Second-year students in Delaware Technical Community College’s new Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education (BSE) program are now more than halfway through their year-long residency program in school districts throughout the state. After their graduation in May, those students will be ready to start teaching positions in Delaware classrooms in the fall of this year.
At the start of the fall 2023 semester, 29 students from the first cohort of the BSE program began their residency, an enhanced version of student-teaching which began on the first teacher day at elementary schools in participating districts and will continue for the entire school year.
A group of students in the Bachelor of Science in Education (BSE) year-long residency program with their BSE instructors at a celebratory kickoff event.
Allowing residents to work beside expert teachers for a full school year provides them with a more comprehensive experience that will better prepare them for their teaching careers than traditional student teaching, which lasts for less than a semester.
“We look forward to learning about these students’ experiences during their residencies, and we can’t wait to see them graduate and begin their teaching careers, right here in the great state of Delaware,” said Mark T. Brainard, president of Delaware Tech.
School districts participating in the year-long residency program include Appoquinimink, Caesar Rodney, Cape Henlopen, Capital, Colonial, Indian River, Milford, Seaford and Smyrna, as well as Academia Antonia Alonso Charter School in Newark.
“There is a need for qualified teachers in Delaware and this residency will provide our students with more hands-on learning and a better overall student teaching experience, which will result in a better education for children in Delaware classrooms,” said Dr. Justina Thomas, Delaware Tech’s vice president for academic affairs.
Delaware Tech’s Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education program began in fall 2022. The college developed the program in response to a request from the state’s public school superintendents who were looking for ways to address the nationwide teacher shortage impacting Delaware.
The program currently has 92 students enrolled who have already completed an associate degree program in education.
Delaware Tech is especially grateful to its partners throughout the state for providing these immersive experiences for the BSE students. Like many Delaware Tech graduates, the majority of the BSE students will stay in the state after graduation and be employed in the districts where they are completing their residencies.
To learn more about the Bachelor of Science in Education program, visit go.dtcc.edu/BSE.
