Miami Dade College and Miami-Dade Schools to tackle teacher shortage together. Here’s how
Miami Herald | By Jimena Tavel | June 13, 2023
As a first-of-its-kind coordinated solution to the teacher shortage in South Florida, Miami Dade College and Miami-Dade Public Schools will launch a teaching academy at each high school in the county this fall to encourage teenagers to pursue a teaching career.
Through the Teaching Academy Dual Enrollment Program, high school students will be able to earn college credits oriented around education majors while working toward their high school diploma.
Jose Dotres, Miami-Dade Schools’ superintendent, and Madeline Pumariega, the president of Miami Dade College, broke the news in front of dozens of teachers, principals and administrators at a training event Tuesday morning at the college’s Eduardo J. Padrón Campus in Little Havana.
“This is the first of its kind for our school district because we’re doing it across the board at every high school. This is a major effort,” Dotres told the Herald. “Teaching academies have been sporadic in nature — they may be in one school or another under different models because principals have created their own. This will make them consistent and tie them to the college with dual enrollment articulation like never before.”
When the seniors graduate, they could continue their studies at the college and then after graduating, they could return to the school district as employees.
“It’s a three-part process, hopefully,” Dotres said.
Even if the program doesn’t spark an interest in students to become educators long-term, Dotres said it’s still valuable because it will instill in them communication, leadership and other skills.
Dotres, who has led the third-largest school district in the country since January 2022, and Pumariega, who was named president of MDC in November 2020, worked for about a year on the idea, along with their teams.
Pumariega also noted this program would not sacrifice the quality of the education for upcoming teachers.
“Make no mistake about the importance of highly qualified credentialed teachers. We can talk about all of these alternatives … but we should all in this room have one collective goal and one collective priority: Having highly qualified credentialed teachers. We should never take shortcut to make sure we provide [that],” she said.
