I build the systems that make teacher apprenticeships actually work.
Registered apprenticeship programs turn paraprofessionals into licensed special education teachers while they keep earning a paycheck. The idea is simple. The machinery behind it is not: coaching, licensure standards, mentor feedback, hour tracking, wage progression, and federal reporting all have to hold together at once. That machinery is my job.
Classroom first, systems second, in that order on purpose
I spent seven-plus years as a special education teacher and department leader before moving to the University of Minnesota, where I support apprentices and residents in NXT GEN Teach, a Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship program preparing special education teachers in two licensure tracks. I coach candidates, design the program's coaching model and progress-monitoring tools, and work on the grant and reporting side that keeps a federal program funded and compliant.
The through line in everything I do: take a messy human process and turn it into a system that works for the busiest person in the loop. Usually that person is a mentor teacher with thirty other things to do, which is a very clarifying design constraint.
The shortage is specific, so the tooling has to be too
Nearly every state reports a special education teacher shortage, and teacher apprenticeships have spread to 45 states as the leading answer. But most programs hit the same wall after launch: the operational weight of tracking hours, competencies, licensure standards, mentor feedback, and partner reporting across disconnected spreadsheets. I write about that wall, and about the systems that get programs over it, from the inside of a program that is doing it.
Get in touch
The fastest way to reach me is LinkedIn. Code lives on GitHub.