Report from Hillsboro School District

Hillsboro School District is currently in the third year of participation in the Alternative Pathways to Teaching (APT) program with Pacific University. The District has chosen to participate in this program due to the difficulties in filling vacancies with high-quality special education teachers.

The APT program is offered through Pacific University’s Forest Grove campus. A yearlong paid internship is a component of the program. Participants generally work in the educational field as classified employees and hold a Bachelor’s degree. Interns are paid 75% of a beginning teacher’s salary and work full-time.

The interns were selected by the District as recipients of this grant based on financial need and the needs of the District to retain highly-qualified special education teachers. Last year the financial support was critical for this group. Not only did they receive 75% pay, but also the District reduced by 17 the number of school days resulting in a further reduction of their salary.

The four interns last school year successfully completed the APT program and are now licensed special education teachers with Master’s degrees. They are all currently employed by Hillsboro School District as second year teachers. Two of the interns were hired at the schools where they interned, one at elementary and one at high school. One of the interns was hired at another middle school where a full time position was available. These positions are as resource room teachers. The fourth intern had completed her internship as an elementary resource room teacher. She was then hired as a teacher for an elementary self-contained classroom teacher for students with autism due to her background and experience in that area.

At this time the District has found participation in the APT program to be very successful. All six members of the first cohort are third year employees of the District. We currently have five interns participating this school year and are recruiting candidates for the 2004-2005 school year.

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Report from Lake County Educational School District

The Lake County recipient writes the following:

" Since receiving my $5000 scholarship from the Recruitment & Retention Project, I have completed 13 of the 18 units required from Lewis and Clark for the Special Education Endorsement. I have maintained a GPA of 4.0 in all of my classes. I have also been able to provide special education services to the small districts in Lake County that do not have their own Special Education Teacher."