Michigan is facing a worsening teacher shortage and struggling to develop teachers reflective of the diversity of our students. Paraprofessionals support students every day in schools across our state and creating pathways for them to attain teacher certification can help build a responsive and diverse teaching force.  

Our Stance
Paraprofessionals are instrumental in our school communities and should be supported and given opportunities for career advancement that include financial and professional support. Barriers to certification disproportionately impact BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other people of color) educators who are underrepresented as teachers in our classrooms statewide.  By building career ladders that support and fund a paraprofessional certification and development pipeline we can increase the BIPOC educators in classrooms around Michigan and help districts stabilize their workforce.

Our Work
The working group will bring together members to build out paths for advocacy and resources that help support educators and school communities taking action  at the state, institution, and member level. Our goal is to complete concrete projects that will help other educators work to  increase racial equity in our education system. We will begin with an Assessment Phase before moving toward recommending action steps to the AFT Michigan Administrative Board.

Who Should Join?
Members from our AFT Michigan paraprofessional & school-related personnel (PSRP), Special Ed/ISD, and preK-12 teacher constituency groups interested in joining the working group can become involved with these projects in various ways including reviewing and giving feedback on drafts, supporting organizing and logistical work, and building out research and development.  Members who have experience with pathway programs and PSRPs who have become teachers are encouraged to join. Time commitments are flexible and will vary depending on the project and timeline.