Dramatic changes are coming to the education program at Michigan State University (MSU), a response both to student needs and a nationwide teacher shortage. The program’s hallmark feature for roughly thirty years, a fifth year centered on student teaching, will be cut, with classroom practice becoming the focus of a reorganized fourth year.
The changes come in response to student concerns about the costs associated with the fifth year, which many found especially burdensome given the typically low salaries of teachers. In 2021, students sent a letter to the provost expressing their qualms about the financial and mental burdens. According to Dr. Kyle Greenwalt, associate director of teacher preparation at MSU’s College of Education, the fifth year had become a roadblock.
Dr. Kyle Greenwalt, associate director of teacher preparation at Michigan State University’s College of Education
According to MSU, the change will save students $16,700 in tuition costs, plus thousands more in travel and living expenses. The change will take effect for students entering in fall 2023, although current first and second-year students are also eligible to transition to the new model.
The move is also a reaction to the nationwide teacher shortage. According to MSU’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, in 2021, more Michigan teachers exited the profession than entered, and new teachers were less likely to renew their certificates.
“Our K-12 partners are telling us, ‘You can’t keep them for five years,’” said Greenwalt. “They need our teacher candidates as quickly as possible.”
In line with the nationwide shortage, participants in the program have shrunk by two-thirds in the past fifteen years, according to Greenwalt. This year, the program expects to graduate roughly 200 teachers. In response, the College of Education is making admission to the program simpler and easier. What was previously an arduous process involving test scores and GPAs is now a simple declaration.
