Michigan State shortens teaching prep program from five to four years to address teacher shortages

EAST LANSING — Michigan State University is reducing the length of its teacher preparation program from five years to four in an effort to address the continuing teacher shortage across the state and country.

On Friday, MSU announced students will be able to transition to or start a four-year program starting in fall 2023, according to a press release.

The teacher preparation program will retain core elements, including a one-year internship and curriculum that focuses on social justice and equity, according to the press release, while making the program shorter and helping students save about $16,700 in tuition, not including thousands of dollars more in travel and living expenses.

MSU’s five-year program served as a “financial challenge” for many students when compared to four-year programs at other universities, according to the press release.

“The new teacher preparation program is attentive to our college’s commitment to accessible, equitable and high-quality education and to the growing teacher shortage,” said Jerlando F.L. Jackson, dean of the College of Education, in the press release. “We want to be both responsive to needs in our community and of our students, and to also continue our legacy of producing outstanding, well-prepared educators who are ready to lead in K-12 classrooms.”

Michigan has been experiencing a significant shortage of teachers for several years. MSU’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, the Michigan Department of Education and the Center for Educational Performance completed research in 2021 that found that more Michigan teachers were leaving the profession than new teachers were entering, according to the press release.

Researchers also found that newly hired teachers were less likely to renew their teaching certificates.

“Teachers of exceptional quality are needed in schools across the state and nation — and MSU has a longstanding history of producing outstanding educators,” said MSU interim Provost designee Thomas Jeitschko, in the press release. “I am proud of the ways in which MSU supports our students who choose this essential profession as their career, including with this progressive update to their preparation.”

When Kyle Greenwalt, the associate director of MSU's teacher preparation program and an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education, first arrived at MSU 15 years ago, the school was regularly certifying 600 new teachers every year. This year, just 200 students will be certified to become teachers.

By reducing the length of the program and thereby the costs, Greenwalt said they hope to see those numbers begin to rebound.

"Our numbers are down like they are nationally and we have a lot of people leaving the teaching force," he said. "We are responding to requests of our K-12 colleagues to get them high-quality teachers as soon as we can. We are taking the best aspects of this program and shrinking it to four years."

Students who are currently in their first or second year of the existing teacher preparation program can transition to the new model in the spring of 2023, according to the press release, with new students in the fall of 2023 starting in the new four-year model.

MSU's teacher education program has been a five-year program for about 30 years, he said. The program was created in response to concerns at the time over the rigor of teacher preparation programs. At the time, there was a high demand for such teacher preparation programs.

The length of current teacher education programs at different schools varies between four and five years, Greenwalt said. His program often saw significant drops in students after they complete their fourth year. With the reduction to a four-year program, the hope is that students will complete the entire program before going on to teach.

While the program length is decreasing, Greenwalt said much of the program will remain the same. More coursework has actually been added to the beginning of the program, he said, that focuses on special education and English language learners. It's the graduate level coursework that has been reduced.

Greenwalt shared other examples of changes, such as reducing student teaching requirements from more than 30 weeks to 20 weeks. The state requires students complete at least 10 weeks of student teaching before they can become certified teachers.

With the new changes, officials like Greenwalt hope to see enrollment rise and attrition rates fall.

"We're excited to get the word out and get a whole new generation of young people into teaching," he said.

Contact Mark Johnson at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State shortens teaching program to address teacher shortages