Mathematics teacher training organization MathTrack has achieved an important milestone in its mission to help address the shortage of math educators. Within a year of implementing its accelerated model, MathTrack is poised to more than double the number of new math educators in the state of Indiana.
From 140 the previous year, 151 new educators are enrolled in MathTrack's program, with an additional cohort of several hundred coming up soon. The organization says that these new educators will reach around 100,000 students across the state, and play a role in mitigating the huge mathematics educational crisis in the US.
MathTrack's accelerated model seeks to train classroom-ready math teachers in 30 days. Its accredited training program prepares individuals from non-teaching backgrounds to begin teaching after the initial 30-day sprint, as they work towards full licensure.
According to Dr Kevin Berkopes, co-founder and CEO of MathTrack, the organization recently gained recognition from the state of Indiana's Department of Labor as an apprenticeship program, which gives people a real fast-tracked pathway to becoming a math teacher while earning. Under the program, the first two years of apprenticeship will be recognized as college credits, and the licensure and apprenticeship has reciprocity with 47 out of 50 states.
Berkopes says that choosing the accelerated pathway will help people who have the necessary qualities, such as being good with children or being passionate about helping others learn, but not the on-paper qualifications. This allows them to quickly become teachers and earn a salary, while helping solve the learning shortage, without having to spend thousands of dollars to get a traditional education degree.
“There's around 750,000 people that are adults in Indiana that started a college degree but never finished. They wanted to pursue that side of their upskilling and professional development. But, at some point, they stopped while accumulating a lot of debt. Furthermore, the people failed by the traditional pathway are often people of color and those from low-income backgrounds. We need only 1% of those some-credit non-credential adults choose education as a profession, and we can solve the teaching crisis across all states. That's it.”
Nickolas Williams, co-founder and chief revenue officer of MathTrack adds:
“Many people believe they failed in the traditional pathway because they don't have the skills or disposition to do so. But we don't think that's true. We think that the traditional system was not historically set up to help them be successful. It puts pressure on them to go to college, and then they realize that the experiences weren't built for them. MathTrack believes that the option to get upskilled and credentials in a cost-effective by making a choice of serving their community and working with kids as part of a compensation package of teaching. They can stay within the education industry or choose to move to a different industry after a couple years, and it will still be a win for everyone, regardless.”
Media contact:
Name:Dr. Kevin Berkopes
Email:info@mathtrack.co
Published by: Omar Hamdi