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Post-COVID-19, public K–12 schools are still facing the consequences of the years of interrupted learning. Schools serving minoritized students are particularly at risk for facing challenges with academics, behavior and student social emotional health. The university counseling programs are in positions to build capacity in urban schools while also supporting counselors-in-training through service-learning opportunities.

The following conceptual manuscript demonstrates how counselor education counseling programs and public schools can harness the capacity-building benefits of university–school partnerships. While prevalent in fields like special education, counselor educators have yet to heed the hall to participate in mutually beneficial partnership programs.

Using the multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and the components of the university–school partnerships, counselor educators and school stakeholders can work together to support student mental health, school staff well-being and counselor-in-training competence.

The benefits and opportunities within the university–school partnerships are well documented. However, few researchers have described a model to support partnerships between the university counseling programs and urban elementary schools. We provide a best practice model using the principles of university–school partnerships and a school’s existing MTSS framework.

A primary goal of the Collaboration and Resources for Encouraging and Supporting Transformations in Education (CREST-Ed) program was to increase the number of highly qualified, minoritized teachers committed to teaching in minority-serving, high-need school districts. This study's purpose was to evaluate the CREST-Ed program's impact on teacher residency outcomes using multiple sources of program evaluation data collected during the five-year grant.

This study of a federal Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant at Georgia State University (GSU), a minority-serving institution (MSI) and research university, shows teacher residency programs can improve the diverse teacher pipeline. The grant, CREST-Ed, provided professional development schools (PDS) support for four urban and 23 rural school districts through partnerships with GSU, Albany State University (ASU) and Columbus State University (CSU).

The study findings suggest that teacher preparation grants can be leveraged to recruit traditionally minoritized teachers of color to increase the diverse teacher pipeline and strengthen PDS partnerships.

Both urban and rural PDSs could benefit from teacher residency programs like the CREST-Ed model that catered to the unique needs of each school and partnership district.

There is some evidence to suggest that the historical challenge associated with recruiting and retaining Black and Brown Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) collegians is tied to early their teaching and learning experiences in Mathematics. This paper describes an National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project (NSF #2151043) whose goal is to attract, prepare and retain math teachers of color in high need school districts ensure that those teachers remain in the field long enough to make a meaningful impact on the minds and hearts of BIPOC students who are often, extrinsically, and intrinsically, discouraged from pursuing careers in STEM professions.

This mixed-methods study, which began in the summer of 2023, seeks to recruit, prepare, support and retain nineteen (19) Black and Brown math teachers for two (2) high need urban school districts. The expectancy value theory will be used to explain the performance, persistence, and choices of the teachers, while grounded theory will be utilized to understand the impact of the intensive mentorship and wellness coaching that applied over the first year of their preservice preparation and subsequent in-service years.

Measures of project efficacy won’t begin until 2025 and as such there are no findings or implications to draw from for the study at this time.

The intention of this paper is to augment the body of knowledge on recruiting and retaining Black and Brown math teachers for urban schools where the need for quality STEM teachers is critical.

Across the nation, African-American and Latino males have experienced limited access to placement in gifted education programs. This paper aims to pinpoint and describe the factors that frequently influence access to gifted education programming among African-American and Latino males.

African-American and Latino males are persistently underrepresented in gifted education for reasons such as teachers’ narrow conceptions of giftedness, teachers’ bias in the nomination process and teachers’ inappropriate usage and interpretation of intelligence measures. When these students qualify for such services, they often experience feelings of isolation and loneliness due to scarce representation of other African-American and Latino male students. A review of extant literature was conducted to identify factors that influence access to gifted education programming among African-American and Latino males.

African-American and Latino males encounter roadblocks in being identified for gifted placement and many also experience implicit biases and stereotypical beliefs about their ability. The need for culturally competent professionals is critical to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of gifted African-American and Latino males.

Recommendations for school psychologists and school counselors are offered to support the needs of gifted African-American and Latino males, assist in increasing their identification and participation in gifted education, and promote academic success.

There is an urgent need for research on access and placement in gifted programming among African-American and Latino males. Moreover, the role of school psychologists and school counselors should be considered in facilitation of gifted identification and placement.

District-university partners increasingly rely on “grow-your-own” licensure programs to address teacher shortages. Because vacancies in special education represent a chronic issue, our district-university partnership developed LEAP – the Licensed Educators’ Accelerated Pathway, successfully preparing 26 paraprofessionals as special education teachers (SEs). We describe a model university-district partnership in which we collaborated to design and implement paraprofessionals’ SE licensure program.

In this general review, we describe a district-university partnership collaboration that resolved barriers experienced by paraprofessionals working toward licensure in special education (Essential #4, Reflection and Innovation). The specialized design and partnership solutions were grounded in SE preparation research literature.

25 (28 entered the program and 25 completed) paraprofessionals from one large urban and several regional districts completed special education licensure through LEAP. Slightly more than half of LEAP participants were Black or Hispanic (see Table 1), contributing to the diversification of SE workforce. University-district partnership was successful in designing and delivering a program that allowed participants: a) to remain employed, b) attend evening classes in their geographic region or online, c) complete all field experiences in sponsoring districts (Essential #2) and d) receive concierge advising from a “completion coach.” We describe solutions to barriers experienced by paraprofessionals and advocate for district-university collaboration to address chronic teacher shortages.

Limitations include lack of data on success of program completers during their first year of teaching as they began this work in Fall 2023. Further, because the participating district was large and urban, generalization of program details for small and rural districts is difficult.

Practical tips for developing grow-your-own special education licensure programs are providing. Detailed descriptions of barriers candidates experienced and ways the district-university partners resolved these issues are included. Programs like the one described has the potential to positively impact teacher pipeline issues.

The program described provided highly-trained teachers to fill chronic vacancies in special education in three participating districts/agencies. Because students receiving special education services are at risk for school failure and are disproportionately impacted by teacher turnover, addressing this area through grow-your-own licensure programs represents a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative. Further, upskilling diverse paraprofessionals to licensed teacher roles represent an economic boost, which they might not otherwise have achieved.

Available research literature signals alarm over persistent teacher shortages in hard-to-staff districts and lack of diversity in the teacher workforce, but few published accounts describe successful programs. Partner collaboration fostered a re-imagining of course formatting and delivery to accommodate adult learners, avoiding problems often reported with alternative programs.