Education Commission of the States PT3: Policies for Expanding the Teacher Pool

More than two million teachers will have to be hired over the next decade as student enrollments rise and baby-boom teachers retire. Through the Education Commission of the States (ECS) Using Public Policy to Prime the Pipeline PT3 project, HEMS is helping states examine how community colleges might play an expanded role in increasing and sustaining the teacher pool.

With ECS as the lead partner, HEMS has conducted research into other states’ experience with teacher education reform and presented policy briefs to lawmakers in Texas, Illinois, and Nevada. ECS and HEMS have formed a consortium of national, regional, state, and local agencies to design and implement the changes in these targeted states. The consortium served as a catalyst in stimulating and sustaining changes in public policy at the state level that lead to significant and large-scale system improvements in the recruitment and training of a diverse pool of K-12 teachers trained to use technology in the classroom, particularly in hard-to-staff schools in urban and rural parts of the country.

The goal of the project was threefold:

1. Support improvement of public policy frameworks in Illinois, Nevada and Texas by assisting the state in overcoming policies and practices that impede the ability of community colleges to participate in the recruitment and professional training of technology-trained teachers;
   
2. Support data-based decision making and teacher preparation reform efforts nationwide regarding the role of community colleges in supporting the recruitment, education and training of teachers to use technology, by developing and making available to state policymakers research and analysis that identifies barriers to reform, promising practices and comparative data; and
   
3. Engage state policymakers, education leaders and the public in a national policy dialogue regarding appropriate roles for community colleges in supporting the preparation of teachers trained to use technology through a communications outreach strategy, and a series of national and regional policy forums.
   

Click on the following links to view the policy briefs:

• Seamless Pipeline from Two-Year to Four-Year Institutions for Teacher Training
• Teacher Education Baccalaureate Degrees At Community Colleges
• Community Colleges as Professional Development: Resources for Working Teachers
• Training for Paraprofessionals: The Community College Role

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