Across the U.S., districts continue searching for sustainable teacher shortage solutions, especially in bilingual education and English learner programs, and many are exploring how a teacher apprenticeship program can help strengthen educator pipelines from within their existing workforce.
Vacancies remain difficult to fill and multilingual student populations continue to grow. In fact, at the start of the 2024-25 academic year, ESL and bilingual education were missing 25% of teachers.
On top of that, according to RAND’s 2024 survey, nearly half of teachers serving multilingual learners (MLLs) report feeling underprepared to serve them.
And despite all of this, one of the most promising talent pools is already working inside schools.
Paraprofessionals, instructional aides, teacher assistants, and other support staff spend every day helping students succeed. Many are bilingual, come from the same communities as the students they serve, and already possess the cultural knowledge, language skills, and classroom experience that schools desperately need.
What they often lack is a practical pathway to becoming licensed teachers.
Traditional preparation routes frequently require candidates to leave paid employment, assume significant debt, navigate complex certification systems, and balance coursework with family responsibilities. These barriers can be especially difficult for multilingual candidates.
A teacher apprenticeship program offers a different approach.
Through structured earn-while-you-learn pathways, paraprofessionals can receive paid classroom experience, mentoring, academic instruction, and licensure support while remaining employed.
Increasingly, states and districts are combining teacher apprenticeship, Grow Your Own, and residency models to transform bilingual support staff into certified educators capable of filling some of the most persistent workforce gaps in public education.
For these reasons, we are partnering with two other private foundations to support a Bilingual Early-Childhood Educator pathway through our partners, the National Center for Teacher Residencies and Ensemble Learning.
What Is a Teacher Apprenticeship Program?
A registered teacher apprenticeship program is a structured workforce-development pathway that combines paid employment with professional training.
According to Apprenticeship.gov, apprentices receive paid work experience, progressively increasing wages, mentorship, classroom-based learning, and supplemental instruction while working toward a nationally recognized credential.
Teacher apprenticeships have expanded rapidly since teaching was officially recognized as an apprenticeable occupation in 2022. They started in Tennessee and New York in early 2022, and by early 2025, they had spread to more than 45 states, plus Washington, D.C. Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Importantly, high-quality teacher apprenticeships follow rigorous standards and not all paid internships qualify for this certification.
National guidelines call for at least one academic year of mentored classroom experience, at least 144 hours of related technical instruction, progressively increasing wages, and a pathway that culminates in full teacher licensure.
Apprentices remain learners throughout the process rather than serving as teachers of record before completing their preparation.
Another advantage is the program’s flexibility, as federal guidance allows districts to recognize prior classroom experience when appropriate.
Because many paraprofessionals already possess substantial instructional experience, some competencies can be demonstrated more quickly than they might be for traditional candidates entering education for the first time.
From Paraprofessional to Bilingual Educator: Unlocking Existing Talent
One of the strongest arguments for teacher apprenticeships is that districts already employ many of the future educators they need.
In education, the term ‘paraprofessional’ is used to refer to non-teaching roles that serve as aides, assistants, and other support staff.
Back in 2017, New America reported that approximately one in five paraprofessionals spoke a language other than English at home.
These multilingual staff members often bring valuable linguistic abilities, cultural knowledge, and community connections that are highly relevant for bilingual, dual-language, and ESL programs.
Many already have extensive classroom experience. They know school systems, maintain relationships with students and families, and understand local communities.
Despite these strengths, paraprofessionals frequently encounter barriers that prevent them from becoming certified teachers. Common challenges include tuition costs, certification exams, time constraints, caregiving responsibilities, language-related obstacles, and the difficulty of pursuing a degree while maintaining employment. In some cases, particularly in schools where bilingual teachers are limited, paraprofessionals may play the role of lead teacher without nearly the same level of compensation as their certified teacher counterparts receive.
This is also clearly reflected in the annual wages, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated in 2024 that teacher assistants earned approximately $35,240 per year, as compared to kindergarten and elementary school teachers, who have a median annual wage of $62,310.
As reality shows, schools need bilingual educators, many bilingual paraprofessionals want to become teachers, but traditional preparation pathways often fail to bridge those two.
Teacher apprenticeship programs are increasingly being designed to close that gap.
Earn While You Learn: Removing Financial Barriers to Certification
For many adults, traditional teacher preparation is financially inaccessible.
The earn-while-you-learn structure directly addresses this challenge.
Teacher apprentices remain employed while completing licensure requirements, receive wages throughout the process, and gain experience in real classrooms while progressing toward certification.
According to EdTrust’s report, affordability is one of the primary reasons candidates choose apprenticeship pathways.
Programs that reduce tuition burdens, provide paid clinical experiences, and offer wraparound supports can make teacher certification accessible to talented individuals who might otherwise never enter the profession.
Supports beyond tuition are also highly relevant for consistent enrollment.
Successful programs frequently help candidates with childcare, transportation, certification exam fees, books, mentoring, coaching, and advising. These supports often determine whether a working adult can successfully complete certification requirements.
Why Grow Your Own Strategies Are Transforming Educator Pipelines
Many apprenticeship initiatives operate alongside broader Grow Your Own strategies.
These approaches focus on recruiting future educators from local communities rather than relying exclusively on external hiring.
Paraprofessionals, instructional aides, and district employees represent a particularly valuable recruitment pool because they already understand local schools, students, and families. States increasingly connect Grow Your Own initiatives with teacher apprenticeship pathways as part of a long-term workforce strategy.
Community-based recruitment strengthens workforce sustainability, increases educator diversity, and helps schools build teaching staff that more closely reflect the communities they serve.
For multilingual communities, these approaches can be especially powerful because they help preserve language assets already present within schools and neighborhoods.
State Models Leading the Way
Tennessee’s Teacher Apprenticeship Blueprint
Tennessee remains one of the strongest examples of statewide teacher apprenticeship implementation.
The state established the nation’s first federally registered teacher apprenticeship program, bringing together state agencies, local districts, and educator preparation programs within a coordinated framework.
By the end of 2023, Tennessee had enrolled 678 teacher apprentices and produced licensed graduates through the model.
But even before that, the Clarksville–Montgomery County School System partnered with Austin Peay State University to build a residency program that later on evolved as a teacher apprenticeship program.
The district specifically recruited current employees, including paraprofessionals.
Apprentices work as full-time teacher aides, receive wages and benefits comparable to teacher assistants, collaborate closely with mentor teachers, and gradually assume greater instructional responsibilities.
Mentor teachers receive stipends, while tuition, licensure, and testing costs are covered through state-supported partnerships.
Texas and the Bilingual Workforce Strategy
Texas also offers one of the clearest examples of apprenticeship pathways tied directly to bilingual workforce needs.
The state’s strategy connects teacher residencies, Grow Your Own initiatives, and apprenticeship models into a broader effort to strengthen educator pipelines for bilingual education, special education, and rural communities.
Dallas College’s adaptive residency model, in partnership with our grantee The National Center for Teacher Residences, intentionally recruits current district employees and aspiring educators who might otherwise lack access to certification pathways.
More than 80% of the program’s first cohort consisted of aspiring educators who were students of color, multilingual learners, or first-generation college students. The program combines affordable tuition, online coursework, coaching, childcare assistance, and housing support.
The state of Texas also offers direct bilingual teacher pathway examples.
In 2024, UT San Antonio launched a federally funded initiative specifically designed to help bilingual paraprofessionals become certified bilingual teachers.
The pathway includes scholarships, certification-exam fee waivers, evening and weekend coursework, and job-embedded field experiences that allow participants to continue working while pursuing licensure.
Surveys conducted by UTSA found that 61% of local paraprofessionals expressed interest in obtaining bilingual EC–6 certification.
Colorado’s Community-Based Pathway Model
Colorado demonstrates how states can formalize apprenticeship pathways through legislation and policy.
In May 2023, the Colorado Senate approved the Teacher Degree Apprenticeship Program as a community-based alternative routine to first-time teacher certification.
In March 2025, the Colorado State Board of Education approved the state’s first teacher degree apprenticeship program, sponsored by CareerWise Colorado and partnered with Colorado Mountain College.
Participants earn bachelor’s degrees, qualify for licensure, and may pursue endorsements in areas including world languages. It allows candidates to maintain employment while completing coursework through online and evening formats. Existing school roles can count toward supervised field requirements, helping working adults advance without leaving their jobs.
Additional Models Worth Watching
Across the nation, there are different promising examples that go beyond formal registered apprenticeships, for example:
• York College’s Paraprofessional Upskilling Program in New York helps current paraprofessionals become certified bilingual teachers through tuition assistance, books, fees, mentorship, certification-exam preparation, stipends, and flexible coursework.
• Chicago Public Schools’ Bilingual Teacher Residency, developed with support from NCTR and National Louis University, recruited multilingual talent from within the district. By the 2022–23 school year, 156 residency participants had joined Chicago Public Schools as full-time teachers.
Building Strong Apprenticeship Programs for Bilingual Educators
As seen in Colorado and around the United States, building a comprehensive teacher apprenticeship program is a project that may take years.
There are several key aspects districts should consider when first starting out:
• Clear workforce planning: Districts must identify specific staffing shortages, determine where bilingual educators are most needed, and assess the skills already present among paraprofessionals, aides, substitutes, and community-based staff.
• Strong partnerships: The most effective models involve districts, educator preparation providers, workforce-development partners, and intermediary organizations working together to coordinate employment, instruction, mentoring, compliance, and data collection.
• Mentoring: Intentional mentor matching, structured feedback systems, mentor training, and compensation make the difference. For bilingual pathways specifically, mentors must understand and support bilingual pedagogy rather than treating multilingualism as an obstacle.
• Flexible programming: Programs must also accommodate the realities of adult learners through flexible scheduling, online coursework, multilingual advising, and recognition of candidates’ existing skills and experiences.
Common Barriers and Risks Districts Must Address
Despite their promise, apprenticeship pathways are not automatically equitable.
For instance, one major risk is having compensation levels that remain too low for working adults to sustain participation.
Participants might also drop out if the wraparound supports aren’t comprehensive enough.
Successful programs frequently provide assistance with childcare, transportation, books, certification exams, mentoring, coaching, and other logistical needs. Tuition support alone is often insufficient.
Districts must also address barriers that uniquely affect bilingual candidates, like financial pressures, caregiving responsibilities, language-proficiency requirements, testing challenges, and isolation within higher education systems.
Programs designed for general teacher recruitment may fail to meet the specific needs of multilingual candidates unless these realities are addressed intentionally.
The Role of Philanthropy in Expanding Teacher Apprenticeship Programs
Registration alone does not guarantee funding.
Most apprenticeship programs rely on multiple braided funding streams, requiring districts to combine federal, state, local, private, and institutional resources.
This creates important opportunities for philanthropy.
Private and institutional funding can point to candidate-support needs that public funding does not always cover adequately, including childcare, transportation, books, exam fees, mentor compensation, implementation coaching, and bilingual certification supports.
It can also strengthen data systems, evaluation efforts, district planning capacity, and mentorship infrastructure.
For example, donor funding can help launch scholarship programs for bilingual paraprofessionals, provide stipends that reduce financial pressure during training, support mentor development, or help districts design new apprenticeship pathways before public funding becomes available.
Funders can also play an important role in building evidence.
Investments in program evaluation, licensure tracking, retention analysis, and bilingual educator outcomes can help districts understand which approaches are most effective and how successful models can be scaled.
These investments help promising programs stabilize and grow while districts build long-term public funding mechanisms.
Contact the Sullivan Family Charitable Foundation to learn more about what we are doing in the bilingual teacher pathway space.
Building the Future Bilingual Educator Workforce
There are clear opportunities for schools seeking to strengthen bilingual educator pipelines.
Many districts already employ multilingual paraprofessionals, instructional aides, and community-based staff who understand local cultures, speak community languages, know students and families, and have demonstrated commitment to their schools. What many lack is a structured, affordable pathway to teacher licensure.
A teacher apprenticeship program provides a practical way to bridge that gap.
The opportunity ahead is creating pathways that allow that talent to advance, thrive, and ultimately lead the next generation of multilingual learners.
