The Virginia Board of Education has taken a step toward closing the state’s K-12 teachers gap by unanimously approving Germanna Community College’s Future Educators Academy.
Academy classes will be based at Germanna’s Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper.
Lab schools are partnerships between colleges and public-school divisions that don’t charge tuition. The state has earmarked $100 million for 20 lab school startup grants. The lab schools can receive up to $1 million toward startup costs.
Germanna’s Future Educators Academy is an early college program that will jumpstart teaching training in Virginia by allowing students to earn associate degrees in the field while in high school, free. They may then transfer to a university with no student debt and earn a bachelor’s degree just two years after high school graduation.
FEA is an innovative model in collaboration between Germanna, Laurel Ridge Community College, James Madison University and Culpeper County Public Schools focused on an acceleration track for high- teachers in the region. The lab school is intended to reinvigorate the pool of teachers in Virginia. It will employ innovative opportunities through hands-on practicums and streamline the pathway to teacher licensure by prioritizing an associate degree in high school and allowing students to complete their bachelor’s degree in as little as two years after high school graduation.
“The idea of the Future Educators Academy,” said Dr. Janet Gullickson, president of Germanna,
“is to create a no-cost, accelerated pipeline to quickly fill teacher openings by growing our own K-12 teachers in partnership with school divisions. Graduates will work and live in their hometown communities after university graduation, having completed the first two years of their teaching degrees at the same time as they graduate from high school. We also hope that this concept may be replicated across the Commonwealth to address severe teacher shortages.”
Dr. Anthony Brads, superintendent of Culpeper County Public Schools, said: “As one of the four inaugural K-12 members in this innovative partnership, we are ecstatic that the State Board Education has approved Germanna’s Lab School application. We are extremely appreciative of Germanna’s willingness to partner with us in this effort to address the teacher shortage in the near term and provide a long term workforce development opportunity going forward.”
“By providing a fast-tracked pathway to teacher licensure,” Dr. Brads said, “this program is an investment in our students and our community. We appreciate the Board’s timeliness in approving the proposal and look forward to our first cohort of students next school year.”
Laurel Ridge President Kim Blosser said: “Laurel Ridge is very excited to partner with Germanna Community College to initiate our Future Teachers Academy at both our Middletown and Fauquier campuses. All public school divisions in our service region are experiencing teacher shortages, and our rural school divisions are often hit the hardest. We are very excited to help meet that need by educating high school students who will live and work in our region.”
The Virginia Department of Education is working with 20 lab school higher education partners toward 2024 openings.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has made lab schools a top priority.
“Lab schools are a critical part of restoring excellence in the Commonwealth’s education system,” Gov. Youngkin said. “This is the first step in giving parents new options for their kids to learn in innovative and creative ways and break the status quo of a one-size-fits all education.”
