Enhancing Educational Access Through Innovative Educator Preparation Pathways

Various factors contribute to the growing crisis of teacher shortages, including declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs, increasing teacher attrition, and many teachers approaching retirement. School leaders retiring, transferring schools, or pursuing new opportunities within the education sector are not being replaced by qualified candidates. Furthermore, many school districts nationwide report principal vacancies and a severe need for more qualified applicants to replace them. Consequently, many educator preparation programs have developed transformational initiatives to recruit, prepare, and retain teachers in their partnering school districts. These programs are critical for alleviating the impact of teacher shortages on schools and students. Enhancing Educational Access Through Innovative Educator Preparation Pathways highlights some of these initiatives and their impact on the school systems. It demonstrates how these models can be implemented to help recruit and retain individuals interested in becoming teachers or school principals. Covering topics such as school-university partnerships, leadership pipelines, and teacher diversity, this book is an excellent resource for school principals, administrators, educators, human resource managers, business owners, researchers, academicians, and more.

Beverly Sande is an Assistant Professor and Director for Panther Teaching Academy at Prairie View A & M University. She has worked as an educator for over 25 years. Dr. Sande has previously engaged in projects that advance knowledge of inclusive practices and research on social justice, equity literacy, collaborative continuous improvement practices, curriculum redesign, and large-scale implementation models. She has also worked across disciplines to develop inclusive teacher education programs and curricula that encourage diverse students, especially students of color, students with disabilities, and gifted students, to acquire professional teaching licenses. Currently, she is working on research that focuses on educational reform policies, large-scale educational implementation, culturally relevant pedagogy, and curriculum redesign and development in higher education.