Learning lags with new teachers. Many quit. There's a better way to train educators. | Opinion

Do you remember your first week at your first job? I’m sure that you were eager to please, sweaty-palmed, and a bit of a bumbler. But what’s the worst that could have happened? A customer’s glare after you handed them the wrong frozen custard flavor?

What if you were in charge of 25 young lives? That’s what we do to teachers and students every year.

Your child has a 12% chance of being taught by a novice teacher. Beginner teachers – those with 2 or fewer years of experience – provide the least academic benefit to students, hitting their prime by year 3. Yet, 18% of teachers quit or leave Wisconsin before they reach their third year. The result is terrible for kids: getting a series of newbie educators could set your child back permanently.

But treating a classroom as a training ground is also unfair to teachers. Any 22-year-old who signed up for low pay and signed away evenings and weekends deserves better than feeling unprepared and unsuccessful. Educators are the best of us, and they deserve our best, too.

Luckily, there’s now a better way: teacher apprenticeships. State superintendent Jill Underly called them “really exciting” and recently joined their national advocacy network. Republican legislators just released a bill to start them in Wisconsin. It’s something my group, IRG, has discussed with stakeholders for months.

Teacher apprenticeships transform education training

What do you need to know?

▶They’re the next evolution in teacher preparation. In IRG’s model, students would still earn a bachelor’s degree to teach. However, it’d consist of 2 years learning to teach their subject and manage classrooms, then 2 years of student teaching under a master teacher, copying teacher residencies.

▶They’re loved by everybody. In just 2 years, they’re in 28 states, blue and red. President Biden’s administration started them with Tennessee’s Republican governor. The National Education Association union stands alongside Jeb Bush’s ExcelInEd. The National Rural Education Association, state labor departments, and right-leaning think tanks all see their benefits.

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▶They lower teachers’ college debt. Who wants to start a $38,000-a-year job with $22,000 in debt? Few do, and working-class students can’t. The result is a brutal teacher shortage. Teacher apprenticeships, however, minimize classroom time in junior and senior year, allow students to earn as they learn instead of paying to student teach, and access federal apprenticeship funding.

▶They get teachers the experience they need. You can read all the parenting books in the world, but nothing prepares you for the real thing. Similarly, educators spend 3 years reading about stopping meltdowns in chemistry class and 1 semester actually practicing it. Young teachers often take the state’s hardest teaching assignments, and many of them get walked on before walking out the door. Apprenticeships ramp up real-world experience under the guidance of expert teachers, building confidence. Plus, 2 years of preparation ensure no child will ever have a rookie teacher.

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▶They increase diversity among teachers. 70% of Wisconsin teachers are White women. There are more teachers named “Jennifer” than there are male teachers of color. That sounds unimportant until someone’s son doesn’t have a male teacher until middle school or the teachers in Wausau, Bayfield, or Abbotsford don’t speak their parents’ native language. General education courses and prospective debt lock out potentially incredible teachers. Teacher apprenticeships remove both.

Right now, we expect every future teacher to have access to a trust fund, handle calculus functions with ease, and perform perfectly with no preparation. When it comes down to it, though, we just need folks who can motivate kids for phonics and arithmetic. Let’s catch up to the rest of the Midwest and do teacher apprenticeships.

Quinton Klabon is research director at the Institute for Reforming Government, a Wisconsin-based right-leaning think tank.