Parul Goyat stood in front of her class of recent kindergarten graduates at Wayzata Oakwood Elementary School. It was the last week of July, and her summer school class had just read The Feelings Book. Now Goyat was coaching them on how to talk about, and draw, their own feelings.
“Sometimes we feel like crying, and we have to show that emotion,” Goyat said. “When do we feel like crying?”
“I don’t want to cry,” a child informed her.
Goyat circled through her students’ tables, looking at the crayon pictures they had made. “I love how you are showing your emotions through your drawing,” she said. “I love that.”
Goyat obtained a bachelor’s degree in education in India. She had just started teaching when her husband’s work required the family to move to the United States. Frustrated by the disruption to her own career, she decided to take some time to learn the culture of American schooling. She became a special education paraprofessional in Mounds View Public Schools. Then she started researching how to get her teaching license and discovered Teach Minnesota.
Goyat’s training with Teach Minnesota started in June. In the mornings, she teaches her rising first graders, observed by coaches who can help her improve. In the afternoons, she attends training sessions focused on topics like literacy, classroom culture, and culturally responsive teaching. And in September, less than three months after starting her training, she’ll be teaching at Pike Lake Kindergarten Center in the same district where she was a paraprofessional.
After a year of teaching and online coursework, she’ll be fully licensed in elementary education. If she continues for a second year, she’ll also gain a license in special education.
“I feel like no other program can be better than this program,” Goyat said. “In this program, whatever you learn, you are able to apply that right away in the classroom. There are many coaches who can correct you every single day, and they can always help you to be better. So I have learned a lot in the last month. And I feel pretty confident that I can continue that in the fall.”
As Minnesota grapples with an ongoing teacher shortage, especially in special education, districts have increasingly turned to college graduates with no formal teacher training. The federal government recently warned Minnesota it could ultimately lose $219 million in annual federal funding if it continues to staff special education positions this way. Some advocates hope that programs like these can help close the gap.
As it does for Goyat, Teach Minnesota offers the opportunity for dual licenses in elementary and special education. The program boasts of its relative affordability. Participants studying elementary education pay $7,000 in tuition; those studying special education pay an extra $1,500 for a second year. More than half its participants are people of color. And the program provides hands-on experience, accompanied by real-time coaching and coursework that fits into people’s busy lives.
Tuition makes up a relatively small portion of the program’s funding. Its primary funding source is philanthropic grants; partner schools also pay a placement fee for each participant they hire. Teach Minnesota is hoping to secure funding from the Legislature to bring its program to scale, and train teachers in subject areas of high need.
“We think we’re onto something,” said James Barnett, the director of Teach Minnesota. “We think we’re doing good work, but we can do even more work with more resources and foundational support.”
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