Jerania Mancilla, a special education assistant teacher who is taking part in CCSDs Paraprofessionals Pathway Program, helps Johnny Cano Rivera, 3rd grade, with a school assignment at C.C. Ronow Elementary School Thursday, March 3, 2022.
Monday, Aug. 1, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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The staff-strapped Clark County School District has suspended the teacher licensure program it runs with Nevada State College because of a lack of interest from aspiring educators.
The district — which was advertising close to 1,500 teacher openings last week — told the people who had signed up to receive a teaching license through the Accelerated Licensure Teaching Academy, an alternative program for career-changers and others whose bachelor’s degrees aren’t in education, last month that it is pausing the program “indefinitely.”
Twenty-eight people had signed up for this fall’s cohort when the district decided to put the “alternative route to licensure” program on hold, the district said.
CCSD’s human resources department had told the people who signed up for the Accelerated Licensure Teaching Academy, or ALTA, that it would support them. However, “(g)iven the low demand, CCSD is working to find better ways to utilize resources to recruit teachers for classrooms,” the district said in a statement to the Sun.
Dennis Potthoff, dean of Nevada State’s College of Education, said interest in the program had dwindled, mirroring a nationwide drop in people training to become teachers. He said he was disappointed in the loss but proud of the partnership’s results over the years and not deterred in the college’s mission to prepare new teachers.
“We are absolutely interested in continuing to work with CCSD on any kinds of initiatives that would help build out the teacher pipeline or improve teacher retention,” he said.
Pothoff said Nevada State College typically graduates about 100 to 140 teachers every year — about 80 to 100 of them traditional undergraduates majoring in education, and about 20 to 40 through the alternative route.
ALTA, which CCSD launched in 2005, was one of 11 alternative routes to licensure programs authorized by the Nevada Department of Education. Participants could specialize in elementary general education; English, science and math at the secondary level; and special education.
According to a now-deleted district webpage for ALTA, participants needed to pass certain teacher certification exams to be accepted into the program. Once in, participants paid $2,100 for a one-semester, two-course “boot camp” that included four weeks of student teaching. After this, they were eligible for a three-year conditional license from the state and had to teach in CCSD.
In that three-year window, graduates needed to complete additional courses, which they could also complete at Nevada State College, to convert their conditional permits to standard teaching licenses.
“The program opens the doors to a teaching career in Clark County to anyone with the dedication and desire to lead a challenging, student-centered classroom — from college grads to career changers with a wealth of knowledge to share with our students,” the ALTA webpage said.
UNLV, UNR and Great Basin College in Elko, along with several online programs, continue to offer alternative route to licensure options.
CCSD employs 839 teachers with conditional licenses from all alternative programs. The district said the number of teachers who got their start through alternative programs, and have since received a standard license, is much higher but unknown since they are no longer categorized separately.
“Alternative routes to licensure programs have produced some of CCSD’s best teachers over the years,” the district said in its statement. “We encourage anyone with a bachelor’s degree to explore similar programs offered by other entities.”
Potthoff, who co-chairs a state task force on teacher preparation pathways, said that despite a national decline in new teachers and ALTA’s shrinking popularity, Nevada colleges’ overall output has been flat over the past five years.
“No net loss, but what we really need is net gain,” he said.
