Pathway Programs Will Help Grow and Diversify Education Workforce
Image by Brooke Coupal
09/18/2024
By Brooke Coupal
Henry Rodriguez aspires to be a school principal, but he knows he’s missing a critical credential that would help him attain that goal.
“Pursuing a master’s degree is something that will equip me to someday be a great principal,” says Rodriguez, a coordinator of student support at Leonard Middle School in Lawrence, Massachusetts. “But one of the things that’s prevented me from pursuing my master’s is the money.”
Now, UMass Lowell has teamed up with Lawrence Public Schools to offer their teachers and staff pathways to college degrees at no cost – an opportunity that Rodriguez could not pass up.
“It’s a huge blessing,” says Rodriguez, who is now on his way to earning a master’s degree in education.
The collaboration between UMass Lowell and Lawrence Public Schools launched last year with the Paraprofessional Pathway Program, which provides school aides and other support staff in Lawrence the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in education, along with their teaching licenses in elementary education (grades 1 to 6) and moderate disabilities (pre-K through grade 8). UMass Lowell is funding this initiative through three grants totaling more than $825,000 from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The new Leadership Pathway Program funded by Lawrence Public Schools started in September, allowing teachers and staff to get a Master of Education or a Master of Public Administration from UMass Lowell for free.
“To be able to say to somebody, ‘You can go through these programs for free,’ it’s really gratifying,” says Education Assoc. Prof. Stacy Szczesiul, who oversees the pathway programs.
Image by Brooke Coupal
Diversifying the Teacher Workforce
Schools nationwide are dealing with teacher shortages, and Lawrence Public Schools is no exception. The district’s superintendent, Ralph Carrero, sees the partnership with UMass Lowell as a way to grow the teacher pool.
“I’m excited about the fact that we have a lot of paraprofessionals who are interested in moving up in their educational attainment,” Carrero said to the 31 people in the Paraprofessional Pathway Program during a recent launch party at El Taller Cafe & Bookstore in Lawrence. “If you do that, I guarantee that we will be looking at you first to move into teaching.”
Crystal Peralta, a paraprofessional at Frost Middle School in Lawrence, is in her second year of the pathway program. A Lawrence native, Peralta wants to become a teacher in the school district so students have another teacher who can relate to them.
“There are not many of us that have grown up in Lawrence and went to school here. There are not enough of us teaching our own kids,” she says. “That motivates me to get my teaching degree, so I can have a classroom of my own.”
Peralta’s sentiment is shared by her sister Mary Medina, a paraprofessional at Oliver Middle School in Lawrence who joined the pathway program this year.
“There are always students who have hardships, and I have the patience for them,” Medina says. “It’s great to see them put their guard down, open up and finally find someone that they can trust and believe in.”
Image by Brooke Coupal
Glennys Sanchez, the executive director of diversity equity, inclusion and belonging at Lawrence Public Schools, says there’s a “critical need” to diversify the teacher workforce.
“Our population is 95% Latino students, and only 20% of our teacher force is BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color),” says Sanchez, who oversees the pathway programs with Szczesiul and Lynne-Ellen Garcia, director of teacher diversification, recruitment and development at Lawrence Public Schools.
“We need diversification everywhere,” Sanchez adds, “and the educators that we need in Lawrence are here in the city.”
The pathway programs prioritize teachers and staff who are racially, ethnically, culturally and/or linguistically diverse, as well as those who live in Lawrence or have a connection with the city.
“There’s deep research on the impacts of racially, culturally, ethnically and linguistically matched students and teachers,” Szczesiul says. “Academic achievement, persistence and sense of belonging are significantly better when students of color have educators of color in their classrooms.”
Beyond the Classroom
Sanchez also wants to see diversification happen at the administrative level.
“In addition to paraprofessionals building their skills to be teachers, we also need people who look like them and can support them in administrative and central office roles,” she says.
Roughly 20 students are in the Leadership Pathway Program, including Marianela De La Cruz, a partnership director for Lawrence Public Schools.
“Growing our homegrown talent is important to the district,” says De La Cruz, who is working toward a master’s degree in public administration. “It’s important to keep who we have and support them to become leaders.”
Image by Brooke Coupal
The programs are made accessible to the teachers and staff, with classes for the Leadership Pathway Program taking place online. Those in the Paraprofessional Pathway Program take courses in the late afternoon either through Northern Essex Community College (another partner of the Paraprofessional Pathway Program) or at Frost Middle School in Lawrence, where instructors teach UMass Lowell’s courses.
“I leave school to go to school,” Peralta jokes. “It’s an amazing program, and the instructors relate to us in what we’re doing.”
Beyond professors at UMass Lowell, instructors for the Paraprofessional Pathway Program include UML doctoral students and current and former schoolteachers, all of whom are people of color.
“We wanted to walk the walk,” Szczesiul says. “If we’re saying representation matters, we wanted the instructors in the pathway to reflect the students we’re working with.”
In addition to the Paraprofessional and Leadership Pathway Programs, UMass Lowell offers a “Grow Your Own” pathway program for high school students aspiring to become teachers. This program is available at Lowell and Greater Lowell Technical high schools. UMass Lowell partners with Middlesex Community College to deliver the educator pathway at Lowell High.
Szczesiul would like to see the Paraprofessional and Leadership Pathway Programs expand to other school districts. She is currently working with partners in the Lowell Public Schools and Middlesex Community College, but more resources may be needed to make that happen. For Lawrence teachers and staff already in a program, they see its benefits.
“It’s an amazing opportunity,” De La Cruz says. “Other school districts should mirror this.”