Gwynedd Mercy University-led partnership seeks to address shortage of special education teachers

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Pennsylvania faces a shortage of special education teachers. A partnership led by Gwynedd Mercy University seeks to address the problem.

In May, Gwynedd Mercy partnered with Bucks County Community College and Bucks County Intermediate Unit to create an apprenticeship program to train and certify special education teachers for pre-K through 12th grade, focusing on paraprofessionals who are already working in the area but are not yet teachers.

The program, approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry and the Department of Education, will be the state’s first undergraduate apprenticeship program with a focus on special education.

“This apprenticeship creates a sustainable pipeline for special education teachers by making certification more attainable for individuals already working in our schools,” said Deborah Schadler, coordinator of undergraduate education for Gwynedd Mercy, in a statement. “It’s a direct response to the urgent need for qualified special educators and a continuation of our mission to transform lives through education.”

It comes at a time of teacher shortages locally and across the nation, especially related to special education, math and science in underserved communities in rural and urban areas.

In March, the state Department of Education said it issued more than 6,600 teachers’ certificates in the 2023-2024 school year, about 100 more than the previous school year. Even so, there are still about 5,500 teacher vacancies statewide this year, according to state figures.

Among the factors causing the teacher shortage, experts say, include low pay, difficult working conditions, lower numbers of people studying to become teachers, and a high attrition rate —  7% of teachers are leaving the profession — in the state.

For paraprofessionals who are already working at organizations that serve special needs students, such as the Bucks County Intermediate Unit, the program offers a pathway to getting an undergraduate degree and teacher certification while continuing to work full-time. Under the program, participants will complete their first 60 credits at Bucks County Community College and earn the remaining credits at Gwynedd Mercy.

Students will be able to leverage their on-the-job training to satisfy field experience requirements. They will do their student teaching in the Bucks County Intermediate Unit system.

As part of the program, participants will receive a paraprofessional salary, with structured increases related to academic milestones.

Bucks County Intermediate Unit employees will be eligible to receive a 10% tuition grant to attend Gwynedd Mercy and may also qualify for additional state or federal financial aid.

“The apprenticeship model for teaching is a really promising one that helps to address some of the challenges that we’ve seen that is leading to the decline in teacher certifications,” said Laura Boyce, Pennsylvania executive director of Teach Plus, a nonprofit teacher advocacy group. “The learn-and-earn model, where apprentices are on the job and getting that on-the-job training while also earning a wage and working towards their undergraduate degree and certificate, is a model from the trades that has a lot of promise.”

The model is getting more popular nationally and in Pennsylvania, she said.

According to Schadler, the coordinator for undergraduate education at Gwynedd Mercy, the program is necessary, because “the traditional pathways aren’t working.”

And the need is growing. Between the fall of 2022 and the fall of 2023, the number of students who received special education and/or related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act increased by 3.4%, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Education.

The number of students between the ages of 3 and 21 who received special education services in the 2022-23 school year was about 7.5 million, or about 15% of all U.S. public school students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

In Pennsylvania, that figure was 21%, according to the center.