Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight
Jaimie Bartmann planned to quit her job in education.
She loved being a paraprofessional in the Montrose School District in southeastern South Dakota, but after nine years assisting teachers and students, she wanted to make a bigger impact.
“I felt limited,” Bartmann said. “A family trusts you with their child — whether you’re a paraprofessional or a teacher. But as a ‘para,’ you only assist them. I couldn’t make suggestions or make changes I thought would help them.”
A day after she made up her mind, but before she submitted her resignation, her district emailed her with an opportunity: the South Dakota Teacher Apprenticeship Pathway.
The 3-year-old state program allows full-time paraprofessionals to pursue a teaching degree online through Dakota State University in elementary or special education, or through Northern State University in secondary education at a steep discount while retaining their position.
The program’s mission is filling teaching vacancies in school districts across the state, which have worsened in recent years. More than 350 positions were unfilled in July 2024, weeks before the school year started, according to the Associated School Boards of South Dakota. There were 256 the same time in 2023, 225 in 2022 and 174 in 2021.
South Dakota Department of Education Secretary Joe Graves is optimistic that the apprenticeship program will help.
“I’m hoping this year, because we’ve already graduated seven out of the program and believe we might be able to see another 56 to 60 graduate this spring, that would take a large whack out of the shortage,” Graves said.
All seven graduates, including Bartmann, are working in classrooms as teachers or have contracts to begin teaching in a South Dakota school district in the fall.
The program does not contractually require graduates to stay in the teaching profession or in South Dakota. The assumption is that paraprofessionals who’ve worked in the profession for years care about the children in their school, and have built their lives in the community where they work.
“The solution was to identify a group of people who otherwise wouldn’t get into the profession who belong in it,” Graves said.
The state Department of Education accepted Bartmann in its first cohort of 90 participants in 2023. Another 70 enrolled in the 2024 cohort. Up to 50 more will enroll in the next cohort this year.
Bartmann moved from the Montrose School District to the nearby Canistota School District in the fall to teach special education for fifth through seventh graders. She taught her students under an advanced teaching certificate before earning her degree in December.
Now she teaches 18 children. She works with two other special education teachers at the elementary and high school levels, and nine paraprofessionals.
Her background is a strength, since “paras are the heart” of special education. She knows the challenges paras face, and listens to them because she understands they see a different side of a student.
“I’m passionate about making sure that I’m fully taking care of a student emotionally and socially, while making sure I see them academically,” Bartmann said.
Graves, with the state Education Department, said the future of the program is uncertain. It was originally intended as a one-time effort, using $815,000 in federal funds and about $446,000 in state funds.
The program launched its second cohort under the state Department of Labor and Regulation in 2024 due to demand after the Legislature appropriated $800,000 of state funds for the program. The second cohort cost another $410,000 in funding from the department and $9,000 from the federal government.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Regulation said the third cohort will be funded with a combination of federal and state grants, though she said the exact amounts will be determined after the apprentices start their coursework. The federal funding will come from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Apprenticeship Building America grant. School districts pay $1,000 a year per employed apprentice.
If federal funding is cut, Graves said, the program would end or universities might take it over. The department lost $58,178 in funds last month intended for the program, after the federal Department of Education dissolved approved extensions of COVID relief funding. South Dakota lost more than $5 million intended for several education programs.
Graves questions whether the program should continue indefinitely, saying it could be abused to avoid a traditional, more expensive college education.
Students are responsible for up to $1,000 a year in tuition, books and state assessments. Bartmann completed 81 credits of classes within 15 months, costing her a total of $1,500. Sometimes she took more than a full course load in a semester while working full time and raising one of her four children who’s still at home.
“I’d go to school, come home, stay up until 2 a.m. studying and doing homework, sleep until 6 a.m. and then go back to work,” Bartmann said. “Weekends were focused on studying to get done faster.”
Instead of discontinuing the program entirely, she wonders if it could be limited to paraprofessionals who’ve been in the field for a few years. Experienced paras would be less likely to use the pathway as an alternative to the traditional college courses, she said, and the people who would apply would be committed, yet could be financially limited and likely to have obligations — such as children — that might prevent them from pursuing a traditional degree.
Less than four months after earning her degree, Bartmann is already considering earning another degree or certification to improve her teaching. After most workdays, she walks through the school hallways, looking at the colorful student artwork on display and feeling grateful for the new life breathed into her career.
At 46, she has colleagues her age who’ve been teaching for two decades and are planning ahead for retirement.
“I have to pack all those years of experience and impact they made into the years I’ve got left,” Bartmann said. “I want to reach as many students as I can.”
State efforts to address South Dakota’s teacher shortage
Aside from the Teacher Apprenticeship Pathway, the state Department of Education and school districts have made other investments to alleviate the teacher shortage in the state, according to Secretary Joe Graves.
Paying student teachers and making them the teacher of record
South Dakota lawmakers and the governor approved $500,000 for the creation of a statewide student-teacher stipend program this session. The state Department of Education can use the money to provide grants of up to $5,000 per school district, for payment to one or more student-teachers. The program is intended to keep South Dakota school districts competitive with other states.
“Where you begin your teaching profession is often where you continue it,” Graves said.
School districts can also establish student teachers as the “teacher of record,” meaning the student is the main teacher for a classroom, developing lesson plans and instructing students. If a student teacher becomes the “teacher of record,” a district is required to pay them, Graves said. Student teachers who are paid and regarded as an official teacher of record, he added, are more likely to commit to the district after they graduate, Graves said.
Employing international teachers
School districts across the state are increasingly employing teachers from different countries under working visas. The state Department of Education offers an International Exchange Teacher Permit. About 50 public school districts had international teachers on staff in 2024, according to the department.
Setting a minimum teacher salary and mandating annual increased compensation
The department was a major player in passing legislation in 2024 requiring school districts to meet a minimum teacher salary and increase teacher compensation yearly based on increased funding in state aid.
“We saw immediately that a bunch of school districts moved their minimum teacher salary up, even though the requirement is not going into effect until next year,” Graves said.
Mentoring new teachers
The state department’s mentoring program connects a veteran educator to a new teacher to help guide them through challenges in their first few years of the profession. The first five years is “really the test,” Graves said. When new teachers are mentored, there’s a 15% increased chance they’ll stay within the profession.
Supporting a high school teaching career interest
Educators Rising is a career interest group working to entice high school students to become South Dakota educators. The group holds a “sign up day” similar to athletes for high school members dedicated to earning their teaching degree. The South Dakota Board of Regents approved a program last year to give high school students a jump-start toward their teaching degree by taking career-specific dual credit courses that will count toward a college degree and high school graduation.
Streamlining state reciprocity
Graves said the department has worked to streamline the teacher certification reciprocity process, getting out-of-state teachers employed at local school districts more quickly.