“Hey preschool, we have five minutes, and then we’re going to do stories and snacks.”
The school day is winding down in student teacher Bethany Morris' preschool classroom, and some of her students are playing with marbles, plastic bugs and pine cones.
“We’re gonna read this book, and then we’ll sing the goodbye song,” Morris told the kids.
Morris is in her third month teaching at Target Range School, a K-8 district just outside Missoula city limits — but she’s no stranger to the classroom. Her kids attend the district, and she took a job as a paraprofessional there a couple years ago after a career in business.
“I just fell in love with the kids and the people here, and thought, ‘I think this is where I’m meant to be,’” she says.
Morris decided to become a teacher, but she needed credentials, and college is expensive. That was when she says her superintendent told her about the Montana Teacher Residency Program.
The state Office of Public Instruction and the University of Montana Western launched the program in 2022. Students enrolled in teacher prep programs at Montana colleges can apply to be placed in a K-12 classroom for a full year, rather than the few months of a normal student teaching gig. They continue taking classes while working hands-on in the classroom. In return, the state and their district offer them a $1,400 per month stipend, housing assistance and a tuition grant, if necessary.
Krystal Smith helps lead the program at the state education department.
“It’s not just about the $1,400 per month. It’s about building these relationships and bonds with teachers, families, school districts, communities, and then saying, ‘This is where I want to be. This is where I want to start my roots as a Montana teacher,’” Smith says.
It’s not all incentive, though. Once their apprenticeship is complete, program participants must teach in a Montana classroom for at least three of the next five years. If they don’t, the state can claw back any tuition funds it doled out.
Smith says the Office of Public Instruction hasn’t had to reclaim any tuition so far. Most of its graduates are working in Montana classrooms.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been bumps in the road, though. Several of the program’s would-be participants left early this year when they were hired on an emergency basis by schools for hard-to-fill positions. But those hires come in without a current teaching license.
“It’s really a statewide issue that district leaders are facing,” Smith says. “I’m not surprised, but it is a significant amount of teachers. More so this year than in previous years.”
The Office of Public Instruction says it issued more than 175 emergency authorizations between July and November, the most in the last five years.
Teacher-in-training Bethany Morris says she thought about jumping right into the classroom, too. But, ultimately, she decided the mixture of financial support and mentorship of the Teacher Residency Program offered a better fit.
Morris says the project won’t solve Montana’s teacher shortage on its own — not until lawmakers and schools can address more fundamental issues plaguing the profession, like starting teacher pay that lags behind neighboring states.
“I think that any program that they come up with is going to be a challenge, because that’s the root of it.”
For now, though, Morris is looking forward to several more months spent reading stories and singing the “goodbye song” with her students.
