By Caroline Shimp
Buena Vista City Public Schools are joining Rockbridge County and Lexington City Schools in
adopting iTeach, a program that allows participants to get teaching experience before they are
fully licensed.
Teacher shortage
Schools across the country are utilizing iTeach to find candidates to address shortages of
teachers. The program provides people who have bachelor’s degrees in disciplines other than
education with an alternative way to get licensed to teach. They complete the online program
instead of going back to college to earn degrees in education.
“This pathway will open up the applicant pool to additional potential applicants rather than limiting it to individuals who already have a teaching license,” said Buena Vista Superintendent Heather Ault.
iTeach is designed to be completed in 12 months, but participants can take up to a maximum oftwo years to finish the courses.
The participants get to teach in K-12 classrooms while they are working toward completion of
the program. But they also create challenges for districts because they are inexperienced and
need lots of mentoring.
Local implementation
Buena Vista has just started to look for iTeach participants who could work in the schools.
Participants in iTeach must complete two introductory training modules and pass required
exams to earn a provisional license issued by the Virginia Department of Education.
The provisional licenses allow them to begin working in classrooms at schools that are partners with iTeach.
Rockbridge County Public Schools and Lexington City Schools are in their second full years of
using the program. Rockbridge now has five teachers from iTeach, more than double last year’s total.
The county schools want to add two more iTeach participants during this school year, said Rick
Bain, the Rockbridge schools’ supervisor of human resources.
Rebecca Walters, superintendent of Lexington schools, said iTeach is ideal for professionals who want a change in careers. The program allows them to enter the classroom without prior
teaching experience.
“For a career switch or someone who maybe was in a completely different field unrelated to
education, who would have many more requirements by the state to be able to be a licensed
teacher, this is a nice option for them,” she said.
Once participants earn their provisional licenses, they are eligible to work in schools that accept
iTeach participants. The classroom experience they get satisfies the longstanding student
teaching requirement that educators must meet.
Declining enrollment in education
Fully certified teachers are in demand around the state. But the pool of candidates has
decreased over the years, Walters said.
“There’re not enough people going into education to hire into these positions that we need them to be in.”
Ault agrees. “Many colleges and universities are also reporting declining enrollment in teacher
prep programs,” she said.
The number of college graduates with bachelor’s degrees in education has decreased over the
decades, despite an increase overall in Americans with college degrees, according to the
National Center for Education Statistics.
showing the drop in bachelor degree’s in education of the past decades.
Incentives
Buena Vista and Rockbridge County schools offer an extra, new incentive: they cover iTeach
participants’ tuition costs.
Walters said Lexington school officials are exploring the possibility of expanding its existing
tuition reimbursement plan to cover iTeach costs.
The iTeach program costs $3,050 per participant, far less than undergraduate and graduate
programs.
“By covering these costs, the division is providing an additional incentive that we anticipate will help expand our applicant pool and attract more qualified candidates to our schools,” Ault said.
By the end of this year, iTeach plans to expand to provide opportunities for teachers who are
already licensed but want a change in grade levels. They can enroll in the program to get
certified to teach older or younger students.
Brian Grimmer, a special education teacher at Lylburn Downing Middle School in Lexington, is
enrolled in the iTeach program and working to earn his teacher’s license by the end of the year.
“For me it’s really worked out because I can control it at my own pace.”
Classroom support
School officials appreciate that iTeach provides a way to get teachers into classrooms quicker.
But they say districts still need to devote extra resources toward ensuring that the new teachers are prepared for the classroom.
“We’re getting good applicants, don’t get me wrong. But they’re not quite as well prepared in
the classroom as they used to be. So, some of them, we’re having to do some behind the scenes to help bring them up to speed and support them a little bit more than we used to,” said Bain, the Rockbridge human resources supervisor.
At Rockbridge County and Lexington schools, experienced teachers serve as mentors to help
iTeach participants adjust to the classroom. They offer in-class support to ensure classrooms
operate efficiently and to avoid burnout in new teachers.
“We feel like we really need to give this person every opportunity for success because if they
don’t succeed, we don’t succeed,” Walters said.
Buena Vista schools are also prepared to provide comprehensive support to teachers as they
enter the program, Ault said.
Grimmer said he’s felt overwhelmed at times. But he said the extra support from other teachers helps him navigate the challenges of the classroom each day.
“Any time I’m feeling anxiety about anything,” he said, “they are there to calm me down and let
me know that nobody expects me to know everything.”