Educators want to expand a program to address growing teacher shortage

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana educators are trying to expand a program to help address the growing teacher shortage. The program is partnership with local schools and Ball State University. 

It gives high school students hands on experience in the classroom and they earn college credits doing it. 

Junior students at Westfield High School are part of the five-year program. They learn from mentors inside elementary school classrooms — in a program run by Ball State University. 

After the program is over, students graduate from college a year early with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education with a concentration in Special Education. 

Mackenna Johnson was the first to join the program. Several other students have since joined.

"I always wanted to be a teacher,” Johnson said. “Ever since I was little, I was playing teacher with classmates at recess." 

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Now, this high school senior is already teaching and learning in a classroom through an apprenticeship program offered by the Westfield-Washington school district.

“I’m learning just how to work with kids, their individual needs, how to provide instruction," Johnson said.

“The goal is to get more student interest in this field, then they're able to come back to us,” said Lindsay Tomamichel, the Director of College Careers and Strategic Initiatives. 

The Indiana Department of Education job bank has more than 1,800 current teacher vacancies across the state.

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Johnson's mentor, Lori Bollier, says the two are learning from each other. 

"It's great for them to come in with fresh ideas from what they're learning from their professors,” Bollier said. “And they're enthusiastic and ready to learn." 

Johnson said the program has helped her love for teaching grow. However, for people who may be uncertain, there's still value in the program. 

“You're learning if you want to be a teacher now and find out you don't want to do that it's better than being in college spending all that money and taking those classes."

So far, five students are a part of the program in Westfield and they're to expand the program.