The Southern Regional Education Board and partner researchers at Vanderbilt University conducted interviews with 30 new teachers in three states in fall 2024 as part of our third study together on the teacher workforce. This post features five novice teacher profiles to highlight the complexity of beginning teachers’ journeys from preparation to teacher-of-record. These profiles reinforce the study’s key findings on the need for new teachers to feel supported in their roles through a comprehensive system of support from preparation to placement to their first years in the classroom. The bold text represents the major themes addressed in this study. Some names have been changed for privacy reasons.  

Charlie, Arkansas

Charlie, a Generation Z teacher, began as a nursing major the first two years of her collegiate journey, but eventually changed to education due to her passion for working with students. Charlie was inspired to teach by her second-grade teacher. She reflected on the love, care and overall positive treatment her teacher showed students, who she said were more like her children. This experience inspired Charlie to want to mirror these actions while working with students.  

“I want to be this for kids when I get her age so that’s what sparked it,” she said.  

Along with the internship and student teaching experiences in her preparation program, Charlie also took a student teaching course in high school where she observed different classrooms and had opportunities working with young children at a rehabilitation center and daycare. These experiences furthered her aspirations to become a teacher. 

Overall, Charlie had both positive and negative feedback regarding her educator preparation program but ultimately felt fully prepared to enter the profession, largely due to her student teaching experience. As a student intern in her practicum, the cooperating teacher depended on Charlie to help manage behavior and allowed her to teach lessons that would be observed and evaluated by her university supervisor. As a student teacher, Charlie had complete control of the class and felt she had true autonomy. Charlie also felt supported by her EPP when it came to preparing for and taking her licensure exams.

However, she noted the process for applying for licensure was hectic because it was difficult to get many of her questions answered. Overall, she did not find much of her coursework helpful or applicable to her current role. She mentioned one literacy class that was beneficial but as a current science and social studies teacher, she can’t use most of what she learned in that course.  

Charlie also spoke of the benefits of taking classes with a cohort of teacher candidates and with the same professors. The cohort of teacher candidates were able to lean on and support each other. While there was familiarity with having the same professors throughout her program, Charlie noted that some of the instructors were not as passionate about their work and the unconscious expectation that as a Black student, she was already familiar with or knew how to do certain things. This left Charlie feeling unsupported as she navigated her program and another reason she relied on her peers for support.  

There were student support services available for educators that she and her cohort members could have used but were not informed about until after graduation.

All these factors were critical in shaping Charlie’s overall preparedness, but the most positive were her student teaching experience, being able to feel like an actual teacher, learning how to co-teach, using classroom management skills, and attending the professional learning meetings. 

The hiring process was seamless with few challenges. Charlie applied to the school district in which she student taught. During the interview process, she navigated in and out of rooms, meeting with different principals for five minute, on-the-spot interviews. However, the principal of the school where Charlie was student teaching indicated she wanted to hire her, so Charlie felt confident in securing employment. 

In her current school placement as a fifth-grade science and social studies teacher, Charlie receives ample support from her colleagues and administrators, as well as her family. She says that other peers have indicated that they need more support.  

“I’m here if you need me. We got you,” Charlie said. “Just actually showing that you’re there and actually making [the effort], putting it into action.”  

Although she finds teaching satisfying for now, Charlie plans to remain in the profession for only five to ten years, citing compensation to support a future family as a major factor.  

Johnnie, Arkansas

 Johnnie entered the teaching profession as a 1:1 paraprofessional for a high school student receiving special education services. Formerly in construction, he suffered a physical injury and took time to heal, turning to education for an interim salary. Prior to working in construction, Johnnie worked as a police officer. While in this role as a paraprofessional, he went back to college to obtain his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sociology and earned his teaching credentials via a non-traditional licensure program. He teaches world history, health, psychology, and coaches swimming and track.  

Johnnie’s initial interest in becoming a teacher full-time sparked during his time as a paraprofessional when a student asked him why he needed to know about Adolph Hitler. Johnnie says the moments inspired him to help the next generation and teach them the significance of the content they were learning.  

Through the Arkansas Professional Educator Pathway or ArPEP program, formerly known as APPEL, a two-year, work-based, non-traditional certification program for college graduates and career changers, Johnnie participated in job-embedded training. Johnnie also received intensive professional development from one of many educational co-ops in Arkansas.  

The program showed the logistics of lesson planning and reassessing students, which he said contributed greatly to his preparedness. After completion of his program, Johnnie felt very prepared overall. He stated he had a positive relationship with his students, good classroom rapport, and had opportunities to figure out what works and what does not. Understanding people was a major part of being a police officer that translated well to his role as an educator.  

Johnnie experienced challenges as he matriculated through his job-embedded educator preparation program over the course of three years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his college courses and programmatic pieces moved online. The following year, the Arkansas legislature determined that some online coursework did not meet qualifications and required retaking over a six-week summer semester. While the summer semester met the program requirements, Johnnie doesn’t remember much of the content beyond the science of reading coursework.   

Johnnie found the teacher certification process and the Praxis assessments to be relatively easy for him. He took four Praxis assessments in social studies, health and physical education, English, and speech. He described the hiring process as “a lot,” saying he applied online on the district website and had an interview with the principal, vice principal(s), department chair of the subject area he applied for, another department head and a roundtable discussion.

Afterward, the interview panel brought their recommendation to the school board. The school board made the final hiring decision. Johnnie noted the hardest aspect of this was uploading the necessary application documents due to his internet connection. Once he was certified, hired and teaching, some veteran teachers helped him find state required standards and other resources. 

In his current placement, Johnnie said he feels more supported in his role under the new principal. He noted the communication from administration is better with regular updates and more camaraderie amongst staff, and he still participates in an Arkansas educational service cooperative, regional service centers across the state that provide professional development, and other resources and services for school districts and educators.

He wishes he was observed more by administration so he can receive thoughtful feedback and adjust as needed. Johnnie and his colleagues frequently discuss issues like pay and lack of protective measures to protect their jobs in a right-to-hire state.  He said he would love to add or create new courses to form a psychology completer program for students but doesn’t know where to start.  

Johnnie’s other passion is writing and publishing novels, but he wishes to remain in the profession because he enjoys it even though teaching is time consuming. However, he would love to be able to teach the subjects he is passionate about such as creative writing, novel writing or ancient history.  

“It’s overwhelming,” Johnnie said of teaching. “There’s too many things to keep up with for too long in those first two years. The third year gets easier, but that first two years is so hard. Be patient.”

Samantha, Tennessee 

Samantha is a former physical therapy assistant who now teaches sports and human performance courses like health sciences. She homeschooled her son but never taught lessons in a classroom before becoming a teacher. As a physical therapy assistant for 19 years, Samantha enjoyed training people, teaching her son and teaching at Sunday school. While she was interested in teaching, she didn’t think she could teach without an advanced degree.  

Samantha’s entry into the teaching profession began when a friend already employed at the school shared a position posting with her. She applied and was hired. The school wanted her to get a teaching certificate within three years, but she completed it within the first year. She received financial assistance from the district, began her non-traditional preparation program at one school, and finished at another more affordable college. Samantha described the education courses she initially enrolled in.  

“I was in classes with educational majors,” said Samantha. “I’m like, this is a lot, so I dropped that and was just taking the one. And I found a different school that was cheaper, and then they actually offered [classes] just to CTE teachers.”  

Samantha found the classroom management and psychology courses beneficial and already had knowledge about individual education plans and 504 plans. She applied for the position and interviewed with the principal, but there was a delay in the official process. 

She applied in the spring and her first day was not until the end of July, but she was able to work as a PT assistant during this time. After getting hired, everything was seamless, with support from human resources and others who assisted her with reviewing the standards for the course.  

As a new teacher, Samantha received support from human resources, as well as from her co-teacher and in-school mentor, and a veteran teacher who provided a great deal of content and administrative aid.

She also interacted with an instructional coach. She engages in district-level collaboration via health science clusters where the teachers also exchanged content. Samantha said this was the first time in her career she hasn’t worked outside of her weekly work schedule. 

Samantha intends to remain in teaching for the foreseeable future. She loves working with the students and being on the same schedule as her son, who now attends the same school. However, she said she worries about securing enough students to take courses for the specific CTE pathway for the following school year. Her numbers were low during this year, but she will stay as long as she can. Furthermore, she took a pay cut when she left healthcare but still works the PTA job during breaks. Overall, Samantha transitioned smoothly from into teaching from healthcare, where she said the schedules were more intense and inflexible.

Amelia, Kentucky

Amelia is a first-year middle school special education teacher working toward her master’s degree. She teaches nine 6th-8th grade students with moderate to severe disabilities. Amelia’s interest in the profession began in high school when students in the special education program occasionally joined her home economics class. Prior to becoming a teacher, Amelia was an instructional assistant for nine years at a different school, taught Sunday school, served as director of children’s church, and babysat. She also cares for her own children. 

Amelia completed an online, self-paced education preparation program. Overall, she did not find her assignments to be helpful or relevant to authentic educational or classroom experiences. However, one positive aspect of the program was the immense support she received from her program mentor who would regularly check in and advise her.  Some of the challenges Amelia encountered were very typical; she is older and has a family to care for while going to school and working full-time.  

However, Amelia said her teacher certification process was awful. She noted that Kentucky at that time had stringent policies about fully online programs and was the hardest teaching certification to obtain. Amelia’s educator prep program told her they should not have accepted her into the program because of Kentucky’s policies about online EPPs, but eventually the university made it work. Amelia was certified in Kentucky because that is where she lived, in Tennessee because that is where she student-taught, and in Utah where her online program was located. She received a great deal of test preparation materials from the program and her college was readily accessible, which helped her pass all her Praxis exams the first time.  

Amelia’s journey to obtain a teaching position was complex. She lives in an area that is not experiencing teacher shortage issues, as it is near a major university that graduates many teacher candidates. She applied to schools in the area and in other places and was eventually offered a position. However, she experienced a family loss and could not continue, and it took her two years to obtain a teaching position again. During this time, she worked as an instructional assistant and got licensed as a substitute teacher. Between the two jobs as a substitute and instructional assistant, Amelia applied for 40 teaching positions before landing at her current school.  

In her current position and placement, Amelia generally feels supported. However, as a first-year special education teacher, she does not have much support with the paperwork processes associated with IEPs. She wishes she would have been paired with a teacher in a similar position. She has positive interactions and feels supported by her administration.

Amelia said she feels fulfilled and passionate about working with students, especially her specific population, and plans to remain in the profession until retirement.  

She wants colleagues, administrators, leaders and other advocates to know about her experience.  

“I’ve had different jobs, and this is the most difficult job to walk into and be able to complete,” Amelia said. “You’re supposed to walk in day one and know exactly what you’re doing, and no other job is like that.”

Jody, Kentucky

Prior to coming to college, Jody studied abroad for one year and knew he wanted to continue in this context. However, while in college he studied linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages where he had dreams of teaching abroad. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jody didn’t get any student teaching experience and had to put his goal of teaching internationally on the backburner.

He eventually applied for the AmeriCorps program, a job-embedded, non-traditional certification pathway. After two years teaching in Kentucky, Jody transitioned to an international, dual curriculum school in Central America. The school implements the national and American curriculum and typically caters to affluent families or Americans living abroad.  

Through AmeriCorps, Jody obtained his master’s degree and Kentucky teaching license, then taught at a low-income school for two years. His non-traditional certification program was geared to career changers, those who were new to education, and recent college graduates. He noted the AmeriCorps program focused heavily on classroom management and cultural aspects, and less on strategies for teaching the content.  

Jody’s teaching experience was abnormal, as he was “thrown in” as the teacher of record. A preparation program mentor observed him for about 20 hours a semester, but he describes this as “very hit or miss.” As immediate teacher of record, he did not have a traditional student teaching experience before assuming all classroom responsibilities.  

He also received a school district mentor who randomly checked in, but he wishes the AmeriCorps program had more structure. Jody said the way educators are trained overall is flawed. As an alternatively certified educator, he would have preferred an apprenticeship model because it was difficult to observe other teachers and their practices. AmeriCorps requested students take the licensure exam within the first semester of the program. The Praxis was relatively easy because he had some background knowledge in education and was familiar with some of the ideas and language.  

The hiring process for his first job in Kentucky was facilitated through AmeriCorps. They invited him to come to Kentucky for an interview, where they gave him a tour of the city and invited him to meetings with people in the district and other teachers who also went through the AmeriCorps program. After completing the AmeriCorps interview, he applied for positions on the school district website, specifically at the school he toured. As a classroom teacher at a Title I school, Jody stated the support was disjointed and inconsistent.  

In his first year, the school did not have an English curriculum, so everything was done gradually. The following year, the district adopted an English curriculum, yet implementation was very structured and rigid, requiring each teacher to teach the same lesson on the same date using the same instructional materials across the district. He links a great deal of his job frustration to poor district management.  

Despite his experience teaching in Kentucky, Jody plans to continue teaching, most likely internationally because of better compensation and benefits. The school he currently teaches at provides housing accommodation, an allowance for utilities, and even pays for flights to and from home.  

Jody highlighted the importance of a more holistic and restructured approach to education in the U.S.  

“I think the approach to things that we need to change about education in the U.S.  is holistic,” Jody said. “It’s not any one area… it’s not just admin, it’s not just parents. It’s not just the people who aren’t directly involved in a school who want to control it. It’s issues of poverty that affect at a biologic level the way that students are able to learn like I did my best.” 

 Jody also emphasized that any individual that pursues teaching should be passionate and motivated.  

“One thing I would say to anybody who’s considering it is if you want to be a teacher it has to be something that you want to do,” he said. “You’re not going to have a good experience if you’re in that kind of mindset of, ‘I’m just going to try it out.’ I think this is something that a lot of teacher prep programs don’t get right either.”

Supporting New Educators in Their Critical First Years 

These profiles highlight a range of pathways and differential experiences of early-career teachers from preparation to in-school support across Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. Their stories affirm the need for real-world supports that address the challenges new teachers face —from certification and licensure issues to workload and behavior management concerns.

A multifaceted approach and system of supports is necessary to attract and retain a talented, quality teacher workforce that can adequately prepare and support all students for success. While some novice teachers thrive in this complex profession, many others are forced to sink or swim.