“I feel like I’m figuring out whether or not I want to do this before I’m an adult,” said Hannah Wofford, a sophomore in Beavercreek’s education career tech track.
Tucker Swinford, another sophomore in Beavercreek’s education career technology track, said it was helpful that the class he is taking in Beavercreek can count as a basic education course in some Ohio colleges.
One added benefit of having the tracks in high schools is the high school can work with the middle and elementary schools to get their students real-world experience before they go into college. That helps students decide if they are interested in education, the students and administrators say.
An Ohio Department of Education and Workforce study from April 2023 found teacher shortages across the board at Ohio public schools, but the shortage was more pronounced in the southwest part of the state, which includes Dayton. Rural schools in southwest Ohio were more likely to struggle to find teachers, while urban schools were more likely to have unqualified people teaching in the classroom.
Urban, rural and suburban schools have all reported an increased difficulty in finding and hiring qualified teachers. Even districts like Centerville, who pay teachers well and have plenty of benefits, are seeing smaller pools of candidates, according to the district.
Mad River’s Teacher Academy is focused on recruiting and training students who want to be teachers. According to Stebbins High School, more than 80% of 2023 graduates were enrolled in college six months after high school and 64% were employed.
Dayton Public’s career tech program is for early childhood education and is available to students attending Dunbar or Thurgood Marshall STEM high schools. The students work in preschool classrooms at Rosa Parks Early Childhood Center, and can earn industry credentials to work as a preschool or elementary school teacher.
Josh Baker, curriculum supervisor for high school in Beavercreek, said the district considered students’ needs with the state’s in-demand jobs when deciding what career tech pathways they wanted to pick.
“We hope that we have opportunities at the high school and really throughout the district, that reflect student interest so they can at least get a taste of what it’s like to be in that field to make it just make a decision about what they want to do before college,” Baker said.