Tackling the challenge by teaching the teacher (2025)

ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ has a teacher shortage problem. Perhaps worse, ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ has a certified teacher shortage problem, and one that continues to grow year to year.

As public school teacher vacancies fueled by retirements and early-career attrition have intensified over the past decade, teaching positions have been increasingly filled by uncertified teachers.

The statistics have become quite sobering.

This academic year, for example, 5,500 teachers in ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ public schools are working under emergency certification, where instructors are required to have bachelor’s degrees, but no formal teaching experience or training. That’s nearly 800 more than the previous year, according to data from the ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ State Board of Education.

Enter Heather Sparks, ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ City University’s director of teacher education, and her Teacher Development Academy.

While it’s a tall mountain to climb, Sparks is helping to tackle one of the state’s most pressing issues one cohort at a time.

“We are trying to address this teacher shortage,” said Sparks, a public education teacher for 25 years and ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ’s 2009 Teacher of the Year, “but we’re also wanting to give teachers the skills they need for teaching tomorrow.”

The effort began in 2022, when Sparks launched OCU’s Teacher Development Academy. The academy is a four-week program designed to help emergency-certified teachers gain important skills in how to teach and manage classrooms.

It also prepares learners to take tests needed to gain official teacher certification. Academy completers earn a “Reaching and Teaching All Learners” micro credential and graduate certificate, and can even apply nine credit-hours into OCU’s Master of Education in Instructional Design and Educational Technology degree.

The academy reached a new level in 2024, thanks in part to a grant from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief () Fund, part of the CARES Act created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Sparks first heard of the fund’s existence, she started working with officials from the ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ City Public Schools (OKCPS) district to expand the Teachers Development Academy, which had trained 29 teachers in each of its first two years.

The GEER funding kicked in for the fall 2024 semester, and by the time the fifth and final cohort finishes this summer, the program will have trained 230 teachers over the full fiscal year of the funding. All at no expense to the teachers.

OKCPS officials have noticed improvements already. While acknowledging there may be other factors to consider, the anecdotal evidence shows better results on aspects beyond student performance. Teachers have been applying their newly attained skills as soon as they acquire them.

“The way (Teacher Development Academy) classes are structured, it’s very much a turnkey approach,” said Kara Cordell, manager of staffing for OKCPS. “What they learn that day, they can implement immediately.”

Sparks said that part of the design is intentional. The teachers already have a demanding work schedule, so any way of saving them time and effort in the long run would certainly help their situation.

“It’s job-embedded,” Sparks said. “They’re doing things we know they need to do for their work. It’s not replicating, but enhancing what they’re already doing.”

For instance, all teachers must do some form of lesson planning. The academy teaches the most effective methods of lesson planning that the teachers can put into immediate practice.

“The learning environment was nothing like I had ever experienced before but one that shapes the way I run my classroom today,” said Ivey Lawson, a physical science and anatomy/physiology teacher at Southeast High School who attended the Teacher Development Academy. “Every single day I walked out the door with a new tool or idea that I could apply in my classroom.”

Cordell said that certified teachers also tend to stick around longer, noting that learning the art and science of teaching can go a long way to better job satisfaction and more confidence in the classroom.

“Teachers who come into this profession who are not traditionally certified are 2.5 times more likely to leave within the first year,” Cordell said. “The fact that so many teachers (who attended an academy) are still employed in our district, that shows something positive is happening.”

Even after the GEER funding ends, Sparks plans to continue the academies for as long as the demand exists. That could be generations down the road based on current statistics.

Once the academy returns to a private pay endeavor, it will feature a reduced tuition rate. The academy has also partnered with ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ Educators Credit Union, where teachers can obtain low-interest loans to cover tuition.

“It’s one of the best deals in ÏòÈÕ¿ûÊÓƵ, by cost-per-hour,” Cordell said. “It’s very well-thought-out and easy to communicate the high points to our teachers. Thanks to the generosity of the university, our educators are able to gain a high-quality experience at a comparatively low cost.”

Sparks pointed out that the teacher shortage can’t be overcome by mass certifications alone, however. Part of the problem is a lack of public and government perception on the importance of the profession, and in how teachers are treated in general.

“We don’t have a teacher shortage, we have a teacher respect shortage,” Sparks said, noting that the state has around 20,000 certified teachers who are now doing something other than teaching. “It became a point where teachers weren’t wanting to do it anymore.”

In some ways, the Teacher Development Academy is helping on that front as well. Participants in each cohort form bonds that remain beyond their time at the academy, beyond district boundaries across the state.

“Each cohort has developed such a lovely community. They can rely on each other. They’ve created lifelong friendships,” Sparks said.

Added Cordell: “A number of teachers who have gone through it are still talking to each other. The community, the solidarity that’s built within these cohorts – it’s exciting to see people find value in that.”

In the end, the primary objective is to improve the lives of the end users — the students.

“Every kiddo deserves to have a world-class education,” Cordell said. “Part of that process is having teachers who are proficient in their work. The Teacher Development Academy program definitely helps with that.”