Aspiring Educators are in the classroom daily, planning lessons and teaching students alongside an experienced mentor teacher. From day one, participants are full-time, paid employees of the Cherry Creek School District with retirement benefits. While gaining invaluable classroom experience, Aspiring Educators will have the opportunity to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Education at a reduced cost, with an individualized pathway determined based on previous college coursework. At the end of the program, participants will be ready to apply for a teaching license and eligible to apply for a position with Cherry Creek Schools.

One of the fundamental elements of the Aspiring Educator Pathway is the collaborative teaching model. This model has been shown to provide a greater level of support for newer teachers, provide a more personalized learning experience for students, and ensure a more cohesive learning environment. The program will bring together teams of teachers who, together, will collaborate and co-lead classrooms.

Currently, CCSD is partnering with the Community College of Aurora (CCA) to offer participants an opportunity to pursue a Bachelor’s in Education at a reduced cost. CCSD will continue to broaden our partnerships across Higher Education Institutions to offer differentiated pathways for our teacher apprentices. 

Through collaborative teaching and personalized classroom instruction, the Aspiring Educator Pathway Program offers a new, innovative model with student success as its core focus. The program moves from a single teacher in a classroom to a team of teachers who offer significant experience and diversity to ensure rich classroom learning, a positive school environment, and individualized support to guide every student as they find their Pathway of Purpose. 

Building on the current Future Educator Pathway, the Aspiring Educator Pathway adopts a model inspired by medical residency programs to elevate the teaching profession and create ongoing learning opportunities and advancement pathways for all CCSD teachers. The program provides multiple on-ramps and personalized pathways for aspiring teachers to gain significant classroom experience while receiving support from excellent, current CCSD teachers. By supporting educators throughout all stages of their careers, the program aims to proactively address common challenges facing teachers today, such as student debt and burn out, while improving teacher retention and job satisfaction.

The Aspiring Educator Pathway reimagines the teaching and learning environment to allow for more hands-on classroom practice early in a teacher’s career. Traditionally, student teaching typically doesn’t begin until year four of a teacher’s educational journey, resulting in an average of 750 hours of classroom experience. This new program will result in 4500+ hours of classroom experience and supervised instruction, as well as higher education coursework to enhance teaching and learning practices. Like a medical residency, increasing responsibilities, practice, and feedback measured over a period of years will prepare new teachers for the complex world of leading a classroom.

The Aspiring Educator Pathway is built to support those who hold a high school diploma and are interested in becoming a teacher but do not already have a Bachelor's degree.

The purpose of a medical residency program or other types of residency training programs is to provide purpose-driven, hands-on learning experiences combined with relevant and specific academic instruction to prepare participants to be successful in their chosen career path. Successful residency programs also offer a high degree of mentoring, a key element of the Aspiring Educator Pathway. The “see, do, teach” model has proven to be successful in medical residency programs and will allow Cherry Creek Schools to reimagine the teaching and learning environment and set a new standard for excellence in education.

One of the fundamental elements of the Aspiring Educator Pathway is the collaborative teaching model. The team-teaching model has been shown to provide a greater level of support for newer teachers, provide a more personalized learning experience for students, and ensure a more cohesive learning environment when a teacher is absent. The program will bring together teams of four or more teachers across every phase of the program—apprentice teachers to mentor teachers—who, together, will collaborate and co-lead classrooms.

One of the most unique and innovative features of the Aspiring Educator Pathway is that CCSD will engage in partnerships with higher education institutions. The program launched in partnership with the Community College of Aurora and will continue to partner with other higher education institutions with the goal of creating a teaching force that mirrors the demographics of our students.

The Teacher Degree Apprenticeship Program (SB23-87) provides a unique pathway to teacher licensure through a structured apprenticeship program. It requires many of the same elements as current teacher licensure programs, such as obtaining a bachelor’s degree, training programs approved by the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), and structured on-the-job training. The bill allows CDE to issue a Teacher Apprenticeship Authorization to an apprentice employed by a school district or other type of school who is actively registered in an apprenticeship program and actively enrolled in an affiliated bachelor’s degree program from an accredited higher education institution. It is run collaboratively with the U.S. Department of Labor and the State Apprenticeship Agency and utilizes apprentice mentor teachers and teacher apprenticeship program sponsors.

As outlined by SB23-87 and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), accreditation for the program will come from a partnering higher education institution. Successful completion of the required bachelor’s degree, related coursework, on-the-job learning, and PRAXIS exams will prepare aspiring educators to apply for their teaching license through the CDE. 

The Aspiring Educator Pathway began in July 2024 in six schools - five elementary schools and two middle schools. Future phases will include expanding in some of those sites and adding more schools across the district.