CEHD’s NXT GEN Teach allows school district employees to earn a teaching license while working full-time
The shortage of teachers in Minnesota schools is a systemic crisis. Annual data from the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board consistently shows that 84 percent of Minnesota school districts suffer from severe teacher shortages.
In high-need fields such as special education, vacancy rates exceed 40 percent. Besides the shortage crisis, there is the problem of teacher retention. About one-third of new teachers leave the profession within five years, due to burnout and isolation.
To address these challenges, NXT GEN Teach was created. NXT GEN Teach builds a direct pathway to teaching licensure for students who are also working professionals, like paraprofessionals and substitute teachers. Traditional teacher preparation programs often require candidates to enroll full-time, leave their jobs, and complete months of unpaid student teaching—a path that is simply out of reach for working adults with families, bills, and community ties. NXT GEN Teach was designed to remove these barriers.
NXT GEN Teach was launched as a major system-wide initiative at UMN in 2024. Housed in CEHD’s Office of the Dean and collaborating with the Department of Educational Psychology’s special education team, the program has rapidly grown from its initial special education roots into a multi-track, statewide teacher residency and registered teacher apprenticeship model.
Removing time and money barriers
“It is a district-serving model, meaning we are creating deep partnerships with districts across the state and listening to the needs they have and from their current paraprofessionals that are seeking a teaching license,” says NXT GEN Teach Director Danaya Franke. “Oftentimes what we’re hearing from these folks is that the barriers to becoming a teacher are related to time and money.”
NXT GEN Teach Success Navigator Duccio Mondanelli puts it plainly: “I love to use the term ‘working professional.’ Someone who is already employed, eager to get their teaching license, but needs the pathway to do so that’s least burdensome and removes the barriers of time and money,” he says. "That’s who this program was built for."
To help teacher candidates overcome these obstacles, NXT GEN Teach is structured as an apprenticeship model. Unlike traditional programs where candidates must step away from paid work to complete a licensure program, NXT GEN Teach apprentices stay employed in their districts throughout the entire two-year program.
“I believe that the needs of the students come first,” says NXT GEN Recruiter Eddie Rodriguez. “Apprentices occupy paid, job-embedded district positions built on highly competitive, stabilized wages and equipped with comprehensive medical, dental, and retirement benefits. By removing the burden of unpaid labor, the program eliminates the student-teaching penalty, significantly reducing candidate stress and allowing working professionals interested in becoming licensed educators to focus entirely on their professional and clinical growth.”
While continuing to work during the day, candidates take their coursework online in the evenings from anywhere in the state and earn their teaching license after successful completion of the two-year program.
“Another thing we’ve done is take a deep dive into the courses we offer and ensure that the workload around them has job-embedded assignments,” Franke adds.
“They can literally learn on a Tuesday or Thursday evening and then implement what they’re learning on a Wednesday or Friday, right when they go back into the classroom. It feels real and meaningful and accessible.”
Also, because the program is district-serving, the candidates are learning on the job in the district in which they want to be a teacher of record after completion of the program. “It meets the needs of the community we’re serving, the district we’re serving, and the candidates in those communities,” Franke says. “It really feels aligned.”
The program taps into a workforce solution that was not available before. “What I hear consistently from our candidates is ‘I could not have done this before’ or ‘I would not have been able to go back to school if I didn’t have this program,’” Mondanelli says. “As a former special ed teacher, I can vouch that without paraprofessionals, our system would collapse. Yet, we didn’t really have a pathway that was accessible for them to stay employed.”
Already in the community
Maggie Brodeen is currently an apprentice in the program. She works at Paladin Career and Technical High School in Coon Rapids as a student success coordinator and resident substitute. In her roles, she has a team of students she makes schedules for and keeps on track to graduate, and covers any classes that need support or a lead teacher. Brodeen had been interested in becoming a special education teacher for over a year. NXT GEN Teach was a perfect fit. “I am able to work during the day and take classes in the evening,” she says. “The professors are great at working with you; many allow you to use examples from your workplace for assignments. You are able to use your real-life experiences and apply them to your classwork...being in class while working makes learning easier and more fun.”
That real-world connection is built into the program by design. Alongside every apprentice is a Journey Worker, which is a teacher mentor who coaches, supports, and advises the candidate over the full two years, gradually increasing responsibilities so that by the time the candidate completes the program, they feel confident and ready. Bronwyn Lundell is a NXT GEN Teach Journey Worker who serves as a special education teacher at Lester Elementary School in Duluth. She joined the program after her paraprofessional asked if she would be her mentor teacher.
“I support her as she applies what she learns in class to her job,” Lundell explains. “We talk through instructional strategies, and I give her a behind-the-scenes look at how I plan, collaborate with other teachers, and do paperwork.” Lundell appreciates how the program takes a more organic approach to the student teaching experience. “The candidate is in an environment where they’ve built rapport with students already, which is a huge hurdle to overcome in a short amount of time when you’re doing a traditional student teaching path,” she says. “Candidates don’t have to stop working in order to pursue further education, and what they’re learning in class can be applied directly to what they do every day.”
A bridge between theory and practice
Jason Kuhlman is the principal of Valley View Elementary School in Columbia Heights, a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. Valley View has been a partner school since NXT GEN Teach’s first year. “We were excited by the opportunity to partner with a program that is focused on developing highly qualified educators while creating pathways for individuals who are already connected to the communities they serve,” he says. “The program aligned closely with our district’s commitment to growing and supporting future educators.”
Kuhlman says his experience with NXT GEN Teach has been overwhelmingly positive. “The program creates a strong bridge between theory and practice, allowing future educators to learn while actively engaging in schools and classrooms,” he says. “It is helping address the need for talented teachers while providing candidates with authentic experiences that prepare them for long-term success in education.”
A unique aspect of NXT GEN Teach is its ability to cultivate educators from within the communities it serves. “At Valley View, we have the privilege of working with one of our former students who graduated from Columbia Heights Public Schools and is now participating in the program,” he says. “It has truly come full circle. Watching a former Valley View student return to our school community and work toward becoming a licensed special education teacher in our district is incredibly meaningful.”
A distinctive feature of NXT GEN Teach is the dedicated, wrap-around support provided by the Thrive Team. Composed of a full-time recruiter, success navigator, and program director, this team actively guides candidates, Journey Workers, district leaders, and key stakeholders across every phase of a teacher’s career: Exploring, Becoming, Growing, and Thriving, while proactively removing barriers to their success. Kuhlman says NXT GEN Teach represents an investment in the future of education. “Beyond preparing teachers, it helps build a workforce that understands the communities, cultures, and experiences of the students they serve,” he says. “As schools continue to face educator shortages, innovative partnerships like this are essential.”
The amount of support provided among various teaching training pathways.
Looking toward the future
NXT GEN Teach is already looking ahead. The program is responding to requests from district partners and is developing new apprenticeship pathways, including programs in Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and a multi-categorical special education license in partnership with the University of Minnesota Duluth. The program has also been awarded a planning grant to create an apprenticeship pathway in early childhood education on the Twin Cities campus, and is pursuing federal grants to explore the ethical use of AI in teacher preparation.
“We’ll continue to evolve and create more license areas as our districts need,” Franke says. “We’re always learning, we’re always listening. I feel honored to have the role that I have.”
For Mondanelli, the program’s impact very proud of what we’re doing,” he says. “Our candidates are really happy with the experiences and the growth they’re getting. I thought I would retire as a special ed teacher and the only reason why I’m not is because I think NXT GEN is an amazing program and I want to be part of it.”