ve graduated about 500 students, and we have another approximately 900 currently enrolled; they will finish in the next 12 months. In a state where we have around 2,000 teacher vacancies a year, but just 600 teachers graduating from traditional programs, the additional 900 graduates from Nevada Forward will really make a difference in closing that gap.
Retention is also key. To make sure our teachers succeed, we work with the Public Education Foundation, a local organization, to provide “guides on demand.” New teachers can connect with seasoned professionals anywhere in the state, so it takes away the stigma of asking people in their own building — or their principal — for help. It’s like telehealth for teachers.
Our program will also diversify the teacher workforce: Between 60 and 70 percent of our students are Indigenous, Black, Latino or other people of color with whom many of our marginalized students will identify. Research shows that children benefit from having teachers who share their background.
New teachers can connect with seasoned professionals anywhere in the state, so it takes away the stigma of asking people in their own building for help.
Of course, all this has to be funded. It started with a $500,000 investment from our university president to run a pilot program. Then we used $6.1 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds from the Biden-Harris American Rescue Plan to scale it up. Investment in education allowed us to take a risk we never had the opportunity to take before.
Now we have a sustainable model for Nevada to address a teacher shortage that plagues not just our state, but places across the country. And this is not just about the teacher shortage. Without strong teachers teaching children, every workforce sector suffers. At Nevada Forward, we are doing something about it.
Kenny Varner is a professor and associate dean for academic programs and initiatives at the College of Education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is a member of AFT Academics.
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