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Building the Teacher Workforce of Tomorrow
– Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education, March 2022 As Illinois grapples with a growing teacher shortage, College of Lake County is pioneering innovative teacher-preparation programs and partnering with early childhood centers, school districts, universities, scholarship organizations, private philanthropists and even NASA to create a pipeline of diverse and dedicated teacher candidates who are passionate about using their skills and talents to lift up the Lake County community.
When he first set foot on CLC’s campus to pursue his dream of teaching and coaching young people in sports, Josue Velazquez had no idea how transformative the next two years would be.
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Humboldt Park and Logan Square, Velazquez moved to Round Lake with his family at the age of 15 to escape the crime and drug trafficking that plagued these inner-city Chicago communities.
Life got better. But two years later, high school diploma in hand, the 18-year-old didn’t have much of a road map for the future.
“I was the first in my family to finish high school, so college wasn’t even on my radar,” he confides.
So he went to work, installing granite countertops and working at a cell phone store before getting a job in HVAC. But the hours were long and Velazquez, now a husband and father, missed spending time with his family.
It was time for a career reboot. He made a life-changing decision to become the first in his family to go to college. CLC—with its affordable tuition and flexible programming— put his dream within reach. Elmhurst College to complete a bachelor’s degree in physical education and health, Velazquez is now filling a critical need for well-prepared, culturally relevant educators in the Round Lake school district.
“My wife calls me a unicorn because Latino males are not all that common in elementary school classrooms,” he says with a laugh. “CLC’s Diversity in Schools and Society course taught me that diversity and representation matter—and I experience that reality on a daily basis. A lot of my Latino students connect with me immediately because they see themselves in me.”
Velazquez still gets emotional when he talks about his CLC experience. “My professors saw more potential in me than I saw in myself. I was exposed to some incredible experiences— from a field study on the Appalachian Trail to a training workshop at NASA for teacher candidates from Hispanic-
serving institutions. I developed a passion for teaching at CLC and everyone—from my professors to my academic advisors—helped spark that passion.”
Michael Crisantos was inspired to pursue a career in education by the teachers who nurtured and enriched him during his formative years.
“My folks were busy trying to earn a living, so I didn’t have the privilege of a lot of parental involvement while I was growing up,” explains the Round Lake native. “But my teachers always showed up for the important events in my life and helped me become the well-rounded person and educator that I am today.”
The first in his family to earn a college degree, Crisantos worked three jobs to cover his expenses—waking up at 3 a.m. to stock grocery store shelves before his morning classes, staffing the college’s LGBTQ Resource Center after school and working at a sporting goods store in the evenings.
“CLC’s affordability made college accessible for me,” Crisantos said. “It also enabled me to take advantage of some really amazing educational opportunities.”
One of those opportunities was NASA’s teacher-training program in Cleveland, where he met Velazquez.
“Seeing NASA engineers working on robots and other new technologies was beyond anything I could have imagined,” he says. “We saw STEM in action and got hands-on training in STEM teaching techniques. We were the only community college participating in the program, so it was a great opportunity to connect with future educators from four-year universities throughout the country. I feel very grateful for the experience. How many teachers can say they trained at NASA?”
Today, Crisantos—who holds a bachelor’s degree in education with a concentration in special education—is a special education teacher at a Round Lake elementary school.
“CLC taught me that, in order to better your community, you need to put resources into your community,” he reflects. “Thanks to CLC, I have the knowledge and skills my community needs.”
Strengthening the Teacher Pipeline
Velazquez and Crisantos are living proof that equitable access to a high-quality education can lift up an entire community.
At any moment in time, their success stories would be a welcome development. But in 2022—with schools across the nation facing some of the toughest staffing challenges in recent history—the stories of these newly minted teachers are good news indeed.
“Last year, more than 2,000 Illinois public school teaching positions remained unfilled,” states CLC Education Professor and Department Chair Dr. Michelle Proctor. “Eighty-eight percent of the districts surveyed by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools reported a shortage of
qualified teachers in 2021—and 96 percent reported a critical shortage of substitute teachers, a staffing crisis that forced many administrators into classrooms to fill the gap.”1
To tackle the teacher shortage and diversify the teacher pipeline, CLC is creating new pathways into the profession, removing barriers to degree completion and preparing teacher candidates to provide effective instruction once they get into the classroom.
“In recent years, we’ve engaged in ongoing curriculum reviews and updates to ensure our course content is culturally inclusive and relevant to the realities our teacher candidates are likely to encounter in Lake County’s culturally diverse classrooms,” Proctor said. “We’ve also partnered with local school districts to get our students into public school classrooms so they can see the research and theories they’re learning about in their education courses being applied in a real-world context.”
In 2019, CLC launched a Future Educators Club to promote the teaching profession and create a community of teacher candidates at CLC. “Club members visit local schools, invite guest speakers to share their knowledge about the teaching profession and conduct research on topics of interest,” Proctor explains. “It’s a great way for our students to network with one another and connect with working professionals in the field.”
Investing in the educator pipeline also means reaching out to students before they enter college. In 2021, CLC began partnering with several Lake County high schools to offer a dual-credit Introduction to Teaching course. It’s a win-win
situation for students and the community. More homegrown talent enters the college-to-classroom pipeline, while high school juniors and seniors earn college credits toward a teaching degree without spending a penny on tuition.
Removing Roadblocks to Success
Going forward, Proctor said, CLC’s efforts to support nontraditional students as they prepare to enter the teaching profession will be more important than ever.
“In spring 2019, we began making changes to our programs and policies to make it easier for nontraditional students to achieve degree completion,” she notes. “To do that, we’ve created more online opportunities for students to complete their coursework and dropped penalties for late assignments and missed classes. Nontraditional students are often juggling school, work and family responsibilities, so we need to be flexible to help them succeed.”
12021 Illinois Educator Shortage Survey, prepared by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools (IARSS) and its educational and research partners: https://iarss.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/IARSS-2021Educator-Shortage-Final.pdf
