Nation’s largest college of education provides financial aid opportunities to help address lack of teacher diversity and CT teacher shortage.
Accredited, nonprofit Western Governors University’s (WGU) School of Education will mark American Education Week (Nov. 13-17, 2023) by announcing its WGU Loves Teachers and Become a Teacher scholarship programs for current and future education professionals who wish to pursue bachelor’s or master’s degree programs in the Teachers College. Each WGU Loves Teachers and Become a Teacher scholarship is valued up to $4,000 and aims to help boost the educator pipeline and increase teacher diversity in Connecticut.
In Connecticut’s 2020-21 school year, only 9.7 percent of the state’s teachers were educators of color, while more than 47 percent of students identified as people of color, according to the state Department of Education. As Connecticut is also facing declining enrollments in teacher preparation programs, the time is now to address both the teacher shortage and the teacher diversity shortage.
“WGU is proud to support teacher recruitment, training and retention,” said Rebecca Watts, Ph.D., regional vice president of WGU. “In just 20 years since its founding, WGU’s Teachers College is now in the top 1% for granting degrees for Black and Latino educators at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and is second in the nation for combined graduate and undergraduate degrees and credentials for students of color.”
With more than 800 students and graduates in Connecticut, the WGU Teachers College is committed to keeping costs low, reducing the need for student borrowing and resulting in average graduate debt that is about half that of the national average. The college provides a broad portfolio of dozens of degree pathways in a student-centered, competency-based model with flexible scheduling so that students can study when they have time available in their schedule. The six-month, flat-rate term allows students to progress through as many courses as they can as soon as they demonstrate skills mastery, at no extra cost.
Prospective and enrolling WGU students may apply for the WGU Loves Teachers and the Become a Teacher scholarship by visiting https://wgu.edu/aew.
WGU’s Teachers College programs have been continuously accredited since 2006. They are currently accredited by both the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), a prestigious combination of accreditations. To learn more about WGU’s Teachers College and its academic programs, visit wgu.edu/online-teaching-degrees.
