Promising Practice Future Educators Pathway Cherry Creek

Cherry Creek School District

Cherry Creek School District's Future Educators Pathway allows juniors and seniors to work as paraprofessionals in elementary schools as part of an apprenticeship toward becoming teachers.  

Storyline

Cherry Creek School District in 2019 started its Future Educator Pathway that allows juniors and seniors to work in the district as paraprofessionals in apprenticeships. The students get paid a district salary, get retirement benefits and credit toward a teaching degree at the University of Colorado Denver. The students get to learn the behind-the-scenes feel of teaching while getting to realize whether this is the career path they want to take. The district gets to possibly grow their own future educators through the program. 

Mike Wadleigh, internship & apprenticeship coordinator with Cherry Creek School District, leads the Future Educator Pathway program, that puts about a dozen students into paraprofessional jobs in the district's elementary schools to help them advance in their possible careers as teachers.