BPS Bilingual Educators & Accelerated Community to Teacher Program; BE​/ACTT - Cohort

Position: BPS Bilingual Educators & Accelerated Community to Teacher Program (BE/ACTT) - 2026-2027 Cohort
POSITION: BPS Bilingual Educators & Accelerated Community to Teacher Program 2027 Cohort member

REPORTS TO:

Director of BPS Teacher Pipeline and MTEL Programs

Position Number: N/A

Grade: N/A

BPS TEACHER PIPELINES OVERVIEW

Boston Public School's Teacher Pipeline Programs (BPS TPP) are part of the larger strategy of the Office of Human Resources (OHR) to address the demand for highly qualified, equity-minded, and racially literate teachers for Boston's classrooms. Our core belief is that the next generation of Boston's teachers is in the schools, homes, and communities of Boston right now. This permeates all the work we do.

BPS TPP are multigenerational, community-based teacher preparation programs for preservice and in-service teachers. We represent the third generation of teacher preparation programs in the US - Teacher 3.0 (Kretchmar & Zeichner, 2016)- where our candidates are prepared to work in solidarity with their families and students by interrupting racism at personal and systemic levels using the critical literacy of race (Sealey-Ruiz 2020).

Our teacher preparation programs are unique: we are among the few nationally and certainly the state's only locally-embedded, state-approved, multigenerational, "grow your own'' educator preparation program. The overarching mission of the BPS TPP is to support racially, linguistically and culturally diverse teachers by providing a coherent and comprehensive pathway from para educator to professional teacher. Keeping students at the center of our work, we aim to cultivate teachers who empower young people to be change agents for the city's communities.

This is work we know can happen in classrooms where teachers are committed, responsive, and reflective of the students and their various cultures, heritages, backgrounds, and languages. In May 2025, we will expand our program by launching a federally-funded Bilingual Inclusive Education Program, which will cultivate bilingual and multilingual para educators to become BPS educators in inclusive classrooms. BPS TPP's three overarching goals are:

* develop and sustain an affordable pathway to an advanced degree for BPS teachers of color;

* increase the number of BPS teachers who reflect the linguistic, racial, and ethnic diversity of Boston's students through an accessible pathway and supportive programming, and

* improve the ability and agency of BPS teachers to center race and racism through culturally affirming pedagogy and practice

The BPS TPP comprises three programs, the flagship program is the Bilingual Educators/Accelerated Community to Teacher program. Since 2022, five times as many of our BE/ACTT candidates have become BPS teachers of record, and our program has also almost doubled in size. BE/ACTT candidates go on to become BPS Teaching Fellows. Since 2022, 78% of BPS Teaching Fellowship completers are still teaching in BPS.

Also, since 2022, the BPS Teaching Fellowship has more than doubled in size. Prior to SY22-23, we had an average of 15.4 completers; since SY22-23, our average number of completers is 32. Finally, the demographics of the BPS Teaching Fellowship completers who remain teaching in BPS more closely reflect that of BPS students than the overall BPS teacher workforce.

BILINGUAL EDUCATORS & ACCELERATED COMMUNITY TO TEACHER PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Boston Public Schools BE/ACTT program is part of OHR's overarching strategy to increase and improve the diversity of exemplary multilingual learner teachers and teachers to students with disabilities. The BE/ACTT program identifies and develops Boston residents, paraprofessionals, and career-changers who are passionate about teaching in BPS. This intensive, no-cost 12-month program is designed to prepare interested residents of the Boston community who hold a Bachelor's degree and have experience working with children in a classroom setting to become SEI-endorsed teachers with a provisional license.

Program participants develop their teaching skills in a cohort and learn from highly skilled BPS teachers and university partners through a rigorous, interactive experience. Participants are required to prepare a competency-based hiring portfolio and participate in a pre-practicum experience in classrooms that include multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Program faculty use each participant's learning portfolio, classroom participation, and mentor teacher feedback from their teaching experiences to determine a candidate's readiness for a full-time teaching role as an SEI-endorsed teacher.

Participant Benefits:

Our innovative training model is designed to help BE/ACTT candidates lead their students to success from the moment they step into their classrooms.

* One-on-One Intensive & Individualized

Coaching:

Our coaching model will help you see exponential growth as you prepare to become a BPS teacher of record. We offer wrap-around support, in that we support our candidates with all aspects of the program and with any needs that might arise as they work through…