To address this long-standing weakness in education employment, the GV NextEd Workforce Project (“NEWP”) is bringing together Michigan colleges, school districts, unions, policy-makers, and community-based organizations to design and deliver an innovative set of rapid, accessible work-and-learn credentials in areas of pressing educational need. These new educators would work alongside certified teachers and paraprofessionals and in community–based organizations to support students in a “care team” approach that will make more efficient use of experienced teachers’ time and skills.
NEWP credentials are designed from the ground up in close collaboration with communities and stakeholders to generate unique economic and career value for their holders, with two-thirds of credits earned through paid tutoring or counseling work with K12 students, overseen by college faculty. Being paid to earn college credits—rather than paying for them—removes a significant barrier to educational advancement.
This training (in reading, writing, math, distance pedagogy, academic counseling, and other areas) would be available to anyone with a high school diploma and would be customized to the applicants’ level of prior degree attainment. The remaining one–third of credits would be earned through traditional coursework at either the undergraduate or graduate level, again depending upon the background of the student. NEWP credits would be fully transferable and stackable towards traditional Associate, Bachelor's, or Master's degrees, should students wish to pursue them.
In schools, holders of these certificates would serve in high-quality, union–eligible positions, typically under the supervision of certified teachers within a “care team” model similar to those found in health care. Certified teachers would be eligible to earn these specialized credentials at the Master's level, which would qualify for professional development credit and district salary step schedules. Many certificate holders may choose instead to work in non-school settings for childcare providers, community-based organizations, tutoring services, and after-school and summer school programs. Our goal is to create a credential with high optionality, one that has economic and career value for a broad range of people across a wide range of settings and employment types.