Has Missouri State unlocked a secret to fixing special education teacher shortage?

As a paraprofessional, Melissa Johns found what she described as the perfect "mom job," doing meaningful work in a school setting during the same hours her children were in class.

The Nixa teaching assistant or "para" has spent eight years in the role, working closely with special education teachers and children who have special needs. "I fell in love with it."

The work made her long to go back to college and become a special education teacher — a job with more security and better pay — but she lacked the funding, time and flexibility to make it happen on her own.

That changed when she learned about Missouri State University's Pathways for Paras program, which helps working paras with at least 60 hours of college credit finish the coursework and training needed to become a special education teacher — an area with chronic staff shortages in Missouri.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently noted there were at least 600 unfilled teaching vacancies in special education.

This new alternative route to certification allows paras to continue working — so they still earn a paycheck — while taking virtual courses through MSU and on-the-job and specialized training provided through the district where they work, or one nearby.

Interest in the homegrown, apprenticeship-style program exceeded the expectations of MSU education leaders Reesha Adamson and Jon Turner, who built the pathway on a shoestring budget.

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Launched in spring 2022, the program has accepted and enrolled 263 paras who want to become special education teachers.

"Our undergraduate program has almost doubled," said Adamson, associate professor in the counseling, leadership and special education department at Missouri State. "Our graduate program is three times the size that it was."

The program grew so quickly that it temporarily paused efforts to recruit new students, although they are not turning qualified applicants away.

MSU program helps develop educators in midst of teacher shortage

Inspired by programs in Iowa and Tennessee, MSU's Pathways for Paras is the first of its kind in Missouri, a state that has been slow to embrace the apprenticeship model for training teachers.

"Missouri, right now, is playing a little bit of catch up, said Turner, associate professor in the same MSU department.

Turner, a former superintendent, said this is a way for district leaders to identify and help individuals who are already working in their district become teachers.

"As a person that was a K-12 administrator so many years, I think of so many paras that I just let get away — and probably went to work somewhere other than a school — that would have been great teachers," he said. "We just didn't have a way (then) to get them in the teaching field."

More:In Springfield Public Schools, 257 teachers exited last year. Most were resignations.

The program received funding through the federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act, which can help pay for tuition and other school-related expenses including transportation to and from school and childcare.

"All universities need to be thinking 'outside the box' on developing new teachers — it's a crisis," Turner said. "An apprenticeship model is a unique, true partnership between K-12 and higher education that can still produce high quality teachers."

The concept for the MSU program came from conversations the duo had with Richard Asbill, superintendent in Bolivar; Rocky Valentine, assistant superintendent in Marshfield; and Penney Rector, the former chief human resources officer in Springfield.

The Pathways for Paras program is an approach Adamson and Turner openly hope the other universities in Missouri will steal — and customize to address teacher shortages in other certification areas.

"It is something that anybody can take and replicate," Adamson said. She said what sets the Missouri program apart from others in the nation is that it allows "districts to partner with us and offer up to 50 percent of the coursework."

Previously:Missouri school board appoints commission to address urgent teacher shortage, improve pay

The districts create training cohorts for the paras and provide curriculum, which must be approved by MSU, at scheduled times. The on-site training can cut the overall cost of tuition in half for paras, who learn the "best practices" used in their district.

Adamson said the paras "immediately apply those practices to the job that they’re doing every day."

The U.S. Department of Labor recognized paraeducator as a skilled apprenticeship — which opened the door for this program. 

The paras accepted into the program can:

• Take virtual courses through MSU
• Earn college credit for practicum and on-the-job training
• Access existing loans, scholarships and grants such as Pell, Access Missouri, Fast Track and others
• Complete graduation requirements within two years

Nationally, the number of high school graduates entering college or pursuing teaching degrees has dropped.

More:How many Missourians have student loans? How much do they owe? Will it be forgiven?

Adamson said many paras are women in their 20s, 30s and 40s who have experience in special education classrooms and an interest in teaching.

Paras typically make slightly more than minimum wage while working with students who have special needs, individually and in small groups. In Springfield, which just increased its pay, paras start at $15 an hour.

"They have the passion to work with this population of kids," Adamson said.

Johns, who has two children, is a para at Nixa Junior High and works at Walmart on the weekend. She and her husband, a truck driver, need all three paychecks to cover their expenses.

"Most of the teaching programs, you're going to have to quit your (para) job at some point, which is just not feasible for my family," she said.

The MSU program allows paras to satisfy their practicum, or student teaching, while on the job. In addition to the on-site training, they can access state and federal aid to help pay for MSU classes.

"It made it financially possible for me to go," said Johns, 43. "And then, with the cohort in the Pathways, they're using our para hours to work as student teaching hours so I don't have to actually quit my job."

More:A record 128 Missouri school districts — 25 percent — switch to four-day weeks

Johns said she appreciates the support of Nixa Public Schools, which is partnering with MSU to provide training. After getting a teaching degree, she hopes to work the rest of her career in the district.

"I graduated from Nixa back in the day, 1997, so my junior high now was my high school then," she said. "I'm kind of a lifer."

Isabelle Smith, a 2020 graduate of Spokane High School, worked in retail and at a Head Start before she was hired as a para at Nixa's Century Elementary.

Inspired to become a special education teacher by family members in the field, she is in the Pathways for Paras program. She said in addition to helping her pay for college, it is giving her valuable on-the-job training.

"The kind of experience we're getting, it helps us...for an actual career as a special ed teacher," she said. "It helps us be more prepared for when we do have the job."

Liz Smith, director of special services and federal programs at the Reeds Spring district, said finding qualified special education teachers was a struggle in many districts before the pandemic but it is worse now.

"A lot of us have found fewer applicants in the pool," she said.

Smith, who is Isabelle's mom, said the district used to have 15 "really good" applicants for those openings. "Now, we're looking at maybe a handful or two or three."

She said paras are a critical resource in the classroom and because of their experience they will have a better idea of what is demanded of the teacher.

"It's an amazing program," said Smith, noting one para in Reeds Spring has enrolled. 

She hopes the on-the-job training will mean more of the paras who become teachers will have long and successful careers.

"Our paras are on the front lines, working with kids actively," she said. "...They've seen a classroom. They know what it is like coming in. So when you start your career, you have a lot of the practice and groundwork."

Smith said "grow your own" programs, like Pathways for Paras, help districts work with MSU to prepare future teachers who already live and work in the area.

Asked what makes a good special education teacher, Smith said quality instructional strategies, good communication, and collaborating with parents and a support team to help the student.

"You're kind of like the team captain," she said.

Claudette Riley is the education reporter for the News-Leader. Email news tips to criley@news-leader.com.